The Liberal Democrats have officially launched their campaign in Sheffield. The party say that they are the only real opposition to the Labour and Green Party coalition currently running Sheffield that risks bankrupting the city within just a couple of years.

There has never been a more important time to vote and have your say on who runs Sheffield. Sheffield Lib Dems have a plan that would give millions of pounds of budget over to local areas via the Council's Local Area Committees. We want more decisions to be made locally and backed with adequate funding. We would provide residents with larger blue bins to recycle more carboard, collect food waste and turn it into green energy and recycle more plastics. We want cycling and walking to be safer across the city. We would prioritise use of brownfield sites to build the badly need new energy efficient homes rather than building upon our greenbelt. Our city can be regenerated by working with business and developing cultural and leisure venues, assuring they are accessible to all.

Sheffield Lib Dem leader Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed (left) with Cllr Joe Otten (right), Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of South Yorkshire

Thousands of families in Sheffield may miss out on the Government’s £150 council tax rebate to help with soaring energy bills, new figures have revealed

Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed, Leader of the Lib Dems on Sheffield City Council

Recently our Councillors have been writing to The Star explaining why protecting greenfield land in the Green Belt from development is very important. Unfortunately, the Green Party as part of the Labour/Green run Council disagree. We have pushed for a "brownfield first" attitude, where we regenerate and rejuvenate areas such as old factory and warehousing sites before we think about building on green fields.

The Liberal Democrats have been clear that when greenfield in the Green Belt is opened up for development, as Cllr Mike Levery (representing West Ecclesfield ward) writes in the Star on 23.2.22 "The reality is that once the plan is approved by government, you cannot manage the process. Developers can choose where they want to build first, and inevitably that is where they make the best returns........ Only when the opportunity for building on greenfield in the Green Belt has gone will developers get on with building the houses we need in this city"

Lib Dem Spokesperson Cllr Martin Smith (pictured above) said; “The choices made in the Local Plan will decide where a huge amount of development should go. It’s shocking to see some of the city’s coalition leadership say they want to build on more of our precious green space, increase traffic congestion and worsen our environmental performance.”

Read our Letters to the Star below:

Sheffield Liberal Democrats are welcoming an investigation into the possibility of Mine Source Heating in the City to provide a more environmentally friendly way of producing energy as fuel prices rise steeply.

Lib Dem Councillor Barbara Masters is leading the calls for Mine Source Heating in the city.

Mine Source Heating works by taking the heat from water stored deep underground in former mines and using it to heat homes. The Liberal Democrats first raised the prospect at a meeting of the Council in October and are now calling for it to be looked at urgently as fuel prices continue to rise.

Decisions about the long awaited Local Plan are being made - and Sheffield Liberal Democrats are leading the call to protect greenbelt areas around our city.  Senior members of the Labour and Green Coalition voted to build on more land in the greenbelt at a recent Council meeting. 

The local Liberal Democrats have written to Sheffield City Council Leader Cllr Terry Fox demanding that he works to improve Sheffield’s public transport in line with motions passed at a meeting of the Council in December.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader Shaffaq Mohammed said; “At this meeting we stepped up and passed these motions calling for better public transport, we would have appreciated the opportunity to debate the issues with the Councils Labour and Green leadership, but in their absence we believe that the people of Sheffield would want their concerns raised.”

Read the letter below:

The plans that would see bus lanes introduced on Abbeydale and Ecclesall Roads have attracted thousands of comments during consultation that has taken place over the last two months and the Liberal Democrats say it is time to reconsider rather than pushing ahead with the current disliked proposals.

Lib Dem Transport Spokesman Councillor Tim Huggan said; “These plans would have a major effect on many local businesses, making it harder for people to get to some of the city’s main shopping streets outside of the town centre. Whilst we support measures to strengthen public transport these plans are not right for these roads and need to be withdrawn"

“We want the South Yorkshire Mayor to move forward on the bus franchise model for public transport, that would lead to a regular, frequent and more reliable bus services for Sheffield Residents – Cllr Johnson should join us in those efforts.”

In a new wave of funding from January 7th, up to £6000 is available for businesses in the hospitality sector. Sheffield City Council is currently working towards provision of the funding. In 2020 Sheffield City Council gave back around £16 million in unspent grant money to Central Government because it was not provided to businesses before the deadline. 

Lib Dem council group leader Shaffaq Mohammed said “What lessons have they learnt from last time? We’re sleepwalking into the same situation. It’s not the first time this has happened on Mazher Iqbal’s watch.”

“I urge businesses to come forward, engage with their local council and tap into these cash grants, which will help to cover costs and protect jobs as we double down on our efforts to get boosted and defeat this virus.”

Sheffield Star Link - Sheffield hospitality firms 'will go under' due to delays in Omicron grants councillor claims

Around 800 people returned our survey on the proposed stadium in Meadowhead. If you haven’t completed it yet, you can complete it at Meadowhead Survey. We will pass on any new reponses to Sheffield FC.

Local councillor Simon Clement-Jones met with Sheffield FC to present the findings of the survey. Sheffield FC have said they will attend a public meeting early next year to discuss their plans with local residents. 

Cllr Simon Clement-Jones welcomed this news. He said, “It’s clear from our survey that people are very split on the plans."

He added “It’s good that Sheffield FC have agreed to meet with local people to hear their concerns. As soon as the details of the meeting are finalised, we will let you know.”

Sheffield Liberal Democrats stepped in to ensure members of the public could still exercise their democratic right to ask questions of those in power as Labour and Green councillors refuse to do their job.

Empty Labour and Green seats at the Octagon Centre yesterday

The City Council’s Liberal Democrats are hugely disappointed to see a motion that they put to the City Council’s Full Council meeting to give greater powers and responsibilities to Council’s newly created Local Area Committees (LACs) be voted down by Labour and Green Councillors.

In recognition of World Toilet Day on Friday 19^th November, Sheffield Liberal Democrats have begun a campaign calling for more toilets with better disability access to be put into the city centre, claiming that free public conveniences have become nearly impossible to find in Sheffield in recent years.

Local Lib Dems have backed a letter sent to the COP26 climate change summit signed by hundreds of local councillors across the country calling on more power for local government to tackle climate change.

Sheffield Lib Dems at the COP26 march in the city centre

Lib Dem councillors are supportive of the overall goals of Sheffield’s recently announced Clean Air Plan, which will involve charging commercial vehicles for using city centre roads.  However, the inclusion of the city’s inner ring road in the plan is more than likely to push traffic onto side streets that are less suited for large quantities of traffic.

The continued delay to the Council's scheduled November Full Council meeting shows that the Council is currently lacking leadership and a ‘can-do’ attitude.

The meeting that should have been taking place on Wednesday 3^rd November was postponed due to not having a covid-safe venue to hold it in. So far, the Council have failed to rearrange the meeting or sort out alternative arrangements.

A food waste collection scheme first championed by the Sheffield Liberal Democrats has now been delayed by the Labour/Green coalition in control of Sheffield Town Hall.

A question from Liberal Democrat Councillor Sophie Thornton at a recent Council meeting led to the revelation that the Council has been breaking the law.

After a week of council coalition discussions and meetings, I wanted to give you as members a quick update on our thinking and where we are given the considerable interest and questions members have shown over the last few days.

The Lib Dems are calling for the Focused Mass Testing of care homes, schools, students, high risk workplaces and their families to bring people together safely over Christmas. With fears growing around South Yorkshire’s restrictions over the festive period, being one of the hardest hit areas by the COVID-19 outbreak, these leaders are mounting their frustrations with their local Councils for their “lack of initiative and proactivity” on testing. 

Lib Dem councillor Shaffaq Mohammed said, “This is absolutely scandalous!

“Sheffield’s taxpayer money should not have been spent in Scarborough while Sheffield’s sporting heritage was told not to re-open.

Sheffield City Council were given £113m by the Government to give out to local businesses during the Coronavirus pandemic. After failing to give the money out in time, the Council are set to give £16m of that money back to Government.

Liberal Democrat questions to the Labour council has uncovered that despite £16m remaining, over 1,600 of Sheffield’s businesses were refused any grant money by the council!

The Government has announced that rental e-scooters will be legal from Saturday with a maximum speed of 15.5 MPH. Local Councils will be able to trial and run 12 month trial schemes.  Fifty local Authorities have expressed an interest in being part of the trials with Middlesborough being the first from the 4th July.  E-scooters. have the potential to be real alternative to short car journeys which can clog up many of the City’s streets.

Liberal Democrat Councillors are asking Sheffield City Council to get serious in the way it supports rough sleepers throughout the COVID-19 crisis. This follows the government roll-back of emergency accommodation support and an arson attack on a key homelessness charity.

Liberal Democrats have welcomed the lifting the restrictions on key workers at Sheffield’s Hospitals at Car Parks owned by the City Council.

Liberal Democrats have called for the lifting the restrictions on key workers at Sheffield’s Hospitals.

Liberal Democrat MEPs have today written to the EU Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmstrom, asking her to urgently seek assurances from the Government of Brazil that it will act to honour its environmental commitments to the Amazon Rainforest, as a condition of the ratification of the recently agreed EU - Mercosur trade agreement. The European Parliament will vote on the provisional trade agreement in the coming months. 

A new ‘code of conduct’ for Lord Mayors was proposed to Sheffield Full Council meeting on Tuesday 5^th December.

In a chaotic Council Chamber, Labour ended abstaining on their own motion and the Liberal Democrats defeated it.