Meet Your Lib Dem Candidates
Working hard all year round for Great Brickhill, Stoke Hammond, Newton Longville, part of Newton Leys, Drayton Parslow, Stewkley, Mursley, Swanbourne, Soulbury, Hoggeston, Littlecote.
Andrew Jones
Andrew is a Chartered Accountant and has lived in the Newton Longville Ward village of Mursley for more than 30 years. He is the Vice Chairman of the Mursley Parish where he has served his local community for more than five years. He has also served as a Governor of a local secondary school. Prior to retirement, he had a senior role in financial services regulation in London. He enjoys gardening, walking and sailing. He is passionate about the environment, improving education and eradicating waste in local government.
Malcolm Newing
Malcolm Newing is a retired BT Director who lives in Stoke Hammond. He has chaired Stoke Hammond Parish Council and led the development of the Stoke Hammond Neighbourhood plan during the past 6 years. He previously chaired the successful local campaign against the unwanted Dorcas Lane development. He enjoys family history, socialising hearing dogs, and is a member of the Aylesbury Rock choir. He is passionate about local democracy, protecting village identities and helping all residents particularly the most vulnerable.
Our Priorities for the Newton Longville Ward
Andrew and Malcolm stood as candidates in the equivalent of this Ward in the 2021 Council elections, where they achieved the largest swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat in the whole of Buckinghamshire.
- Villages need a 20mph Limit. Many of our residents are suffering from a huge increase in traffic speeding through their villages. This severely impacts on the safety of our streets and quality of life for the residents, and yet Buckinghamshire Council is vehemently opposed to 20 mph limits in our villages, putting barriers in the way of Parish Councils who want to implement such restrictions. This contrasts with neighbouring Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, and Bedfordshire where 20mph limits are in force in many villages.
We urgently need 20mph limits through many of our villages to:
- Improve safety for our residents and to protect children
- To help protect our road surfaces
- To discourage drivers from rat-running through our villages and encourage more use of the main A roads
If elected, Andrew and Malcolm will campaign for Buckinghamshire Council to implement 20mph limits where Parish Council’s identify a need, consult with residents and a local Referendum of residents is in favour. This need not be costly and despite some urban myths the Police have agreed that all speed limits are enforceable. A vote for the Liberal Democrats in this Ward will send a clear message to Buckinghamshire Council that we need to have the option for 20mph.
- Maintaining the identity of our Rural Villages and Environment. With the change of Government last year, it is inevitable that there will be more development in North Bucks; to argue otherwise flies in the face of reality. Despite this the identity of our Rural Villages needs to be maintained and we must ensure that any such development is in line with Neighbourhood Plans agreed by residents. Evidence shows that proactive involvement with developers can result in success for both parties. Any development must go hand in hand with the provision of services such as Schools, Doctors surgeries etc. The rural environment needs to be maintained with emphasis on Nature Recovery and tackling the scourge of Fly-Tipping.
- Our Roads. It is clear the Conservatives have let people down; In 2021 their campaign literature featured how roads were going to be improved and potholes dealt with. Four years later things have got worse not better. All our vehicles are suffering from broken suspension and punctures like never before, and road signs are not being replaced leading to highly dangerous junctions affecting nearby residents. After years of under-investment Andrew and Malcolm will campaign for new technologies and better planning, to ensure more can be done to prevent the vicious cycle of repair and fail.