Two Uplands councillors have joined the Welsh Liberal Democrats, strengthening the party’s position in Swansea ahead of the Senedd elections in May.

Councillors Sandra Joy and Allan Jeffery, previously Independents, have announced they are joining the Liberal Democrats, saying the party offers the strongest platform to stand up for their community and challenge the direction of local politics.

Welcoming them to the party, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said:

"Sandra and Allan are exactly the kind of councillors communities want representing them. Rooted in their area, working hard for residents and not afraid to speak up when something was not right.

"With high streets struggling, services stretched and communities feeling taken for granted, the task ahead is clear. Only the Liberal Democrats can beat Labour, stop Reform and deliver for Swansea."

The move comes as the Liberal Democrats continue to build momentum locally ahead of the Senedd elections, where Cllr Sam Bennett is the party’s lead candidate in the area.

Commenting, Cllr Bennett said more and more people across Swansea were looking for an alternative to Labour and were concerned about the rise of Reform.

He said the Liberal Democrats were building a strong team focused on local communities, supporting high streets and standing up for residents.

Councillor Sandra Joy said joining the Liberal Democrats felt like the right step for the future of Swansea.

She said that across Swansea you could feel the momentum building, with more people realising the Liberal Democrats were the ones taking the fight to Labour and standing up to Reform.

She added that she and Allan were still the same people who would speak their minds and fight for Uplands every day, but now as part of a growing team ready to take the city in a better direction.

The announcement was made at an event at Brynmill Community Centre where party members and supporters gathered to welcome the councillors to the Liberal Democrat team.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats say the move reflects growing support locally and strengthens their position as the party best placed to beat Labour in Swansea and stop Reform.

Cllr Sam Bennett has criticised the Government’s “half-pint” measures to support the hospitality sector, and said that “great swathes” of the industry are still being ignored.

This week, the Treasury announced plans to support pubs and music venues by giving them a 15% discount on their business rates from April.

However, Sam argues that the problem has still not been solved for many other businesses, with shops, cafes, restaurants, soft play centres and other types of high street businesses not receiving the support they “desperately need”.

Cllr Sam Bennett, Liberal Democrat Lead candidate for Gŵyr Abertawe, said:

“From the Chancellor’s punishing jobs tax to this timid business rates relief package, the Labour Government’s half-pint measures are unsurprisingly not solving our high streets’ crisis.

“I’m seeing community businesses in my constituency being continually neglected and desperately need support. Ministers should apologise to them for all the uncertainty they have caused.

“Great swathes of the hospitality sector are still being ignored. The Government must do the right thing and press ahead with the full 20p discount it promised to every retail, hospitality and leisure business, and back our plan for an emergency VAT cut for hospitality until April 2027 to save our high streets.”

Responding to the health board declaring its highest level of escalation for the second time in a week, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said:

“When hospitals are full and patients are stuck in beds because the care they need at home isn’t available, that is a social care failure as much as an NHS one.

"What we are seeing in Swansea Bay is exactly what happens when social care is underfunded and overstretched – hospital backlogs, delayed discharges and staff pushed to breaking point.

“Labour has run social care in Wales into the ground, and the consequences are now being felt in hospitals like Morriston and Singleton.

“The lesson is clear: fixing social care fixes the NHS. Wales needs sustained investment in community and social care, not endless crisis management once hospitals are already full.”

Sam Bennett, Welsh Liberal Democrat Swansea councillor and Senedd candidate for Gŵyr Abertawe, said:

“People across Swansea are seeing the impact of social care shortages every day, whether that’s loved ones stuck in hospital or pressure on frontline staff. Investing properly in care isn’t optional, it’s essential if we want our local hospitals to cope, and it will be my priority should I be elected to the Senedd this May.”

Swansea Bay’s four Labour MPs voted in favour of the UK Labour Government’s proposals on Wednesday evening that would scrap the use of jury trials in England and Wales, prompting strong criticism from the local Liberal Democrats and legal experts.

The proposals, brought forward by the Labour government, are intended to tackle the growing backlog in the Crown Courts by allowing more cases to be heard without a jury or by expanding the role and sentencing powers of lower courts. Ministers argue the changes are necessary to speed up justice and relieve pressure on an overstretched system.

However, critics warn that jury trials are not simply an administrative feature of the justice system but a fundamental safeguard against miscarriages of justice. Senior lawyers, former judges and civil liberties groups have cautioned that reducing the use of juries risks concentrating power in the hands of the state and undermining public confidence in the fairness and independence of the courts.

All four of Swansea Bay’s Labour MPs: Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower), Carolyn Harris (Neath and Swansea East), Torsten Bell (Swansea West) and Stephen Nathan Kinnock (Aberfan Maesteg) backed the Government’s position.

Local Welsh Liberal Democrat City Councillor and Senedd candidate for Gwyr Abertawe Sam Bennett has said the vote highlights a clear divide between the parties over how to address delays in the justice system. They argue that the Crown Court backlog is the result of years of underinvestment, court closures and staffing shortages, rather than the continued use of jury trials. From their perspective, removing juries fails to address the root causes of the problem while eroding a key democratic protection.

Concerns have also been raised about public trust, particularly in Wales, where criminal justice remains controlled from Westminster. Critics say reforms of this scale risk further alienating communities from a system that depends on public participation and legitimacy to function effectively.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have accused Labour of abandoning its commitment to civil liberties and warned that once access to jury trials is restricted, future governments may find it easier to weaken other fundamental rights under the guise of efficiency. They argue that long-standing protections should not be diluted without clear public consent.

Instead, the Liberal Democrats are calling for increased investment in courts, more judges and sitting days, and proper funding for legal aid as a way to reduce delays without diminishing fundamental rights.

Commenting, Welsh Lib Dem Senedd Candidate for Gwyr Abertawe Cllr Sam Bennett said:

“It is deeply shocking that our Labour MPs have voted to scrap jury trials.

“This proposal was not in Labour’s manifesto, and they simply do not have a public mandate to make changes of this magnitude. Opinion polling consistently shows that the public strongly supports the right to trial by jury and is deeply uncomfortable with seeing it taken away; a view shared by experts, judges and lawyers.

“Voting for these changes puts political convenience ahead of justice and public trust. If Labour is serious about fixing the courts, it should focus on investment and reform, not quietly removing one of the most important safeguards in our justice system.”

In 2018, the Conservative government pulled the plug on the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon. With the stroke of a pen, Conservative ministers cancelled what would have been the world’s first purpose-built tidal lagoon power station; an oven-ready project with planning consent, local backing, and international significance. Seven years later, the verdict is in: that decision was a monumental mistake.

The newly published Severn Estuary Commission report confirms what the Welsh Liberal Democrats have argued all along. Tidal lagoon power in the Severn Estuary is feasible, valuable, and strategically important. Crucially, it concludes that tidal lagoons, not mega-barrages, are the right way to unlock that potential. In other words, the very model Swansea Bay pioneered was the correct one.

Yet instead of leading the world, the UK is still talking. And Swansea is still waiting.

When the Conservatives cancelled the project, they claimed it was “too expensive” and “poor value for money”. What they failed to account for was value in the round: long-term energy security, industrial regeneration, grid stability, and the chance to build a global export industry in Wales. The Severn Commission now makes clear that tidal lagoons offer predictable, low-carbon power with system benefits wind and solar alone cannot provide. Had Swansea Bay been built, it would already be generating clean electricity today, while providing exactly the kind of firm power South Wales now desperately needs.

The lost time is staggering. Swansea Bay was not just a power station; it was a pathfinder. As the Hendry Review recognised, it was designed to prove the technology, build supply chains, and pave the way for future lagoons across Wales, from Cardiff Bay to the North Wales coast. Instead, Britain ceded first-mover advantage. Manufacturing capability identified for Swansea has withered. Expertise has drifted overseas. And a technology Wales could have led is now being explored elsewhere.

The Conservatives must own that failure. Their decision in 2018 did not save money; it squandered opportunity. It denied Swansea thousands of construction jobs, long-term skilled employment, and billions in economic value. At a time when Swansea Bay needed investment and confidence, Westminster slammed the door shut.

But it is not only the Conservatives who must answer questions. Welsh Labour was vocal in opposing the cancellation. They rightly criticised the decision and spoke passionately about the damage it would do to Swansea and to Wales’s green ambitions. Yet now Labour is in government at UK level, they have refused to revive a project that is effectively ready to go. As often with Welsh Labour, warm rhetoric isn’t backed up by concrete action.

That contradiction cannot be ignored. If Labour believed Swansea Bay was the right project in opposition, why is it still off the table in government? The Severn Estuary Commission explicitly calls for a commercially viable tidal lagoon as a demonstration project. Swansea Bay already fits that description. The planning work has been done. The public support is proven. The case is clearer now than it was in 2018.

Meanwhile, South Wales faces a new challenge: powering the industries of the future. Data centres, electrified steelmaking, battery manufacturing, and green hydrogen all demand reliable, low-carbon electricity at scale. Wind and solar are essential, but they are not enough on their own. Tidal lagoons generate power every day, in winter as well as summer, independent of weather systems. That predictability is exactly what energy-hungry industries need if Wales is to compete.

Rebuilding Swansea Bay Lagoon would send a powerful signal: that Wales is open for green investment, serious about energy security, and ready to lead again. It would provide a major economic boost to Swansea and the wider Bay region; creating jobs, anchoring skills, and restoring confidence after years of drift.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats are proud to have championed the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon in government and out of it. We believed then, and we believe now, that it represented the best of Welsh ambition: innovative, sustainable, and rooted in local benefit. The Severn Estuary Commission has vindicated that view. The question is whether today’s governments have the courage to act on it.

We will continue to call on the UK Labour government to do what the Conservatives would not: revive the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon as an oven-ready project, backed by a modern financing model and national policy support. And we call on the Welsh Government to press relentlessly for its delivery, not just in principle but in practice.

Wales had a chance to lead the world once. We cannot afford to miss it again. 

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have slammed comments by the Conservatives suggesting they would scrap free bus passes for people aged over 60 in Wales, branding the party “hopelessly out of touch” and warning the move would hit older people’s independence, squeeze household budgets, and isolate rural communities.

The remarks were made by Conservative Shadow Transport Minister Jerome Mayhew following questioning by Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon during a Westminster debate on extending free bus travel for people over 60 in England. Mr Mayhew’s comments implied that a future Conservative government in Wales could move to end or restrict free bus passes for over-60s following the Senedd elections in May.

Responding to the debate, Mr Mayhew said that “government funds are limited” and that “the blanket increase in 100% subsidies for a cohort that is mainly in employment doesn’t pass the test”.

In Wales, free concessionary bus travel is currently available to residents aged 60 or over, as well as eligible disabled people and some injured service personnel. The scheme is delivered through the Welsh Concessionary Travel Card system and is widely used across both urban and rural parts of the country.

Since 2025, all under-21-year-olds in Wales have also been entitled to £1 bus fares, following a funding agreement secured by Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats say that free bus travel plays a central role in daily life for thousands of older people, enabling access to GP and hospital appointments, shops, social activities, libraries, caring responsibilities and volunteering. For many over-60s, particularly those who no longer drive, it is the difference between remaining active and independent or being cut off from their community altogether. In rural and semi-rural areas, where distances are greater and transport alternatives are limited, any restriction would have especially serious consequences.

Commenting, Welsh Liberal Democrat Senedd Candidate for Gŵyr Abertawe and Swansea City Councillor Sam Bennett: 

“The Conservatives are hopelessly out of touch. Free bus passes for over-60s aren’t a luxury, they’re a lifeline. They keep people independent, connected and active in their communities.

“Any move to take that away would be a backwards step that punishes older people for political choices they didn’t make.

“The Welsh Liberal Democrats will fight any proposals by the Conservatives to curb free bus travel for over-60s every step of the way.”