Leeds Election candidate profiles 2022: Pudsey Ward

Voters in Pudsey Ward will go to the polls on Thursday May 5, 2022 for the Leeds City Council elections. Voters will be electing one councillor.

Your West Leeds Dispatch has written to each candidate asking them for a statement of up to 300 words and a head and shoulders photograph to help you decide who to vote for. Here are their responses…

HOLROYD-CASE, Ryan – Labour

Address in Leeds.

It’s a huge honour to have been selected to stand in Pudsey, Swinnow and Tyersal as the Labour candidate for the elections on 5^th May.

Over the last few months I’ve spoken to many of you either on the doorstep, by phone, by e-mail or by Zoom, supporting you with local issues that you feel have been neglected recently and listening to your concerns about the future.

I will work with local groups to develop youth groups, putting our young people first, providing activities and amenities that support their development. And I’ll make good use of the wellbeing fund that councillors can access for the area, funnelling this into youth projects.

I will work with community groups and others to ensure that residents can grow old well. I’ll fight for further investment in the leisure centre and health and wellbeing facilities across the area.

And I pledge that I will:

• launch a local discussion about what you want the future of the Town Hall to be, with the aim of bringing this into public use again
• actively campaign to bring the visitor centre in Pudsey Park into use, alongside local partners
• listen to you, taking on board your thoughts, ideas and concerns and using these to guide my approach
• be accessible – at surgeries, street surgeries, community stalls and online surgeries and Facebook groups
• always fight for the best for Pudsey, Swinnow and Tyersal.

JACQUES, Robert Hugh – Liberal Democrats

34 Station Road, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 5NR.

SEARY, Simon Anthony – Conservative Party

4 Victoria Rise, Pudsey, LS28 7SU.

Four years ago, I was given the honour of being elected to represent the people of Pudsey, Swinnow and Tyersal.  

I stood for election because I was fed up of the empty words that came from those who claimed to represent the people of our town – but who did nothing for them.

I was fed up that Pudsey was on a downward spiral, and that it never seemed to get the support and investment it deserved.

Four years on, I believe you can see a difference – from potholes to paving, litter bins to (Christmas) lights – I think it is in these little things, added together, that the pride is coming back to Pudsey.

I live and breathe Pudsey. I was born in Swinnow, have raised my family here, and I know what this town is about. I’m not someone coming from outside who thinks they know best, but someone who lives it day-in-day-out.

I’m proud of what we have achieved together, in the past four years – so much more than I had hoped possible – but there is so much more to do to reverse more than 30 years of being ignored.  

So I am standing again to seek your endorsement of what we have done so far, and give you my commitment of so much more we can do together.

Some of my opponents might pretend that this election is about what happens in London, or around the world, but that’s not the case – all that they, or I, can affect is what happens in Pudsey, Swinnow and Tyersal.  

And I believe that by electing someone who was born in this town, and who continues to live here, you have someone who can make the changes that you want to see.

WARD, Suzanne Elizabeth – Green Party

Address in Leeds.