Recent news and updates
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Article: Jan 8, 2022By Merilyn CanetWe welcome the New Year, each of us hoping that the sharing and kindness in our Sevenoaks community over the last year will continue.We should thank - and recognise - the NHS and care workers for looking after us though the second wave of Covid; pharmacists and medical staff for the extraordinary vaccination programme through the year, volunteers supporting vulnerable people as well as all the key workers for keeping essential public services going. -
Article: Jan 8, 2022
The Lib Dems in Dartford, Sevenoaks and Gravesham are fighting by-elections for the county division of Wilmington and two Dartford council seats within this division. We are particularly focusing on the county seat, with our active, local candidate, Amanda Capell. We have already delivered, collected and analysed lots of knock-and-drop surveys, and got out a division-wide leaflet around New Year. Our next focus is a canvass of, and addressed letter delivery to, postal voters, whose votes should arrive around 13th January.
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Article: Jan 3, 2022Click to download our winter-2021 leaflet and find out about Sevenoaks Future, Safer Streets, investment in the Town Centre, making Sevenoaks Greener and Supporting Our Schools.
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Article: Sep 22, 2021Sevenoaks' KCC Councillor Richard Streatfeild speaks to the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference to support the motion on responding to the crisis in Afghanistan.
11 years ago I commanded A company from 4 Rifles in Afghanistan. Over 7 months I wrote to 10 families of Riflemen, and Sappers telling them, after offering my sincerest condolences that their sons had not died in vain. They had died at the hands of the Taliban in our effort to give Afghans freedoms we hoped might endure, and so keep us and them safe. The freedom to live under the rule of law, freedom from oppression and freedom to access education.
The tragedy that has unfolded since 2014, but especially in the last two months in Afghanistan, has been tough. To the horror of those who served there, many feel we have abandoned and betrayed not only the Afghan people, but also those who we fought with, and worked with. Both British and Afghans who sacrificed their lives for a democratic Afghanistan. The lesson of history other than, we don't learn the lessons of history, is that we have been to Afghanistan four times and we have now allowed the circumstances which provoked our twenty year intervention to return. We might well have to go back. Some hope that the oppression will be temporary, that Afghanistan has changed, vain hope. What we have done is the political equivalent of the water board.
We took a people out of bondage, they breathed lungful's of the oxygen of freedom but we have now allowed the Taliban bindings to be refastened and the flow of oppression, misogyny and arbitrary justice to be turned back on. Shame on the United States administrations both this one and the last, and shame on our government for not acting sooner to get the people who worked for us and with us and who now face mortal peril, out. I speak in favour of the whole motion which sets out a detailed and helpful policy positions in relation to Afghanistan, but the lines that I particularly support are on setting up a public inquiry.
I will put a link to my parliamentary petition when I go back to the auditorium. We owe a judge led public enquiry to those 10 soldiers, and the 447 others who died there, we owe that enquiry to the three from my company and the many more veterans who have died subsequently where PTS or PTSD was directly or indirectly involved. We owe that enquiry to future generations of servicemen and women to set out where we went wrong and thereby how we could do it better next time, because there will be a next time and we need to do it better. We owe that enquiry most of all to the still grieving families who have all been to a coroners court to hear the precise circumstance of their sons death, but have never been told how their son or daughter came to be in that circumstance beyond the orders given that day. Only a public enquiry gives the ability for us to tell those families that their son or daughter's sacrifice has not been totally in vain.
Conference please support the motion.
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Article: Jun 21, 2021By Richard StreatfeildOur work has begun! Six-weeks on from the County Election on May 6th, I've been spending several days each week on KCC business; learning how KCC actually works, working with other members of the Liberal Democrat Group to divide up the tasks of opposition and - most importantly - helping residents with their issues with officers.
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Article: May 8, 2021Richard Streatfeild's win in Sevenoaks Town Division on Thursday gives Sevenoaks its first Liberal Democrat County Councillor in 24 years.
In a poll of over 6,300 votes, Richard came 179 ahead of sitting Conservative Councillor Crabtree. Every vote was crucial. Richard and his team ran an effective campaign based on asking people across Sevenoaks what they most wanted to make the town a better place to live. Hundreds of residents responded with ideas.
During the campaign, Liberal Democrats contacted thousands of people, on doorsteps, online, and by phone. In addition to the election campaign Lib Dems ran two online conferences including all parties - one on boosting Sevenoaks Town Centre and another on getting Sevenoaks to Zero Carbon. They encouraged hundreds more people to develop and comment on ideas for the future.
The key theme of Richard's campaign was involving and empowering local people to make Sevenoaks the best, most sustainable market town it can be. The response from residents - across the political spectrum - was amazing.
Richard says "I am very pleased and humbled to have been trusted with the task of representing Sevenoaks Town. The real work starts now to improve lives together with everyone in Sevenoaks".
Across the District, Liberal Democrats increased their vote by over 1100 votes, closing the gap on the Conservatives who vote only rose by 300 in a much higher overall turnout. The Lib Dem vote rose from 15% of the District total in 2017 to 18% this time, while Labour fell to fourth place behind the Greens in third.
The results show that Liberal Democrats, where they are organised and work hard, can mount a challenge to the Tories in Sevenoaks. No other party can get within 1000 votes of doing this in any County Division.
Richard and the Liberal Democrats are now looking to work with people in Sevenoaks - of all parties and none - to make our Town and District a better place. The election has shown that people have a real appetite to make Sevenoaks more attractive, greener, to look after it as well as we can and to invest more in our young people.
In addition to the County result, Liberal Democrats also scored well in the Brasted, Chevening and Sundridge District by-election. After no Lib Dem candidate in 2019, Sandra Robinson polled 704 votes against the Conservatives 1051, the highest achieved by any opposition party in the ward for at least 20 years. In the Sevenoaks West County contest in the same area, Tom Mackay increased the Lib Dem vote by over 400 to 1135, as much as Greens and Labour combined.
Sevenoaks Liberal Democrats May 8th 2021
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Article: Apr 29, 2021Over the last few months I enjoyed talking and listening to many of the residents and business owners who love Sevenoaks.
What you always tell me is that Sevenoaks should be a great market town and that it has amazing potential, and I agree with you.
What I see now is unrealised potential. There are too many empty shops, too many proposed developments that look like soulless suburbs, and too many HGV's
thundering through small streets that weren't designed for them.But these challenges are not insurmountable.
The people of Sevenoaks have amazing ideas of how we can breathe new life into our high street and bounce back from the pandemic.
Sadly no one at Kent County Council seems to be listening to these people. That has to change.
Together we can make the high street better for the shopper, the resident, the pub, sports club and the theatre goers of Sevenoaks.
Our high street can be vibrant, safe, clean and smart. It can be the hub at the heart of Sevenoaks. If you elect me this May, I will work towards this vision.
Richard Streatfeild
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Article: Apr 26, 2021By Tony ClaytonOver seventy local people, and inspirational speakers including Rob Hopkins of Transition Towns, gathered on 21st April and thought the unthinkable. What if Sevenoaks District (not just the Council) made it to Zero Carbon well before the Government target?