Row deepens as Tories step down in North Northumberland

Journal Letters 26 July 2013

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Two years is one short of maximum

Letters

THROUGH your columns, may I correct Mrs Trevelyan (“Row deepens as Tories step down”, The Journal, July 22)? The Berwick Conservative Association Constitution & Rules (paragraph 5.5) allows individuals to hold office for three consecutive years.

I was elected as association chairman at the association's annual general meeting in March 2011 to serve for 12 months, and re-elected to the same position at its AGM in March 2012 to serve for another 12 months.

I find it hard to reconcile these facts with Mrs Trevelyan's remark that I had almost served my maximum term of three years and that it was not my “divine right” to receive another term.

I would therefore commend a better understanding of the rules to her. As for “not thinking on the same wavelength” as Mrs Trevelyan, or her nominee for chairman, while she knows that I had the privilege of leading a united and hard-working management team during my two years as chairman (and before we all declined to stand again at the March 2013 AGM), perhaps she forgets that it was at her personal request that I became involved in the association when she asked me to become her campaign fund director in the run-up to the 2010 general election.

JOHN W RAE, Chairman,

 Berwick Upon Tweed Conservative

Association, March 2011 - March 2013,

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