Neil Buckley with Cllr Ronnie Feldman

After a long and distinguished career representing Alwoodley residents on Leeds City Council, Councillor Ronnie Feldman has recently announced that he will be retiring in May 2012 and will not be standing for election.

In 40 years of service Councillor Feldman has had many achievements and highlights and has had the rare opportunity on serving on almost every committee on the council.

Councillor Feldman said, “Of the many highlights over the past 40 years, the stand out honour was to serve as Lord Mayor, together with my wife Ruth, as my Lady Mayoress.”

Following Councillor Feldman’s announcement, Neil Buckley was selected to contest the Alwoodley ward at next May’s local elections.

Neil and his wife, Lyn, who is the current Chairwoman of the Leeds North East Conservatives, have lived in Alwoodley for 29 years.

Some will know Neil as Chairman of Alwoodley Ward Conservatives. He also serves as an active Parish Councillor on Alwoodley Parish Council.

Neil has worked in manufacturing, allied to the construction industry for most of his working life.  He intends to step down from his job in order to represent you on Leeds City Council to the best of his ability.

Following his selection Neil, paying tribute to Councillor Feldman said “It is a tremendous   honour to follow in Ronnie’s footsteps and be selected to stand in the Alwoodley seat. I intend to take nothing for granted and will fight a vigorous election campaign – and hope as many local residents will support and work with me as possible. I am very much looking forward to the opportunity of working with Alwoodley Councillors Peter Harrand and Dan Cohen”

Image Slaid Hill in Bloom – Cllr Dan Cohen with members of Slaid Hill in Bloom

Working with local residents and Slaid Hill in Bloom, Councillor Dan Cohen has successfully challenged the planned 12.5m tall mobile phone mast at the junction of Wike Ridge Lane and Wigton Lane, this followed the rejection of a 20m mast on the same site last year.

Councillor Dan Cohen said “The proposal, last year, for a 20m mast on the same site was, quite rightly, rejected after a good deal of local resistance to the project. This new proposal was no different.”

“Local people have volunteered their time and energy, especially the members of Slaid Hill in Bloom, to make sure that the gardens around the site are beautifully maintained. If this mast had been permitted it would unavoidably damage the attractive appearance of the area people have worked so hard to create.”

“There is a field nearby that is an ideal site for a mast, so residents were baffled as to why this application was made. I hope the phone companies will now take up the offer by planners to find an acceptable site for this mast so that it can be sited for everyone’s benefit”

A new Council Area Manager hopes to improve local leaf clearing this autumn.

Councillor Dan Cohen said, “Last year the service was not up to standard. This year I’m delighted to say that we have an excellent manager covering environmental services in our area who is overseeing a huge review of the long failing cleaning services in the area.”
Alwoodley Councillors have supplied a list of the streets which are usually worst affected. Councillor Peter Harrand explained “We can never collect all the leaves, the cost would be enormous, but I want to overcome the weaknesses we saw last year and I’m confident our new Area Manager will do all he can to improve things.”

The one thing that people want from their council tax is the regular, predictable, emptying of their bins. We have taken the trouble to separate our rubbish as asked and we just want the rubbish taken away. We’ve paid for the service in our taxes. The lorries are ours and the operators work for the Council.

It is not advanced theoretical physics. We’re not putting a man on the moon. It is just a matter of sending bin lorries on the same day, every week. It is obviously beyond the present leadership of the Council. When we hear the phrase ‘what a load of rubbish’ these days in Alwoodley it seems to have two meanings.

With a record national deficit run up by the last Labour Government it was to be expected that Local Authorities would have to share some of the burden of balancing the books. For Leeds that has meant a cut of £50million from central Government funding. Added to this the Labour Administration, through poor management has to raise a further £42million this year to cover escalating costs and their budget mismanagement.

Dan said, “I know from talking to Conservative Councillors that there are many budget areas which can be trimmed in order to re-focus funding where it matters. I was very pleased to see the alternative budget proposals put forward in February by the Conservative Group and was frankly stunned that the Labour Administration voted these down.”

“A more cynical person might say they are trying to make these cuts more painful than they need to be. Proving a point is one thing, but unnecessarily cutting services for some of the most vulnerable residents in the city strikes me as cruel.”

Proposed Conservative improvements included:

Saving the 3 leisure centres through cutting spending on office furniture, glossy brochures and stationery.

Saving the free city bus through dropping parking charges to increase usage and installing new meters.

Saving 20 libraries from closure by reducing unnecessary spending on IT equipment.

Scrapping a £1.8million website project to invest the money in road maintenance.

Dan commented, “It’s also bizarre that the Green Party who prop up the Labour Administration in Leeds should vote to stop a free city bus.”

Councillor Ruth Feldman has announced she will be stepping down this year and local campaigner and community activist Dan Cohen is delighted to be selected as the Conservative Candidate for Alwoodley in the local elections on 5th May.
Living, born and bred in Alwoodley and a father of three young children, Dan has been married to Elayna for nearly 10 years.
A solicitor by profession, Dan is the Managing Director of Madison, a successful company employing over 100 people in Leeds.
Dan has worked in the community for many years, was a governor of Abbey Grange High School, is a governor of Brodetsky Primary School, and a member of the LEA School Exclusions and Admissions Appeal Panels.
Dan has also Chaired the Leeds Community Development Project which encourages young adults to make North Leeds their home.
Councillor Ruth Feldman said “I have had the privilege of representing you on Leeds City Council for 12 years and I feel I would like to hand over to a younger person. I am delighted that Dan Cohen was adopted by the Conservative members to replace me to present your wishes to Council. I know him to be dynamic, capable, hard working, honest and reliable, so I am asking you to vote for him in the local elections on 5th May 2011. So with many thanks Goodbye”

“We are looking forward to working with Dan for the benefit of all in the Ward. Please support him on 5th May” Councillors Ronnie Feldman and Peter Harrand.