Hello, I’m Adrian Blake, and I’m standing as the candidate for Morley South on behalf of Labour and Co-operative.

Full statement

Morley is such an incredibly special and unique town, and I’m so lucky to be raising my family amongst the wonderful Morley community. There's much to be proud of here, but there's also a lot we can do to improve things.

I’m not the type of candidate to promise easy solutions, or to claim I can do things outside the remit of a councillor. I know the strain and restraints that councils are operating under. Our councillors are not sat in front of a big “More funding” or “Fix all the potholes” button, that they are too lazy to press. The hardest duty of a councillor is to decide the best use of limited resource. That said, the reason I’m running is that there are changes I can make. As your Labour and Co-operative councillor, I’d be working closely with the Leeds Labour Council to guide and drive real changes we need here in Morley.

🔴 I’d resist the short-term minded sales of our public assets, so that future generations can enjoy them.

🔴 I’d encourage and maximise Morley’s access to the Local Power Plan, to get grants and funding for council, or local co-operative owned solar power on council or community owned buildings to benefit our community.

🔴 I’d cooperate with the local police to see what help they need from the council to best tackle, deter and dampen the effects of anti-social behaviour.

🔴 I'd push to make sure that people start to actually see their council tax in action. That means potholes, that means bin collections. Most council funding is mandated for spend on vital but often invisible services such as social care, whilst visible services have degraded. So, whilst I’ll obviously be pushing for our fair share of any funding, this is going to mainly come down to chasing council services for constituents, and pushing for new, more efficient ways to do things than we already are.

I work as an optimisation consultant, primarily for waste management, which means I use data and modelling to help councils across the UK do more with what limited resources they have. As your councillor, I'd be fighting in every discussion and decision to ensure Leeds gives Morley its fair share, and then I'd ensure that we get the most out of that resource that we can.

The election is May 7th, remember to bring your ID. I’d love it if you could vote for me so that I can fight for you in Leeds, but whoever you vote for, let’s keep making Morley the charming, special and unique community we love.