Recent news and updates
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Article: Jan 23, 2021As of Friday 22 January, the government issued new lockdown guidance banning political leafleting by volunteers. Commercial leafleting is allowed, political leafleting is not. The new government guidance will affect the ability of your Sevenoaks Liberal Democrat councillors to provide you with useful information and is a brazen suppression of political debate and important community work.
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Article: Jan 19, 2021Can you help create safer streets for all our young people to get to school?
Liberal Democrat councillors backed the 2019 campaign for 20 mph zones round St Johns and Sevenoaks primary schools from the start. We helped with the petition, printed the posters, sent details out in our newsletters, and supported the petition at Council meetings. Now its in place, residents really appreciate safer, quieter, streets too.
Now we need to make the same protection available to other schools - Lady Boswells and St Thomas' primary schools, plus the secondary schools at Trinity, Weald of Kent, Knole Academy and Sevenoaks School. That's why Richard Streatfeild is backing the plan by local campaigners to include roads from Bradbourne Lakes to Hillingdon Avenue, and the High Street and London Road, in new zones.
This will tackle the areas where 184 accidents have happened over the last ten years, and over 200 people have been injured. It will also make our Town Centre more attractive and safer to walk around, if traffic moves at a safer pace and shoppers can cross the roads safely.
This petition has around 1000 signatures already, on paper and online. You can sign today at
If you'd like to help Richard promote safer streets please contact him at
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Article: Jan 1, 20212020 has been difficult for many, but the challenges we faced showed the strength of our local community. From giving up time to help the most vulnerable, to efforts to plant trees that will benefit Sevenoaks for generations to come, we can be proud of what our community has done this year.
COVID-19 underlined equalities in our society that many knew were there . It shouldn't have taken Marcus Rashford and a pandemic to remind the government how important it is that schoolchildren have enough to eat. -
Article: Dec 7, 2020By Tony ClaytonSarah Olney MP, the LibDem Environment spokesman says there are 10 reasons why the #10pointplan doesn't add up.
- 1.Two-thirds of the money in the Conservative ' Climate Plan is already pledged. Of the £12bn "announced", only £4bn is new.
- 2. The plan includes new nuclear power stations - more expensive than renewable energy. Nuclear is far higher than the unit cost of renewables, and will take decades to deliver.
- 3.The £12 billion (sorry, £4 billion) is tiny compared with investment in other countries, such as €42 billion in Germany and €35 billion in France. This sum is nowhere near what we need to spend.
- 4. Boris claims this plan is part of a highly ambitious COP26 strategy as the hosts of next year's UN climate talks. However, it gets the UK nowhere near the emissions reductions needed to be consistent with Paris Agreement or 1.5C warming.
- 5. The PM mentions only one nature-based solution in his entire plan - planting trees. Government doesn't understand enough about the biodiversity crisis to invest in the UK's peatlands, wetlands or native woodlands.
- 6. Despite promising to end petrol and diesel car sales by 2030, this plan will allow hybrids to continue to be sold - keeping fossil fuel cars on the road for at least five more years.
- 7. There is still no Department of Climate Change to deliver the net zero commitment and no new powers for local authorities who have an important role to play.
- 8. This plan has ignored the need for net zero newbuild homes, as does the Planning White Paper. Since the Conservatives scrapped the net zero homes legislation in 2016, another one million homes have been built which will need to be upgraded.
- 9. The Conservatives scrapped previous Liberal Democrat work on Carbon Capture and Storage only to come back to it now. They have wasted the last five years.
- 10. Extending the Green Homes Grant for one year, doesn't give the construction industry the incentive it needs to build the skills needed to deliver home upgrades at scale. Conservatives don't understand green jobs.
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Article: Dec 6, 2020By Richard StreatfeildIn this video I speak about the environment. We are in a climate crisis, and Kent County Council is not doing enough to tackle it.
- Our homes need to be cleaner and greener
- Our Highways Policy needs to encourage safe and enjoyable walking and cycling wherever possible
- Sevenoaks needs electric buses, electric charging points, electric bikes
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Article: Dec 5, 2020By Richard Streatfeild
In this video I speak about my top priority - education:
- Kent currently spends less than the national average on schools. I want Kent to spend more per-child.
- Kent's needs to improve training and provision for children with special needs
- The best education shouild be available to every pupil
I want to be a strong voice for a better Sevenoaks. Please help by completing my survey and telling me what your priorities for Sevenoaks are.
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Article: Nov 26, 2020By Richard Streatfeild
In this video I speak about Covid and Care Homes in Sevenoaks:
- Only one third of had the resources they needed to fight the Covid pandemic.
- Hospitals and Care Homes need to be better coordinated going forward.
- Hard Decisions have been taken. Harder decisions will lie ahead of us.
I want to be a strong voice for a better Sevenoaks. Please help by completing my survey and telling me what your priorities for Sevenoaks are.
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Article: Nov 22, 2020By Richard Streatfeild
In this introductary video I speak about my priorities for Sevenoaks:
- Our children: Kent currently spends less than the national average on schools. I want Kent to spend more per-child.
- Our carehomes: care for the vulnerable has to be better
- Our streets: we have to make Sevnenoaks cleaner and greener, safer for children, pedestrians and cyclists.