Village Liberal Democrats

Sue Bucknall

Sue moved to Wimbledon from the South Coast to be near her daughter when the grandsons were babies. They are now sports fanatics preparing for GCSEs at Kings, where she invigilated until this year. Over the years Sue has realised what a wonderful community exists here, looking after its many green spaces especially the Commons, as well as a vibrant thriving village. She is in her second term as an elected conservator of Wimbledon and Putney Commons and is Deputy Chairman. She has also been the Chair of the Friends of WPCC Committee for four years and works closely with the Wimbledon Society, and sits on WURA (Wimbledon Union of Residents Associations) Committee, Visit Wimbledon Village committee, which brings together the businesses and communities of Wimbledon Village, and is a road rep for her local residents Association, the SRRA.

Before retirement she had trained as a barrister and teacher and her last position was as the Chief Executive of the LawWorks charity, providing free legal help and advice to community groups and individuals nationally. She has previously been a local authority Councillor in a Liberal Democrat controlled council, where she served as Chairman of that Council for three years, and also introduced and chaired the Community Services and Environment Committee which continue to be her passions for a thriving, caring Merton. Sue lives in the Village ward and hopes to be a strong voice for all residents of Village Ward.

Kaweh Beheshtizadeh

Kaweh is an award-winning immigration, asylum and human rights solicitor taking cases through from initial application to appeal up to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

He won Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year in Immigration and Asylum Category 2017. His achievement was remarkable given how new he was to the profession. He was also shortlisted for Human Rights of the Year by the Law Society at the same year.

He is a vocal advocate for human rights and civil liberties. He has been involved in politics, running as a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate in the 2019 General Election, where he campaigned to "Stop Brexit". He was notably the first former refugee selected as a parliamentary candidate by the party.

He has lived in Wimbledon for a decade now and wants to serve this wonderful and diverse community.

Kaweh’s story is told in the book, The Ungrateful Refugee.

Iain Wadie

Iain was born and raised in London and has lived in Merton since 2007, bringing up his three children here with his wife Claire. Since getting his PhD in Robotics at the University of Bristol he has been writing, implementing and selling software for blue chip corporations, the NHS and more recently for start-ups and scale-ups - now working for a macro-economics research firm. In addition to working in the UK, he has worked on projects in north American, central Europe and sub-Saharan Africa where he supported the development of small businesses for nearly a year. Iain appreciates that with it's parks, commons and green spaces, Merton is a lovely borough and wants to use his skills to ensure that continued investment in the area helps maintain and improve its status as a great place to live and work.

Contact the Village Team: village@mertonlibdems.org.uk