In the upcoming Kirklees Council elections, Socialist Alternative member and health campaigner Mike Forster will be standing as part of the People’s Alliance for Change and Equality (PACE). We urge all voters in Ashbrow ward to cast their vote for Mike, along with Daniel Green (TUSC).
Fed up with cuts, closures and privatisation? Vote Mike Forster, PACE and the independent socialists taking on Kirklees Council!
Mike Forster is a long-standing community campaigner and socialist in Huddersfield best known as chair of the Hands Off HRI campaign, which successfully pushed back management plans to close both the hospital and A&E.
He played a prominent role in building solidarity across local unions when Louise Lewis, a union representative at North Huddersfield Trust School, was victimised for raising concerns about race discrimination, as well as other workplace concerns.
Mike is now Chair of Kirklees Stop the Cuts and helped save several sports centres, along with the local dementia homes. In this election, he will be fighting for properly-funded public services, safe communities, a needs-based budget and a strong voice for local residents.
Why is our town so run down?
Everywhere we look, we see our town in decline. We have more charity and betting shops alongside nail bars and boarded up properties. Our high street is dying and our communities are neglected.
Our council has been gradually squeezing the life out of us. Every year, they pass budgets which push through more cuts while raising council tax. This year, they are implementing another £10 million in cuts and a 4.99% council tax rise. We cannot afford to live like this any more!
Kirklees Labour council: a record of failure
In the last five years, the council has:
- Closed three sports centres
- Shut down the Customer Advice centres
- Slashed all our youth services
- Tried to close our last two remaining dementia care homes
- Closed a household waste recycling site
- Closed down schools
- Reduced library opening times by cutting staff hours
- Introduced and raised parking charges numerous times
- Raised our council tax by over 20% in the same period
At the same time, they have doled out £36 million to the George Hotel vanity project, which is still not open. Even when it does, hotel chain Radisson will take over, and where will the profits go then?
While they have written off debts to the tune of another £13 million, school meals are set to go up by 5.3% and council house rent by 4.8%. And once again, they will be asking you to vote Labour this year to carry on the same old nonsense. Surely, it is time to say enough is enough!
Join the fightback!
Local communities have joined together to stop the rot. In 2019, we stopped our hospital from shutting down with a huge campaign of resistance. Two years ago, we saved two sports centres from closure. The campaign to save the dementia homes has kept them open against council opposition. Huddersfield has resisted on the streets and in our communities.
The only way Labour has succeeded in ramming through the cuts has been by allying with the Tories! Ordinary people have stood up and stopped them. This year, there are local elections. Labour will be asking for your support to plough on.
Reform say they will be radically different. But where they control councils, they have put up council taxes and cut services while sowing division among communities. We are standing candidates across Kirklees to challenge them. In Ashbrow, two of us are asking for your support.
Who are we?
We are the Peoples Alliance for Change and Equality (PACE). We only set up our alliance two years ago, deciding to join the many independents in saying there is an alternative. We don’t have to put up with grinding cuts and closures.
What are we saying? Quite simple: stop pushing the cuts onto the most deprived sections of our community. Instead, we can fight to maintain and improve local services:
- Freeze all rents!
- No more council tax rises!
- Halt the cuts and closures!
- Invest in our communities, not vanity projects!
Our alliance has stopped the worst of the cuts, but now we need your support to challenge them in the town hall.
Can you support us this year by voting differently and giving us a chance to speak out on your behalf? The elections will be on 7 May. You can contact us on 07887 668 740. Or better still, get involved in our alliance of resistance.
