If you are a resident of Central Sandhurst, Little Sandhurst, Owlsmoor and College Town and you need support from your Town and Borough councillors you can always email them directly or come to the residents surgery at the Sandhurst Library.

We run a monthly surgery from between 1100 -1200 on the first Saturday of every month.

The world has changed in ways no one could have predicted a decade ago. Trump, Putin and Xi have made the world - and the UK - much less safe. Our economy hasn’t grown, and the cost of living has soared.

Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson’s Brexit experiment has failed. It is costing UK taxpayers £90 billion a year. That is money being taken away from our schools, hospitals and armed forces, and out of our pockets in higher taxes in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

We all know that this has to change. We have to act. We need peace, and we need prosperity.

The EU needs and wants greater cooperation with the UK on defence.

We will seize the initiative - from a position of strength - to form a bold new deal with Europe that strengthens both Britain’s economy and our collective security.

Our new Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU - including joining the Single Market and a new Customs Union - will make the UK richer, safer and stronger.

This plan is the best hope our country has to stop the chaos and end the crisis, and the biggest step we can take back towards our long-term ambition of membership of the EU.

The Government knows that repairing our relationship with Europe is the biggest lever we could pull to secure growth, to make our country safer, and to end the cost-of-living crisis. But they would prefer to make tweaks around the edges of a bad deal, rather than showing the courage to be far more ambitious.

Our Growth and Defence Partnership with Europe would cut trade barriers to get businesses growing again, and the economy moving - creating jobs, boosting incomes, and giving the government more money to cut the cost of living, fix the NHS and care, and strengthen our Armed Forces.

And our plan would boost cooperation on defence, energy security, critical supply chains and new technologies to keep Britain and our allies safe in this increasingly dangerous world.
 

Our Plans for a new Growth and Defence Partnership:

Joining the Single Market and a Customs Union

The Conservatives wrecked our economy, wrapped business in red tape and sent prices higher with their botched Brexit deal. By ripping us out of the Single Market and Customs Union, the Conservatives - backed by Nigel Farage - blew an enormous hole in the UK economy, costing us roughly £90 billion in lost tax revenue in 2025 alone. 

Energy is not a luxury - it is an essential human need.

Every single household in Britain should be able to afford their basic everyday energy needs regardless of what happens in global energy markets, and regardless of who happens to be sitting in Number 10.

But as energy bills continue to soar, millions of households are being forced to choose between heating and eating, while cold and damp homes cause avoidable illnesses like asthma and pneumonia, costing the NHS over £1bn a year.

This is not just an economic scandal - it is a moral one too.

That’s why the Liberal Democrats have announced a new policy to help make essential energy affordable and help make fuel poverty a thing of the past.

Ahead of Parliament being prorogued last week, we secured a number of ‘Lib Dem Wins’ as Westminster entered a session of ‘ping-pong’.

This is where amendments go back-and-forth between the Commons and the Lords at rapid pace in order to get outstanding legislation over the line before the end of the Parliamentary session.

As we approach polling day, these wins are a timely reminder of why it is so important that we get more Liberal Democrats elected at all levels - we are the party that gets the job done!

Here are some of the fantastic wins we’ve secured in Parliament over the last couple of weeks:

Today we have set out a plan that would both tackle the GP crisis and help build the homes we need.

The two go hand-in-hand. Because what is it that stops homes getting built?

It’s the fact that people know that too often new developments don't come with the services and infrastructure they need. So they just make it even harder to see a GP, to get their kids into a good school or to get around without being stuck in traffic.

So if we’re going to solve the housing crisis – we have to address those concerns. We have to reassure people that they will be able to access the healthcare they need – whether that’s the people already there or the new families who will move in.

Our plan would end that vicious cycle, by guaranteeing the funding is in place to hire GPs as soon as the first new homes are sold. It would give a better deal to existing communities and to new residents moving in. It would help to rebuild trust and get the community buy-in we need for new homes.

And it would help to tackle the GP crisis that fuels so much of the crisis across our NHS.

The problem we’re trying to solve

In communities across the country, when new housing is built, GPs are promised but not delivered. The result is hundreds of missing GP surgeries, broken trust, and huge pressure on local services - a bad deal for residents old and new. Despite 1.5 million new homes since 2015 the total number of main GP practices has declined by over 1300.

It’s perhaps not surprising that GP access is the top concern of people over the NHS at the moment, and that 2025 saw record numbers waiting over one month for an appointment.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We have high levels of unemployed and underemployed GPs and significant levels of developer money earmarked for infrastructure improvements but which currently goes unspent or unclaimed.

Our communities, and families trying to make a new life for themselves, are being left high and dry.

What would we do?

Liberal Democrats are clear: new housing must go hand in hand with new GPs.

Under our proposals, developers would be required to build or expand existing new GP surgeries when building new housing developments, or fund this construction upfront. We’d ensure additional GP provision is made a reality, by ensuring developer levies can be used to pay the contracts (or salaries) of GPs while patients are still moving in.

Currently, local councils use developer funds to build or expand the premises of GP surgeries (though often the process is disjointed and not fit for purpose), and developers can commit to building health infrastructure as part of a development.  However construction of this infrastructure often takes too long and there is usually no new money to fund the GP contract before patients move into an area, making new surgeries hard to staff. This creates a vicious circle where new patients register with over-subscribed practices elsewhere, and it never makes sense for a new GP to set up shop. Our plan - to guarantee the GP contract with developer contributions-  would ensure GP surgeries are not only built, but funded and staffed from the get-go.

This is part of our infrastructure-first approach to development, and supports our campaign to rescue General Practice and ensure everyone can get an appointment within 7 days or 24 hours if urgent.

Why are we talking about this now?

This is important for our communities and people’s daily lives

How can we expect residents, existing and new, to trust decision makers and to embrace change if we fail them at the first hurdle? People are promised services that never materialise, and they feel it in their daily lives. This is about basic fairness.

New development is essential - to meet the aspirations and needs of people and families around the country. That’s why we have ambitious proposals to build 150,000 social homes a year, and slash building costs through a customs union with the EU. But new residents and existing communities deserve services that can cope with growing populations. Building infrastructure first is crucial for improving people’s quality of life, strengthening community and restoring trust.

Health services are key for taking on the far right and defending our liberal values

The failure to deliver new health services fuels support for populists like Farage. Recent LSE research has confirmed what many already knew - where GP provision has receded and more surgeries have closed, support for the extreme right has risen. Restoring trust, and showing we can deliver new services, and that local communities won’t just take what is doled out to them, is critical to keeping Farage out of No.10. Liberal Democrats are offering the change people really want and need - not the false promises and snakeoil of Reform UK and the Conservatives.

Donald Trump’s idiotic war with Iran – cheered on by Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage – is making it far more expensive for people to get around. Families are paying more at the pump because of a war they didn’t start and don’t support.

Liberal Democrats are calling for an emergency transport package to keep Britain moving, cutting the cost of travel for people – whether by car, train or bus.

Our plan would help people across the United Kingdom who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. It would cut petrol and diesel costs for the parent in rural Devon who has no choice but to drive, the home carer getting from patient to patient, and the small business owner whose van is their office.

But it would also make it easier for more people to take public transport or switch to electric vehicles, by dramatically cutting the prices of bus and train tickets and the cost of charging electric vehicles. This would help to bring down demand for fuel during this crisis, while encouraging people to switch to public transport and EVs for the long-term too.

Our emergency transport package would:

• Cut fuel duty by 10p, bringing down prices at the pump by 12p per litre.
   
• Slash bus fares to £1, from the current £3 cap.
   
• Cut rail fares by 10%.
   
• Cut VAT on public electric vehicle charging, and review the unfair network costs that push up charging prices.

We’re pressing the government to implement our plan for three months at first. The £2 billion cost would be covered by the unexpected extra tax revenues the Treasury is raking in due to higher fuel prices. If the crisis drags on for longer and fuel prices stay high, our package could be extended until they come down.

Every family deserves to feel safe when they go into hospital to have a baby.

That means having the right staff in place at all times and making sure mothers get one-to-one care during labour. But too often that is not happening, and too many mothers and babies are being let down.

Shockingly, more than half of units do not meet “good” standards of safety. This is particularly alarming in the face of rising injuries and complications for mothers.

Over a quarter of deliveries (27%) in 2024 involved heavy bleeding after childbirth (postpartum haemorrhage) - a rise of 13,600 more cases than in 2020. The number of emergency c-sections and rate of severe tears in childbirth have also increased to record levels.

Over half of maternity units in the country are in need of repair, and 73% of units do not have a consultant present at night, despite most births taking place outside of working hours, when most negligence claims are made.

Our NHS staff do an incredible job under pressure but too often they are overstretched and don’t have the support they need. We need to get more experienced staff, fix crumbling maternity units and ensure every mother and baby gets the care they deserve.

That’s why the Liberal Democrats have announced a £600m rescue plan to fix maternity care, and make Britain the safest country in the world to have a baby.

Our plan includes:

• A guarantee for one-to-one care from a midwife for all mothers in labour.
   
• A consultant doctor on every maternity ward 24/7 to end the lottery of care after hours.
   
• Reversing cuts to funding for enhanced care for complex pregnancies and bereavement.
   
• A new maternity commissioner responsible for overseeing improved levels of care.
   
• Investing in hospital estates to ensure staff don’t continue to work in poor conditions, particularly at night.

Current maternity teams are being stretched by incredibly high turnover and burnout, with many junior and new midwives having to deal with incredibly complex births, often without someone in a leadership position to support them.

By focusing on the retention of experienced midwives and recruitment of senior midwifery posts and more specialist consultants, complex deliveries can be more easily managed with less strain on staffing, allowing every mother to have the one-on-one care they need.

Clinical negligence claims cost the NHS £1.3bn last year. Our plan would see the number of these claims fall dramatically - by bringing all our maternity units up to good or outstanding standards of safety, and reducing the likelihood of clinical error - delivering substantial savings longer term, and the high level of maternity care that mothers and babies deserve.