West Midlands Region

Phil Bennion has a strong Regional profile in the West Midlands. For the Liberal Democrats he has fought two previous European Elections in the Region. He played a major role in the Battle Bus tour of the Region in the 2004 election campaign and represented the Lib Dem list in meetings with business and farming groups.

He is in his second stint on the Party's Regional Executive Committee. He was Vice Chair of the Regional Party before winning a County Council by-election in 2002 and is currently Policy Chair. In this role he has co-ordinated the Liberal Democrat responses to the Regional Assembly's Regional Spatial Strategy and to the Regional Economic Strategy.

Phil Bennion was a great Ambassador for the Liberal Democrats to the Business and Farming Communities in the 2004 European Election Campaign. Seen here at the Staffordshire County Show a week before the election

He is also Federal Policy Committee representative to the West Midlands, and WM rep on LDEG Executive Committee and Parliamentary Candidates Association Executive.

Phil has represented the West Midlands farming industry on a national NFU commodity committee and represented UK farmers in negotiations on the introduction of the EU's Biofuels Directive.

As Chair of the Staffordshire Rural Hub, Phil is one of the Regional Champions of Farming and Food, an appointment of Government Office of the West Midlands. The five County Hubs are now federating to enable them to deliver EU and DEFRA funded rural development programmes on behalf of Advantage West Midlands. He is also a member of AWM's food and drink Cluster Group and Bioenergy West Midlands.

Phil takes a keen interest in transport issues and has been a regular at regional consultation meetings with the rail industry for a number of years and is a member of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Users Forum.