Following the boundary review, the current seat of Carshalton and Wallington will cease to exist, and will be replaced by two separate constituencies, Croydon Central & St Helier and Purley & Carshalton.

Last year we celebrated 25 years of political control of Sutton Council and these changes provide us with an opportunity to work with Croydon Lib Dems to spread the Lib Dem message into their borough. It is vital that we start to build up our presence and activity early in these new areas if we’re to win these seats in 2015. The run up to this year’s London elections is an ideal time to start.

To help us do this, London Region is organising a Regional Action Day on Saturday 25th February in Wallington and Croydon. We will be knocking on doors to find out what issues matter to local people so we can build effective campaigns in the future. We hope this will be the first of many Action Days in London which will bring members from across London to campaign and socialise together.

The event will start at 10.45am and carry on through until 4.30pm, after which a free evening meal for all will be laid on by the local party. The day will be a great opportunity to meet fellow activists, take part in some invigorating local campaigning and enjoy some free food!

A similar event was held recently by Liberal Democrats in Colchester, and was an enormous success. Over 65 people took part, and buoyed by great camaraderie and, of course, free food they knocked on around 6,000 doors and delivered to a total of nearly 12,000 homes in just a single day.

As well as paving the way for a strong election campaign in 2015, the day will be a great opportunity to showcase some of the great local campaigning spirit that has made Sutton a Lib Dem stronghold over the past 25 years.

The local Lib Dem teams here in Sutton and Croydon are already busy making preparations, but in order to finalise arrangements they need to know who can come and help out on the day. If you would like to take part, all you have to do is register via our web site and we’ll send you more details.

All are welcome, and no experience of campaigning is necessary!

I hope to see you on the 25th.

* Tom Brake was the Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington from 1997 to 2019.