Sheffield local elections: Let’s devolve power more – how the Liberal Democrats would do business in Sheffield

In an interview ahead of next month’s local elections, Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said he was in favour of more devolution in Sheffield – and as a council leader he would be more “robust”.

This year, his group has a chance to overtake Labour for the first time since 2010 and he has told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) about challenges with buses, new 20mph speed limits and having local people involved in decision-making.

He said: “The council is incredibly close (with Labour leading the Lib Dems by two councillors), we’re defending nine, hoping to gain two…

“We could, in theory, see the Lib Dems having the largest number of seats at Sheffield City Council. Clearly, there are other things in play – I don’t know what is going to happen to the (Sheffield) Community Councillors. Cllr Tony Damms is standing again, Cllr Bryan Lodge isn’t…”

He added while Labour was massively ahead of the Tories in the national polls, “what matters is what we see on the ground”.

Cllr Mohammed said the fight is between his party – going back to a Lib Dem-led council for the first time since 2010 – and carrying on with “a Labour Party that is controlled by London”.

When Cllr Mohammed was asked whether he and his party – too – were controlled by someone in London, such as Ed Davey, he said his colleagues had a free vote on the Local Plan while Labour members voting against it were suspended and, ultimately, left the party.

When talking about policies, he said the Liberal Democrats have been saying for a long time that bus services were not working in South Yorkshire.

Cllr Mohammed said: “We made road changes in favour of buses and the bus companies just cut routes and increased fares while reducing frequency.

“So we were very clear that we wanted to move away from the bus partnership but Labour was adamant that was the way forward… then 2017 came and people like Andy Burham (the mayor of Greater Manchester) were quick while our Labour people locally were asleep at the wheel.”

He said our region was at the back of the queue when it comes to bus franchising and if you look at West Yorkshire (Leeds), it is run by Labour and it has already been done.

“So you can’t just say this is only the Tory government doing… Labour have been very slow to realise the opportunities with bus franchising.”

Cllr Mohammed was told that some people’s perception when talking about the Liberal Democrats in Sheffield was they always vote with Labour but then start complaining afterwards.

Also, it was raised due to the unique committee system that is in place in Sheffield, it’s hard to criticise each other when the councillors are forced to work and make decisions together.

He admitted that there may be things that they agreed on but then there were other developments (like how the shipping containers at Fargate panned out) they were against.

“That was a complete mess. So it was my job to point that out and stop any further expenditure. I chaired a meeting where they wanted to spend another £180k to complete the project and I said ‘absolutely not’.

“So yes, there might be things that we might agree on in principle but if the implementation is wrong, then I’m absolutely taking Labour to task.”

Will he take his colleagues “to task” – if necessary?

The conflict in Gaza has become one of the main issues raised at council meetings and now there is an investigation into Cllr Joe Otten who was accused of “abusive, defamatory and discriminatory” comments.

He is in Cllr Mohammed’s party and the complaint was referred to the council by Cllr Mohamed, he told the LDRS earlier this year, to conduct an investigation.

Without prejudicing the said investigation, he added his colleague had a right to say things and they had a right to disagree with him.

But Cllr Mohammed said: “I have to be honest with people. We’re Sheffield City Council and of course, we’ve got sympathy for the people of Gaza. There are people in this city whose relatives are affected directly by it.

“The issue of Gaza is personal for us. What I’m not going to do is somehow tell you I’m an international statesman. I’ve done international politics before and I know what powers you can have.

“I’m realistic. There is only so much I can say or do that’s going to have an effect… Ultimately, it’s a UK government issue and, ultimately, a United Nations (UN) issue.”

Cllr Mohammed was also asked if he had any problem with their election campaign material in the style of newspapers being delivered in some areas of Sheffield. Do some people say they are confusing?

He said the “newspapers” have been around for 25 years and they are not designed to confuse people.

“This is not a new thing. We always had a tabloid as part of our campaign for years.

“I’m surprised people are challenging now.”

Back to talking about policies, Cllr Mohammed said they should admit that the council and councillors are not experts at everything and they should just let local people “take charge”, pointing out developments around Millhouses Park which couldn’t have happened without residents’ groups.

He said: “We should enable things to happen, encourage things to happen and not say we’re experts at everything because we’re not.

“I’m a great advocate of the Local Area Committee (LACs). Let local decisions be made by local councillors with local people.”

One of the examples he brought up was the decisions around 20mph zones in the city – he said it shouldn’t be the transport committee to have the first say on that; it should be the residents in the proposed areas.

When asked what would change on day one of him being the council leader, he said Sheffield Council would have a “much more robust leader who would take Oliver Coppard to task, for example”.

Cllr Mohammed said he would hold a future Labour government and Louise Haigh who is potentially going to be the next transport secretary to account “a lot more strongly”.

It was raised with him that whether Sheffield would benefit more if it had a Labour leader, one of its MPs as the transport secretary with South Yorkshire having a Labour mayor and Keir Starmer as the prime minister.

In response, Cllr Mohammed reiterated that the people of Sheffield and South Yorkshire would need an independent voice to hold those politicians in power accountable – and that person would be him.

In the run-up to the elections on May 2, the LDRS has already heard from Cllr Tom Hunt, the leader of the council, and the Liberal Democrats leader Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed.

The interviews with the Green Party leader Cllr Douglas Johnson and Sheffield Community Councillors Group leader Cllr Dianne Hurst will be published on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.