Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern, (often known as Independent Community And Health Concern and abbreviated as ICHC) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

based in

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The party was founded in 2000, having grown out of the campaign to restore the casualty unit at Kidderminster Hospital. Since 2015 it has successfully contested local elections within the

Wyre Forest __NOTOC__ Wyre Forest is a large, semi-natural (partially unmanaged) woodland and forest measuring which straddles the borders of Worcestershire and Shropshire, England. Knowles Mill, a former corn mill owned by the National Trust, lies wi ...

local government area, which includes

History

Richard Taylor

The party had one MP in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the 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 parliament. T ...

, Richard Taylor, who won a surprise landslide victory in the 2001 general election standing for the Wyre Forest constituency, which includes

. He was the only person not from a major party elected as an MP from an English constituency in the 2001 Parliament. Health Concern benefited from a decision by the Liberal Democrats not to put up a candidate of their own. Taylor was re-elected as member for

in the 2005 election, albeit with a considerably reduced majority. The party lost its only seat in the 2010 election to the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

candidate, Mark Garnier, by a margin of 2,643 votes. Taylor was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2014, for services to

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, particularly

Hospital.

Local government

ICHC is also active in local government. It is currently the major party in the Progressive Alliance coalition which is currently in control of Wyre Forest District Council after getting 8 seats in the 2019 election. Before the 2004 local elections it held 16 seats on

Wyre Forest District Wyre Forest is a local government district in Worcestershire, England, covering the towns of Kidderminster, Stourport-on-Severn and Bewdley, and several civil parishes and their villages. Its council was previously based in Stourport-on-Seve ...

Council, making it the largest party, but in those elections it lost half of these seats to the Conservative Party. The 2005 local elections to

Worcestershire County Council Worcestershire County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Worcestershire in England. The most recent elections to it were in 2021. Worcestershire County Council has its headquarters at County Hall in Worcester, w ...

, held on the same day as the general election, also saw Health Concern perform poorly, losing five of its six seats. However, in the 2006 local elections for the district council, it held its own, making one net gain to take its representation from eight to nine. In the 2007 local elections its representation again increased, from nine to 10 members. The party then gradually lost seats on Wyre Forest District Council, with just 7 seats after the 2014 elections. After the May 2014 local elections, Health Concern lost two district seats, reducing the overall number to seven, but managed to gain control of Bewdley Town Council, taking seven of the 13 available seats, a gain of three. The party previously stood candidates for

Shropshire Council Shropshire Council is the local authority of Shropshire, in England, comprising the ceremonial county of Shropshire except Telford and Wrekin. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combi ...

, and had won seats, however it did not stand any candidates in the 2021 election.

Organisation

According to the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

's register of parties, its leader is Taylor, Peter Young is the nominating officer, Keith Robertson is treasurer, and Gerald Wheeler is campaigns officer. The party does have a formal membership. It had expenditure of about £12,000 and income of about £9,000 in the 2005 calendar year.

References

External links

Official website
{{British political parties Political parties established in 2000 Locally based political parties in England Organisations based in Worcestershire Politics of Worcestershire Politics of Shropshire Kidderminster 2000 establishments in England Single-issue political parties in United Kingdom