Labour’s Leeds City Council election candidate for Guiseley and Rawdon has pledged to “listen, learn and fight local people’s corner.”

Sonia Leighton has lived in Guiseley for 27 years and is married with a teenage son. She holds a senior position in an education technology company specialising in providing information systems to schools. She is active as a volunteer in local groups supporting young people with special educational needs.

“People tell me there’s never been a harder time to become a Councillor, but I’m up for the challenge,” she says. “I have no illusions about how tough things are and how difficult it is for the Council to respond to local needs. I believe that now is the right time to focus my skills and experience on supporting the area I love.

“I am pledged to listen, learn and fight local people’s corner in these difficult times. If elected, I will join Councillor Eleanor Thomson and Councillor Oliver Edwards in being responsive to the many concerns residents raise with us regarding issues such as social care, schools, bin collection, street sweeping, bus and rail services, road safety, public health, community safety, and tackling climate change, to name just a few.

“I know as a local resident that people rightly feel angry and cheated. We’re all paying much more tax overall and getting less for it. Council Tax especially continues to rise but it doesn’t make up for the £2.5 billion Leeds has lost in Government Grant since 2010. In 2010 the then Labour Government allocated £450 million a year to Leeds City Council. Today that figure has shrunk to a mere £33 million a year.

“This means that every year the Council has far less money to provide the services people need and rightly demand for their money. It is constantly forced to make cuts and charges that with a proper level of Government funding it just wouldn’t have to contemplate. As a result Councillors have to strive harder and harder to protect the communities they represent.”

Guiseley and Rawdon Labour Councillors Eleanor Thomson and Oliver Edwards said: “We are delighted Guiseley and Rawdon Labour Party members have chosen an able and dynamic local woman like Sonia as our candidate. If elected, she would be a terrific addition to our Labour Team and would bring an enormous amount of experience and local knowledge to our efforts to support local people in these difficult times.”