Coun Steven Leigh: Residents and businesses deserve better

By Calderdale Council Conservative Group leader Coun Steven Leigh

Since the turn of the year, many of us will have been reflecting on how turbulent the past few years have been and what the future might hold.

The pandemic changed life dramatically and profoundly impacted the way we work and interact with each other.

We also face many new challenges in this world – globally instability has increased, and the world order established following WW2 is again under threat.

In all these circumstances, the Conservative government has made good progress in many respects.

In the pandemic, British medicine saved millions across the world.

When Afghanistan fell back into the hands of the Taliban, we worked hard to bring refugees to this country.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, our military equipment and training stopped Russia steamrolling all the way to Kyiv.

But in consequence, our economy that had been greatly weakened by the costs of the pandemic was hit with another blow – higher inflation driven by higher energy and food prices.

However, the Conservative government’s spending constraints, alongside action by the Bank of England, over the past 14 months have ensured that inflation has continued to fall.

The Conservative Group in Calderdale is making progress with our principal objective of making our borough a better place to live.

We provided successful opposition to Labour’s ill-conceived Local Plan.

The Local Plan is now facing Judicial Review.

We also successfully fought-off the appeal put forward in support of an incinerator in Sowerby Bridge, which was supported by Labour.

As it stands the incinerator will not be built.

Later in the year, we called-in Labour’s policy to increase parking charges across the borough and ensured that books that had previously been taken off library shelves were returned.

Considering Labour’s record, it is obvious and evident that they are failing to deliver for Calderdale.

Halifax is still without leisure facilities; the Council’s planning department was threatened with Special Measures by the government; the Council has overspent on its town centre office strategy by £3m; and Labour Councillors finished the year with accusations of antisemitism, which the Labour leadership have failed to action.

Looking to the first part of the new year, we will remain very concerned with the financial situation of the Council and we will carefully consider our opposition Budget for the financial year ahead.

Despite reassurances by Labour, the deficit has continued to rise as we had predicted, indicating the lack of action by Labour to properly tackle the issue.

Residents and businesses deserve better and that’s why in our budget, the Conservative Group will continue to prioritise responsible local government and reliable public services.