Improving road safety, balancing budgets and maintaining sensible centrism are among the priorities Liberal Democrat candidates say they will campaign on in the West Surrey elections.

A mix of experienced councillors and newcomers from across Waverley are standing for election on May 7, combining familiar local figures with first-time candidates.

Among the established names are Waverley Borough councillors Tony Fairclough and Mark Merryweather, former Haslemere mayor Oli Leach and Farnham Town Council’s Mat Brown. They are joined by new candidates including Ben Bristow and Ms Sally Shorthose.

Currently, responsibilities such as roads, planning and local services are split between borough and county councils, including Waverley and Surrey County Council. From April 2027, those powers will be brought together under a single West Surrey authority as part of government reorganisation.

Mr Bristow, who lives in the Bourne, said road safety — an area councillors will have greater control over under the new authority — was a major priority.

“People speed ridiculously around South Farnham streets,” he said. “The main thing is that people are in danger of getting run over on the streets – I’d like to help change things from within the council.”

With three young children, he said the issue was personal.

Mr Bristow, who works in software development, said he had been a Liberal Democrat member for some time, but the rise of extremist views had prompted his decision to run.

“We need to move toward the centre ground in politics,” he said.

He added that the party’s financial record in Waverley had also influenced his decision.

“The Lib Dems have good financial management, particularly in Waverley, and that’s another reason why I chose to run. We don’t have the debts of Woking and Spelthorne.”

Ms Shorthose, also standing in Farnham South, hoped her 40-year legal career would help represent the town during local government changes.

“I think I would bring advocacy to give Farnham a voice in the new council because we don’t want to get subsumed by the much bigger entities like Woking, Spelthorne and Guildford,” she said.

“We could have a real dog’s breakfast over the next year or two as we combine many different entities into one big one – again I’d hope my legal background could come into use.”

Keith Buchanan, another new candidate standing in the Western Villages, said similar concerns were being raised in rural communities.

“The villages are relatively affluent areas, so road safety comes up a lot,” he said. “There’s an awful lot of concern about SEND. There are a lot of parents with children with special needs.”

“All residents have in common that they value living in a village or a small town, and so that way of life is important to them.”

He added there were worries West Surrey could be overlooked.

“A lot of people are very concerned about West Surrey because of the fact it’s so remote – it goes all the way up to London and we could very easily be ignored,” he said.

“Are all the money and resources going to go up to London? There are very different issues in villages here, when compared to the north of the authority.”

Mr Merryweather said party members were generally receiving a positive reception when out canvassing.

“Based on our experience and what we’ve achieved in Waverley, we’re getting a generally positive reaction from voters on their doorsteps,” he said.

Mr Fairclough said planning and housing remained key issues, but warned against focusing solely on development numbers.

“It’s all well and good building lovely four-bedroom houses but we need more homes that are affordable – we need true social housing that is affordable.”

He added many parents were concerned their children could not afford to remain in the area.

Mr Fairclough also addressed criticism over Farnham town centre works, saying the scheme is outside borough control.

“Some people look at ‘the council’ and blame all councillors for issues,” he said. “The town centre works is an SCC project and we have three SCC councillors in Farnham.”

“They have done their best to plan the process but in some ways it is too big.”

“Unfortunately it’s nothing that Waverley or the town council can do to influence it – it’s got a life of its own now.”

He said residents recognised the complexity.

“People aren’t fools – people don’t have magic bullets to answer the problems – councillors need to acknowledge the situation and come up with a different approach.”

Looking ahead, he said tackling debt would be a major challenge for the new West Surrey authority.

“I can’t say we are going to solve the debt issue from day one, because it’s probably the biggest issue West Surrey is going to be facing,” he said.

“But I hope people will look at our track record that Waverley has regarding debt – plus we have a core of skills among ourselves to look at finding solutions that aren’t obvious ones in a different way.”

The changes will also bring financial challenges, with the new West Surrey authority set to take on the legacy of Woking Borough Council’s substantial debt, while Waverley has maintained comparatively stable finances under Liberal Democrat control. That shift will place greater responsibility on a single authority to manage both services and finances across the area.

On the future of Farnham’s Brightwells development — which will eventually come under the remit of West Surrey — he suggested a rethink of its role.

“It will be a West Surrey asset and it needs to look at that asset and say ‘what can we do, what will benefit the town?’”

“Could we turn it into a microbusiness hub, could we sponsor start-ups, could we work more closely with the university?”

“I’m a businessman and I’m passionate about building businesses. One of my things is how can we develop opportunities for the town and people who live in the town?”

Candidates were also asked about the rise of new players in local politics, particularly the Greens and Reform UK.

Mr Buchanan pointed to Reform’s record in Kent, saying the party had pledged to cut bills but went on to approve the full council tax increase.

“Reform might get quite a lot of votes across West Surrey, but they don’t have the track record to justify this,” he said.

Mr Fairclough said the Greens had connected with younger voters but had become more radical in recent years.

“The Greens have done an excellent job promoting environmental issues,” he said.

“I don’t think the Lib Dems’ environmental policies are that much different to theirs, but they have moved more to the left and they are picking up dissatisfied Labour voters.”

Despite the wider political contest, candidates said their focus remained firmly on local concerns, from road safety and SEND provision to housing and the future shape of local government.