Sheffield Liberal Democrats launch local election manifesto

It comes a month ahead of voting day, which will take place on Thursday, May 2. 

Their manifesto was launched with a visit from Sir Ed Davey MP who offered some campaigning tips and said he was ‘always impressed’ by the group in Sheffield.

If voted into power, they promise to devolve more control to citizens, use community infrastructure levy on places affected by development, ‘hold the Streets Ahead contractor to account’, give more money to projects like Unity Gym and De Hood, set a target to be carbon neutral by 2030 and give young carers free transport passes, among other things. 

Leader, councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, said they were feeling optimistic about their chances this year and were running in some wards for the first time.

He said: “We’ve been out door knocking all year so we are informed by what residents want, not by what we plan to do to them.

“We are confident but not complacent. We’re very glad Ed Davey has come to help us launch, it’s given us a big boost.”

Candidates have been out knocking on doors and talking to people since last year and say they will be ramping it up in the next few weeks. 

The launch took place in Hackenthorpe where there was a big turnout from candidates running for the party. 

Sir Davey visited from London to help kick off campaigning. He said: “I’ve found on doorsteps that people are fed up with politics at the moment because of what they’ve seen on TV and the only way to get a conversation is to say it’s about the council elections and local issues….then they relate to it and say ‘OK, you are talking about things I care about and you’re not one of them’.

“I didn’t actually raise Brexit cause if I had I think they probably would’ve put the door in my face because they are fed up to the back teeth of it. “I’ve always been impressed by the campaigning skills and the dedication to the local parts of Sheffield, while there’s a citywide policy, the Lib Dem group are very good at seeing their patch as a community wanting to serve them and make sure they don’t get forgotten.”

The full list of candidates in each ward was announced earlier this week, with candidates from a broad range of parties running. Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green and Conservative candidates are running in all of the 28 wards.