County councillor chosen as Lib Dems’ Horsham General Election candidate

A long-serving county councillor has been selected as the Lib Dems’ candidate to contest the General Election in Horsham.
Morwen MillsonMorwen Millson
Morwen Millson

Morwen Millson, a former Biology teacher who moved to Horsham with her husband Tony in 1982, has represented the Riverside division of Horsham at West Sussex County Council since 1989,

Their two sons attended Horsham’s Heron Way Primary School and Holy Trinity School in Crawley.

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Mrs Millson pledged to fight for housing, jobs and transport for local people. She explained she did not want to see development north of Horsham, but if it goes ahead, wanted to see good connections between the new development and the rest of the town.

She will be one of several candidate vying to replace current Horsham MP Francis Maude who announced earlier this year he would not be restanding in May.

She is vehemently against traffic light controlled junctions on the A264, which she feels would interrupt traffic flows and cause real problems for cyclists and pedestrians.

She wants to see improvements to Horsham Hospital, with a new health hub being developed on public land in Hurst Road as the ‘only deliverable way’ of expanding health services for the Horsham area, reducing the need to travel to Brighton, Crawley, East Surrey and Worthing, whilst retaining more specialist services in these larger hubs.

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Morwen is passionate about the needs of young people and campaigned against West Sussex County Council’s cuts to the youth services.

She said: “In our complex world, young people need our support more and more. We need to provide better mental health services for children and young people, so that help is provided when it is needed, not after months of waiting.

“We need to provide activities that help them socialise in safety, and encourage them to become socially responsible, not leave them in isolation in their own rooms, where they may be vulnerable to internet bullying or grooming.

“And we need to ensure that they have access to affordable public transport, so they can get to college, work and social activities.

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“It is time to consider whether our young people are suffering because of the additional resources that have been given to older people.”

Morwen is a former chairman of the Horsham branch of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT),a governor at QE2 School in Comptons Lane and a director of 4TheYouth, a charity providing youth services in the Horsham area. She also chaired the friends group of a local charity supporting people recovering from mental health problems.

At West Sussex County Council, she has chaired the Highways and Transport Committee, a scrutiny committee for social services, and she now chairs the Regulation, Audit and Accounts Committee. She has also chaired a number of scrutiny groups, looking at staff sickness, enabling people with learning disabilities to live in the community, and supporting carers.

She is a member of the Corporate Parenting Panel, and has also been Liberal Democrat Group leader.

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Mrs Millson also supports renewable energy and is against hydraulic fracturing, believing that it is essential to the future of the planet to reduce carbon emissions now, rather than continuing to extract and burn hydrocarbons.

If airport expansion is agreed for the South East, Morwen will campaign for the transport infrastructure needed locally to ensure local businesses get the best from the new provision.

If there is expansion at Gatwick, she pledged to work hard for the maximum environmental protection for local residents.

She will run against UKIP’s Roger Arthur, Labour’s Martyn Davis, the Green’s Darrin Green, Jeremy Quin for the Conservatives, independent Jim Rae, and James Smith of the Something New Party.

Mrs Millson is a signatory of the County Times’ Free Speech Charter.

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