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The Community Action Party was a minor
political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
in the United Kingdom, mostly active in
Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...
and
Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...
. It advocated free health care and education provision, a managed public transport infrastructure free to all at the point of use and a moratorium on the use of
green belt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wilderness, wild, or agricultural landscape, land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts ...
land for building. It also supported a
zero tolerance A zero-tolerance policy is one which imposes a punishment for every infraction of a stated rule.zero tolerance, n.' (under ''zero, n.''). The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed. 1989. Retrieved 10 November 2009. Italy, Japan, Singapore China, I ...
policy toward crime, and was against the introduction of
identity card An identity document (abbreviated as ID) is a documentation, document proving a person's Identity (social science), identity. If the identity document is a plastic card it is called an ''identity card'' (abbreviated as ''IC'' or ''ID card''). ...
s and recent anti-terrorist legislation on
civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...
grounds. In 2004 the party made a breakthrough in the
Metropolitan Borough of Wigan The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest town, Wigan, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Atherton, Greater Manchester, Atherton, Ashton-in-Ma ...
, winning 18 seats, a gain of 13. The party later suffered a split, defections, and a loss of councillors in elections, reducing their number of councillors in Wigan Borough to five. They slowly expanded outside the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan into the
Metropolitan Borough of St Helens The Metropolitan Borough of St Helens is a local government district with borough status in Merseyside, North West England. The borough is named after its largest settlement, St Helens. It is one of the six boroughs of the Liverpool City Region ...
, the
City of Salford The City of Salford is a metropolitan borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater Manchester, England, named after its main settlement, Salford, which covers a larger area including Eccles, Greater Manchester, Eccles, ...
, where they gained a seat in 2008, and
Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...
Borough.


Founding

The party was founded in March 2002 by Peter Franzen, a construction industry professional originally from Liverpool and now living in Golborne. The candidates stood on a platform of zero tolerance of crime and improved facilities for young people. Community Action councillors have a free vote on any issue as the party does not impose a whip, and includes former supporters of all three main parties.


Electoral history

The party put up candidates in four constituencies in the 2005 general election. It won no representation in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
, but had a number of councillors in the
Metropolitan Borough of Wigan The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest town, Wigan, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Atherton, Greater Manchester, Atherton, Ashton-in-Ma ...
,
Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...
. In 2004 it made a large break through in Wigan Borough winning 18 seats, a gain of 13. They formed the official opposition group, the 'Democratic Alliance', with their ten councillors joining the Liberal Democrats' three in May 2007, but the grouping disbanded in July 2009. They supported the Green Party in the North-West region in the 2009 European elections.


2002 local election

In their first election, the CAP stood five candidates in Wigan Borough elections and returned two councillors, both in Makerfield constituency, Franzen unseating the deputy leader of the council.


2003 local election

The party stood 11 candidates in Wigan Borough, and took three seats from Labour, becoming the largest opposition party with five councillors.


2004 local election

The party stood 48 candidates in Wigan Borough, winning a total of 18 seats in Makerfield Constituency and becoming the official opposition on the council. After the election the Labour leader of the council Peter Smith argued that "They are essentially a negative party, good at coming up with issues to campaign on, but not very good at finding solutions."


2005 general election

Franzen stood in Makerfield against
Ian McCartney Sir Ian McCartney (born 25 April 1951) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield from 1987 to 2010. McCartney served in Tony Blair's Cabinet from 2003 until 2007, when Gordon Brown became Prim ...
, deputy chairman of the Labour Party, and the party stood three other candidates. Franzen received 2,769 votes (7.8%). Ian Franzen stood in
Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staffor ...
, receiving 2,189 votes (6.0%). Former Labour council leader Mike Hughes received 573 votes in Warrington North (1.4%).


2006 local election

The CAP lost three seats in Makerfield to Labour.


2007 local election

The party held two seats and gained one from Community Performance First, but lost two seats to Labour. They stood four candidates in St. Helens, and two in Salford.


2008 local election

The party held two seats in Makerfield, but lost Peter Franzen's seat in Golborne and Lowton West to Labour by 76 votes, and another seat to the Conservatives, resulting in their Democratic Alliance group losing its status as the official opposition group. The Labour Party made a complaint to the police about a YouTube video posted by one of the CAP councillors, Ed Houlton, about a former Labour mayor the day before the May elections, but no charges were brought. In Salford's Irlam ward, their candidate Rick Houlton unseated Roger Jones, the Labour chairman of the
Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority The Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA) was a local government institution responsible for the strategic direction of passenger transport in Greater Manchester. It existed from 1969 to 1974 as the SELNEC Passenger Transport ...
. The CAP opposed the
congestion charge Congestion pricing or congestion charges is a system of surcharging users of public goods that are subject to congestion through excess demand, such as through higher peak charges for use of bus services, electricity, metros, railways, tel ...
for Manchester that was proposed by Jones. Peel Holdings, a Manchester property company, commissioned a market research company to call people in Irlam ward about the congestion charge plan in November 2007. In January 2008, Peel met with the Liberal Democrats and Community Action Party to discuss how they could help them defeat councillors who were backing the congestion charge. A police investigation was launched over a possible breach of the
Representation of the People Act 1983 The Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 2) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It changed the British electoral process in the following ways: * Amended the Representation of the People Act 1969 (c. 15). * Stated that a ...
, but the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence. Houlton was criticised for his low council meeting attendance, which he said was due to working nights.


Split and defections

The Community Performance First Party was registered with the Electoral Commission in 2006 by three CAP councillors ahead of the local elections, who said that they would still stand as CAP candidates. They were expelled from the party in April 2006, less than a month before the local elections, and the CAP took legal action to prevent them using the CAP logo. An Ashton in Makerfield councillor defected to the independent group in May 2007, followed by a Winstanley councillor in May 2008. A Leigh councillor defected to the Conservative Party in January 2009, which made the Conservatives the official opposition group on Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council. A further defection to the independent group occurred in May 2009. On 7 February 2014 it was announced that Mike Moulding had reregistered the political party. This was after the founder and leader of the party, Peter Franzen, had lapsed the party the previous year. Since then the founder and the new leader have been in a battle over the rights of the name. The party was deregistered again in 2016.


References

{{Reflist Political parties established in 2002 Political parties disestablished in 2016 Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan Defunct political parties in England 2002 establishments in England 2016 disestablishments in England