In the West Yorkshire metropolitan borough of Kirklees, the Green Party is hoping to do well as the Labour vote collapses. And several Green candidates told us ahead of the local election that the Labour-run council has:
- Neglected and failed to listen to local communities.
- Missed funding opportunities.
- Failed to properly maintain infrastructure and services.
- Favoured developers over residents.
Greens, they insisted, are presenting an alternative that will focus on community empowerment and putting ordinary people above corporate interests.
You can see more from Green candidates Craig Grimes, Sa’dia Mosaddeq, Maya Friend, and Maryam Jawaid below.
Green Party’s Craig Grimes (Colne Valley West candidate)
Kirklees Council have missed central government funding opportunities such as the Warm Home Scheme, which all of the other councils in West Yorkshire Combined Authority applied for and received. This could have benefitted many people in the Colne Valley by providing subsidies for insulation and solar panels. These opportunities to reduce people’s bills and improve their standard of living while benefitting the environment and local economy (if local suppliers and fitters are used) should not be missed.
Another example, is the government’s Changing Places Toilet (CPT) grant a few years ago. I had to alert Kirklees Council to it and they eventually applied. This scheme provided the funding for the CPT at Experience Community CIC in Slaithwaite Civic Hall for the benefit of the local community and visitors alike.
Kirklees Council need to be more on the ball with applying for these funds, surely someone at the council knew about them and just didn’t apply.
Sa’dia Mosaddeq (Dalton candidate)
Knocking on doors and speaking with local residents in Dalton has been eye opening to say the least. Despite voting intentions, the opinions on the current Labour council seem unanimous.
Residents have been ignored when it comes to many a complaint. In various localities in the ward where I am a candidate, drains have not been cleaned out for years, despite residents contacting the council year after year. This has meant that in winter, water that sits on the blocked drains freezes over. One resident described driving on roads with blocked drains as “driving on an ice rink”.
You and I can clearly see this as a tragedy waiting to happen, but unfortunately the Labour council feel perfectly comfortable in ignoring the state of Dalton’s drains and the safety of our residents and families.
Why care about the common person when you can help property developers by approving the carbuncle they want to build beside Castle Hill – a local landmark.
Despite the opposition and protest from local residents who are concerned with our lovely horizon being ruined by some ghastly new build hotel, issues like parking, congestion and safety have been swept aside in favour of a profit for private companies.
Mosaddeq: ‘the Green Party will prioritise the people’
Green councillors listen. We listen and we act on behalf of our residents – as all councillors are elected to do. Our sitting councillors voted against the hotel being built, proving yet again that it is the Greens that truly listen and care about our communities.
Labour, Tories and Reform have only one agenda that they all share – to help the millionaires get richer. They have no consideration as to the lives of the folk around Kirklees who do not want to see our area, towns and villages decline.
Green councillors – who are themselves local residents – are passionate about keeping our rich Yorkshire heritage alive and kicking.
Another example of Labour’s negligence is the local scandal around funding for poorly insulated homes. Wakefield council received £1.5m, Bradford over £7m, and Leeds just shy of £6m. The Kirklees Labour council didn’t even bother applying for something that could have helped so many low income households with our bitter Yorkshire winters. On top of that, when pressed by Green councillors, Labour councillors lied about a second round of funding that did not exist.
If elected as council, the Greens will prioritise the people. Not the property developers, not themselves, but the people. By pushing for more funding, especially for the most deprived communities and listening to the needs of residents. Labour have rested on their laurels for too long; feeling entitled to their traditional red wall towns but providing nothing to prove themselves deserving of the confidence of local people.
Maya Friend (Liversedge and Gomersal candidate)
The Green Party is funded by its members not big businesses. This gives Green councillors the freedom to make the best decisions for their ward residents, without needing to pander to outside interests. We are committed to listening to resident concerns and representing these effectively. Our candidates are all Kirklees residents who see the impact of council decisions and feel their direct impact, we are all personally invested in improving our ward services and hope to be part of that change.
People feel like no matter who they vote for they aren’t listened to. We speak to many Labour voters who feel like the party are no longer there for working people and aren’t interested in the needs of the people who voted them in. They are looking for an alternative and it’s very rare that we speak to anyone planning to still vote for Labour or Conservative. They are angry that their roads don’t feel safe to drive on, many are full of potholes and have temporary fixes that leaves the roads closed for weeks but the repairs only last months. The cost to small businesses making it nearly impossible to keep a shop front going on our high streets. Flytipping and littering being incredibly common and no action being taken to stop the problem at its root. People want to feel heard by the people who represent them and they are ready for change.
The Reform leaflets we have been shown by residents have solely discussed national policies and don’t touch on the responsibilities of councillors. Their campaigns appear to claim that a vote on May 7th will change UK immigration policy, but never their stances on local issues that councillors do have impact on. I live in the ward that I am standing in and am very aware of problems that affect us here every day. If elected as councillor, I can’t change UK law, but I can change how our local services are run to genuinely impact our residents positively and make Liversedge and Gomersal a place you can be proud to live in.
Maryam Jawaid (Greenhead candidate)
There has been a lack of presence by local councillors in the ward.
Out of the hundreds of residents I have spoken with in Greenhead there has been one common complaint. “We never hear from them. We never see them. This is the first time anyone has ever knocked on our door…”
We are particularly proud of the fact that we have connected with the residents of Greenhead. Both in 2024 and 2026 we have run amazing campaigns with amazing volunteers.
People tend to vote based on issues taking place nationally, that being said local concerns are generally potholes and flytipping. Issues with road conditions and safety. And also how difficult it is for residents to raise an issue with the council directly.
At the moment residents needing to report an issue must go through the council website, which is time consuming and can discourage people from reporting the issue. One resident mentioned how there used to be something called Fixmystreet, which was a simpler, faster way to report things like potholes, flytipping etc.
So firstly I would like to support the idea of reinstating this method of reporting issues, as I believe it would result in a better maintained Greenhead, and of course throughout Kirklees.
We are learning a lot and taking note of what concerns the people of Greenhead have. I suppose the reasons behind any bad decisions made in council are that they don’t reflect what people want.
And our main goal is to ensure we are fully acting on behalf of what the people want. So in effect having more Greens in council will lead to better decisions being made.
Reform are only working to benefit themselves. We are working to benefit our communities.
Featured image via GreenParty
By Ed Sykes
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