Party says rushed Plan relies on optimistic housing assumptions, weak contingency planning, uncertain town centre redevelopment proposals and an estimated £0.9bn infrastructure funding gap.
Buckinghamshire Liberal Democrats have submitted a detailed representation on the Council’s Regulation 19 Local Plan, setting out evidence-based concerns about the Plan’s deliverability, housing assumptions, infrastructure dependencies, and contingency planning.
The Group argues those concerns must be understood in the context of the prolonged delay in producing an up-to-date Local Plan, which has weakened local control over where development takes place.
Cllr Susan Morgan, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, said:
"Our representation does not seek to pre-judge the Inspector’s role. It sets out serious concerns that we believe need careful examination before the Plan can be found sound.
Residents deserve confidence that housing numbers are deliverable, infrastructure assumptions are realistic, and affordable housing need has been properly addressed.
This is about ensuring the Plan is tested robustly and transparently, not reaching conclusions before the examination has taken place.”
Liberal Democrat spokesperson Cllr Mark Roberts said:
"The prolonged absence of a five-year housing land supply has left Buckinghamshire more vulnerable to speculative development, including pressure on the Green Belt.
That situation did not arise by accident. It is the result of planning and governance choices made by the Conservative administration since the Unitary Council was formed.
Residents deserve honesty about how we got here. The Conservatives should not present themselves as having protected the Green Belt when their delays and decisions helped create the conditions that exposed it.
The Conservatives are now in danger of counting the consequences of those failures as evidence of success.”
The Liberal Democrats also argue that the Plan relies on delivery assumptions that require careful testing at examination.
The Group warns that the strategy depends heavily on:
Should any of these assumptions prove incorrect, there is little evidence of meaningful contingency planning or a credible fallback strategy.
The Liberal Democrats also argue that residents have been poorly served by the way the Plan has been prepared. Key decisions have been pushed through under the pressure of looming deadlines, with important evidence and site allocations only emerging at the final stage of the process.
The Group also criticised the Conservative administration after it appeared that several technical supporting evidence documents “were not uploaded correctly” when the consultation opened on 23 July, forcing extensions to parts of the consultation into September and October.
Liberal Democrats say this is a serious failure of political oversight at a critical stage of the Local Plan. Residents, parish councils, and community groups were entitled to see the full evidence base from day one — not discover weeks into the consultation that key technical documents had been missing.
The error raises further questions about the administration’s handling of the Plan and reinforces the need for the examination process to test the evidence base with particular care.
Commenting on the process, Winslow Councillor Llew Monger said:
"Residents need a process that is transparent, evidence-led and open to proper scrutiny.
Communities in North Buckinghamshire are not opposed to doing their fair share. But concentrating such a sizeable proportion of the county’s growth in one part of Buckinghamshire risks placing unsustainable pressure on towns, villages, roads, schools, health services, and local infrastructure.
This is not about setting one community against another or arguing that development should simply be pushed into the Green Belt. It is about whether the Plan is balanced, realistic and properly supported by the infrastructure needed to make growth work.”
Cllr Jonathan Waters, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, concluded:
"Buckinghamshire needs a Local Plan. Nobody seriously disputes that.
What matters now is whether this Plan is sound, deliverable, and capable of meeting Buckinghamshire’s long-term needs.
Residents deserve a clear-eyed assessment of the Plan — not political self-congratulation.
That is the Planning Inspector’s role: to test whether the Plan is based on robust evidence, realistic assumptions and the infrastructure needed to support sustainable growth."
Buckinghamshire Liberal Democrat Councillors are urging residents, businesses and community groups to participate in Buckinghamshire Council’s Regulation 19 consultation on the Draft Local Plan, which is open until 6 September 2026.