CHARLES Kennedy was forced to drop a plan for a Liberal Democrat conference in Gateshead after a date clash with the Great North Run.
The LibDem leader had identified Gateshead for next September's event as part of a plan to end the southern bias of conferences in Brighton and Bournemouth.
It would have been the first time any major party had staged its autumn get-together in the North-East, although the LibDems once went to Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
But once organisers realised the Great North Run had been changed to September 18, next year, they realised there would be no spare hotel beds for delegates.
Next year's conference will be held in Blackpool - a venue the LibDems pledged never to return to after a windswept and rain-sodden event in 1990.
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