It was announced recently that the ‘Save our Beeston & Holbeck group’ were to field three Independent candidates in the Beeson & Holbeck ward; due to their discontent around the Leeds ‘managed’ zone and Leeds City Council’s refusal to ditch the project, adding to that the community dis-harmony over the Ice Pak development, it was only a matter of time before the community stood forward. Laura Walton (Save our Eyes) and Sean Sturman (Save our Beeston & Holbeck) are the first to be announced with another name to be announced shortly.
It was only a few weeks ago that Cllr Jack Dunn announced he had resigned his Labour membership and he would be standing as an independent for the Robin Hood & Ardsley ward after he was de-selected, despite his long term record and local people seemingly happy with his work.
I have noticed a change in local politics over the last few years and I feel I have been part of that change when I stood in 2016 as an independent in the Middleton Park Ward. This announcement reinforces my position that Labour councillors in Leeds are failing to listen to local people are no longer representing our views. Local people have been realising this change with people like Ed Carlisle (City & Hunslet – Now Riverside & City Ward), Craig Sweaton (Middleton Park Ward) all trying to break the Labour stronghold and hold them to account. How many more will step forward before May?
I will be standing again this year for the Middleton Park ward, but I have now joined a party called the Social Democrat Party (SDP) as I could not financially compete with the Labour machine and the SDP were the best fit for my beliefs overall. I am pleased the SDP have let me set my own policies and I will be standing by my previous elections promises, as the Chair of the party said, “You know your area best, so it’s only right you voice what you feel local people want”.
Why is this year different?
Due to new ward boundary changes all councillors will be up for election this time in all out election. If you have a councillor you don’t feel works hard enough or you simply decide you need a change; this is the time to change it. If you have a really good councillor, then vote to keep them.
How will it work?
- Everyone will have three votes.
- It’s your choice how many of your 3 votes you use, you don’t have to use them all.
- You can vote candidates from more than one party (or independents) if you like.
There won’t be an election next year, so the person who finishes 3rd will be up for re-election in 2020, the person finishing 2nd will be up for re-election in 2021 and the winner of this year’s election will be up for re-election in 2022.
If you would like to know more about me and my campaign, you can contact me as below;
Facebook page: @waynedixonmiddleton
Twitter: @wayne_dixon
Website: www.waynedixon.co.uk
e-mail: wayne@waynedixon.co.uk
This post was written by Wayne Dixon, the Social Democrat Party candidate for the Middleton Park Ward, using our Create an article for South Leeds Life page.
Good luck Wayne.
I think the best the anti-Labour coalition can hope for is that Blake loses her majority on the council, and will need support in order to get her plans through.
Currently she is free to do what she wants, and there is nothing that Tories, Liberals, Greens etc can do.
Hopefully Tories can take Ardsley & Robin Hood with three seats (or two and Jack Dunn) and others including yourself can get elected elsewhere.
It’s time for a change. Get rid of the unsafe, unmanaged area, halt plans to hike council tax and start making the council work for the people who live in the city.
Get rid of the managed area and replace with what?
Replace with something like the Nordic model which doesn’t allow for vulnerable girls to be exploited but tackles prostitution from the side of the kerb crawlers. Many people seem to be under the illusions that this is a ‘managed area’ it is most definitely not that. I’d recommend you look at places such as Denmark and Sweden who’ve implemented this successfully! Allowing women to be bought for sex and at worst, raped beaten or nurseries is modern day slavery!
Upholding the law.
I sympathise with anyone who gets themselves into trouble but ‘compassion’ isn’t turning a blind eye to law breaking. The cycle of getting in hock to pimps or dealers needs to be broken.
I’m all for a discussion about legalised prostitution in a controlled setting, as is done elsewhere.
Not hookers walking the streets in broad daylight looking for their next punter.
Unless the council want to turn Holbeck into a dump so everyone who is able moves away… so they can do whatever with the area.
Dear Wayne and Friends. I feel that the Save Our Eyes Group should indeed field independent candidates for Holbeck as their approach to managed area has been so intolerant of constructive dialogue about a vulnerable group of women in our community that views can not be considered in line with the vast majority of Labour supporters who try and support the vulnerable and bring working people together in solidarity rather than divide them. Labour under Jeremy Corbyn is trying to campaign for a a society in which gross inequality is reduced thus reducing one of the driving factors of sex work. In general Labour with its campaign against loneliness is trying to tackle another possible driving factor of sex work which is social isolation and stigma related to drug abuse and mental health problems. Having attended a meeting hosted by ‘Save Our Eyes’ and working as I do in Holbeck I can see little commonality between a group that largely shouts about the ‘horrors of sex workers working near our homes’ and yet does little to talk to these women and work on the causes of their predicament. If sex work isn’t one of best examples of the limits of Conservative ‘Free Market’ ideology then I don’t know what is. Some people have short memories. One of the main factors leading to the managed zone was the high rate of violence against sex workers and unnecessary wasting of police time criminalising these women. Maybe we should go back to trying to create more economic opportunity rather than brush the problem aside with an angry flourish. Compassion seems to be lacking and so I say sure stand as an independent but don’t pretend it’s on a more enlightened or compassionate platform.
You know very little of the work of Save our Eyes and are only looking at what is produced on the page which is the evidence that we see of sex acts and on a daily basis. Save our Eyes have met with Basis and Joanna Project and will continue to do so. This is NOT a protection of vulnerable women. In fact it is quite the opposite!
The current Labour leadership has no interest in the plight of sexually exploited women and girls – witness Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to acknowledge some of the realities of CSE in Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford, Keighley and many other places, and Ed Miliband’s similar complacency before him. The worst of CSE and other abuses tends to happen on Labour patches, and Labour’s record of denial and obstruction on these issues is damning. Good luck to all the independent councillors and candidates who seek to do what Labour is signally failing to do.
In response to Dr Lavani’s comment…
You have raised fair points though I feel you’ve witnessed some of the anger of the community and perhaps not fully understood where many of us stand on the matter.
We need to tackle the lying… the punters lie to themselves and believe that these poor women enjoy their abuse and have chosen their “career.”
The council tell us that we must accept their choice and provide them with a “safe place” to “work.”
However, this is not work, it is slavery. What we see on the streets of Holbeck is the transfer of money from one man to another using a woman’s body as the conduit. If this were not the case then the prostituted women would have the money they earned from one day to the next. They are skint again next day because the money earned has been taken from them by their pimps and drug dealers.
Until we abandon the belief in these cruel lies the abused women will never be free. We need to target the slave drivers, pimps and dealers.
When the women are freed from this terrible life that they have not chosen the community will also be free.
Personally…. I’ve always considered the people of South Leeds revolting.
Finally, somewhere I can vent my frustration with the way this is being run without being silenced and posts removed.
I do hope certain member running does actually win, but would I want all to win? Not at all. It goes without saying that every person banned from their political platform (sorry community page) for not agreeing with a certain candidate is not how you win votes. You do not only take that one vote away but you take away their family and friends vote too. So while it may look nice and clean in your group, a lot of people will not be voting for you.
Publicly attacking someone and shaming her for working for BASIS, will not win you votes either. And having your guard dog admins jump on people aggressively before removing all evidence is not the best way to sway peoples votes, although you remove stuff people still see it and talk about it.
I will not even go into the whole post on Cottingley when asked for concerns you have for their area and replying with none is not the best way to win voters over. Cottingley residents do not care about Ice Pak or the Managed Zone. They have their own complex issues that you never even bothered to research! The only person who actually has a chance is Laura and for good reason, she actually listens to people. She doesn’t go on a massive power trip and let her ego take over any rash decisions.
You are not a leader you are a sponge, you use people to make yourself look good and once people stop bending to your every whim you discard them and still take the credit. Sponges and Users do not make good leaders, Beeston will be far worse off.
It says something when I have a block list the size of the SoBCaH committee, at least the threats/ blackmail, harassment and slander has stopped now for the most part.
But this still won’t stop me voicing my opinions, and I do not care what any of you say about me at least I have everything to prove if ever needed. I am hoping you see sense and leave me alone, I have every right to be concerned for you running after everything the committee sent and said.