Buckinghamshire local elections 2025: Liberal Democrat leader claims party have 'best' chance at majority

The Local Democracy Reporting Service is interviewing representatives of all the main political parties standing candidates in the elections.

Bucks Lib Dem group leader Councillor Susan Morgan says she is open to potentially forming an alliance with other groups on the council ‘if we are a few councillors short of a majority’.

This includes what she called the ‘really broad church’ of Independents, whose candidates include former Conservatives like Councillor Diana Blamires and left-wingers like Khalil Ahmed, who last year stood as an MP for the socialist Workers Party of Britain.

Councillor Morgan, who currently represents Aylesbury North, said: “I just wonder how they are going to form an opinion when their political values are just so far apart.”

How does she feel about her own party’s chances at the elections, following the resignation of five Lib Dem councillors in February?

The 46-year-old who has lived in Aylesbury most of her life, said her party was standing a ‘full slate’ of candidates across Bucks.

“This isn’t a party in chaos,” the Lib Dem leader added, explaining there were ‘always going to be casualties’.

She added: “This is the best chance we have ever had of getting a majority and taking the administration from the Tories because we have never run a local election with Sarah Green as an MP in Chesham and Amersham.”

Councillor Morgan said she and her Lib Dem colleagues already worked well with the other opposition councillors on Conservative-controlled Bucks Council, but stressed ‘local democracy has to change’.

“We have to change the narrative that people see the council as the enemy,” she said, “The council doesn’t have a good relationship with the residents.”

The Lib Dem called for residents, as well as town and parish councils, to be better involved in council decision-making.

She added: “[Council leader] Martin Tett’s version of local democracy is to put up a consultation online.

“We get very few responses because people often feel like ‘what’s the point?’ They don’t feel like they are going to get heard.”

As well as ‘bringing the towns and parishes back in’, Councillor Morgan is also in favour of ‘immediately looking at devolving assets’ to the lower-level authorities.

She said: “I don’t understand why we are paying millions to upkeep sports facilities when town and parish councils are equipped.”

The Lib Dems would look to set up a devolution agreement with the larger town and parish councils, according to Councillor Morgan.

Another issue she wants to take on in Bucks is improving provision of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and reducing some of the backlog of cases in this department.

She said: “I am a mum of a 16-year-old who has got ADHD and ASD. I have been through it myself. It was going through the process that really opened my eyes to what residents are having to go through.”

Councillor Morgan said she did not seek preferential treatment as a councillor, but asked ‘what hope do parents have?’ if even she found the system difficult to navigate.

But small changes could improve the situation for families with SEND children, according to Councillor Morgan.

She said this might be things like a booklet to help inform families about education health and care plans (EHCPs), including where to go and how the process works.

Another suggestion she has is setting up a team of officers to act as a ‘go-between’ for the council and schools.

“What I found,” she explained, “Is that there is a huge disparity in schools between the ones that help SEN children and the ones that don’t.”

A ‘liaison officer’ could reduce the need for EHCPs, according to Councillor Morgan, who added: “I think parents are only applying because they are desperate.”

The Lib Dem said she was ‘banging her head against a brick wall’ while navigating the process on behalf of her son and that she ‘had nowhere to turn’.

She explained: “Now it has got to the stage where parents are being advised, ‘well if you want to get an EHCP, you better lawyer up’.

“Because if you can afford a solicitor and threaten to take them to court, you’ll get what you want. That’s not where we want to be.”

One council decision Councillor Morgan is pleased with is the authority’s application to try and introduce a lane rental scheme in Bucks to clamp down on nuisance roadworks by utility firms.

But separately, she also claimed the council had ‘underfunded the maintenance of the roads for donkey’s years’.

“The lack of road maintenance has led to the deterioration of the roads,” she added.

Another issue Councillor Morgan raised was domestic abuse and violence against women and girls, which the council has a strategy for from 2024 to 2027.

But the strategy, which says ‘victims and survivors only need to tell us once’, does not work in reality, according to the Lib Dem.

Speaking about a resident, she said: “The police came to the house, they interviewed her. They then came back and asked her to provide all the evidence on her phone, which then triggered her, which then made her run away.

“The police then wanted to come back and get a statement. So, that strategy is void. That whole process is so daunting.”