Lib Dem lifetime achievement award for Peter Phillips

Peter Phillips, the former Liberal Democrat councillor for Bishop's Castle, has received a lifetime achievement award from the West Midlands region of the party.

Its secretary, Kathryn Ball, spells out his achievements:

Peter Phillips first stood for election in 1973 and joined the parish council in 1979. He fought the Bishops Castle (Shropshire) seat 3 times before finally being elected. He toppled the Tories who have never taken it back since 1993. 

Chirbury and Worthen Unitary Division was part of his Shropshire County Council Division and has also remained Lib Dem since his stewardship. 

He served on Shropshire County Council between 1981 and 1985 before spending a period overseas. He continued to send out Focus from the Middle East!! 

On his return he was re-elected to Shropshire County Council in1993. He also served on the former South Shropshire District Council from 1995 until its abolition to make way for the unitary authority in 2009. Peter was then elected to the Unitary Shropshire Council. 

He served as leader of the group and Vice Chairman of both Shropshire County Council and South Shropshire District Council. 

He has served both as Ludlow Constituency chairman and Bishops Castle branch chairman several times. He has been a huge fund raiser for the party locally running jumble sales, table top sales and arranging visits of top Lib Dem Peers and MP’s frequently for press and fundraising. He was single-minded in making sure these things all happened for the good of local PPC’s and Council candidates. 

He has been by far the best member recruiter over the last few years. At one stage Peter recruited enough members to make Bishops Castle and Clun Branch top our membership in Ludlow Constituency – we had 100 members.

I once met Peter in the pub now known as The Bridges at Ratlinghope, but don't seem to have blogged about the experience.