Interview with Waltham Forest Liberal Democrats

The party’s local campaigns officer Arran Angus, 48, and branch secretary Naomi McCarthy are both candidates in the Grove Green ward in Leyton.

Both are parents and joined the party after the Brexit referendum, in what Ms McCarthy calls “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?

Mr Angus said: “I think that the Lib Dems locally are very much about listening to local residents and representing what they require in the council, not following the party line and obeying the whips.

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

The father-of-two added that he’s gotten to know many of the residents in Grove Green and Forest wards, where he has lived for more than a decade. Many are not happy with low-traffic neighbourhoods, he added.

Ms McCarthy 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.

They both agreed that more family homes are needed but criticised the way the Orient Way Pocket Park will have to be cut down for hundreds of new homes at Lea Bridge.

Ms McCarthy added: “There is a lot of pressure to build homes, but I think it’s about listening to people.

“Do we build flats that people here can’t afford or do we need more family homes that people here can actually afford to live in? I think there’s been too much listening to developers.”

The Lib Dems have not had any councillors in the town hall since 2014, when the party lost all six of its seats following a power sharing arrangement with the Labour party.

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.

They hope to put a candidate forward for each of Waltham Forest’s 60 seats.