Features

Lib Dems make their case for Waltham Forest

The third in our series of interviews with the parties vying for your vote
By Local Democracy Reporter Josh Mellor

Arran and Naomi (LDRS)
Arran and Naomi (LDRS)

Homes, health and environment are the key issues for Waltham Forest’s Lib Dems this May.

The party, who have not had a seat on the council since 2014, is run locally by campaigns officer Arran Angus, and branch secretary Naomi McCarthy, both running in Leyton’s Grove Green ward.

The pair are both parents who joined the party after the Brexit referendum, in what Naomi describes as “a fit of rage”.

The Lib Dem charter calls for a “fair, free and open society” and its members have an international outlook, but what would voting for one mean locally?

Arran said: “The biggest thing we pick up on the doorstep is people don’t feel listened to and things just get done for greater good.

“We’re… not [about] being part of a huge super majority which just follows the party line and obeys the whips.”

Naomi said the party also wants to keep the council “up to mark” on its environmental promises, such as protecting trees, which she isn’t sure it always does.

For example, despite recognising the need for more family homes, both criticised the imminent destruction of Orient Way Pocket Park near Lea Bridge Station to make way for new flat blocks.

Naomi said: “There is a lot of pressure to build homes, but… there’s been too much listening to developers. We need more family homes that people here can actually afford to live in.”

Despite failing to win any seats in 2014 or 2018, at least one in ten voters in the borough have supported the party in each election.


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