LABOUR have announced their candidates for May’s election in Bromsgrove.
The party will contest 21 seats on Bromsgrove’s District Council, hoping that current councillors Harrison Rone-Clarke and Peter McDonald can retain Rock Hill and Rubery North.
Current Hill Top councillor Luke Mallet will step down and David Hopkins has been selected as the new candidate for this seat.
Vice chair of the Bromsgrove Labour Party, Ester Gray will contest Rubery South, another of Labours target seats.
NHS consultant, Dr Graeme Stewart has been selected to contest Sidemoor, while current party chair, Sam Ammar will contest Charford.
Dr Mick Marshall has been selected for Sanders Park and current party secretary, Jane Elledge has been selected to contest Aston Fields.
Alvechurch village will be contested by Martin McLeod.
Bromsgrove Labour Party will also contest seats in Catshill, Barnt Green, Lickey Hills, Perry Fields and others.
Sam Ammar said: “It is a great privilege to be working with so many experienced members of the Labour party to put together a real alternative for Bromsgrove.
“Should we be given the opportunity to run the council, we are ready with councillors from all areas of business, NHS, education, transport, social care, energy industry as well as local governance.
“Should we win a majority in the council, one of the first things we do is end the culture of employing consultants to do the job of the portfolio holders costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds and we would utilize this money to improve the leisure facilities in town including the Artrix, to freeze council tax and to negotiate with neighbouring authorities to reinstate the 144 bus route.”
Coun Peter McDonald said: “I am greatly concerned about the money that Bromsgrove taxpayers spend on council staff who are not even in Bromsgrove.
“Our residents should be able to walk into the council house and report a problem to an officer, this is not the case.
“All the officers are sitting in Redditch, and although Bromsgrove residents pay their salaries, we have no defined number of officers allocated to us, this has caused a problem in our accounts and it has left Bromsgrove residents at the raw end of “the deal.
“Labour would immediately end these Shenanigans and bring back services to Bromsgrove by departing from this merger. This would give us spending transparency and ensure we manage the finances without ever being served notices by the auditors like the current governing party.”
