Lib Dems win Almondbury by-election, replacing Reform UK
Former Liberal Democrat councillor Paola Davies won back her seat in Almondbury, defeating Reform’s Graham Haigh by 1,749 votes to 1,078.
Almondbury’s new councillor has praised the “sensible election” which saw her win back her seat following a “disappointing” result in May.
Last Friday (August 14), former Liberal Democrat councillor Paola Davies won back her seat in Almondbury, defeating Reform’s Graham Haigh by 1,749 votes to 1,078.
The Liberal Democrats previously held the seat before being briefly ousted by Reform UK’s Craig Wiles, who secured it in the last all-out election. However, a by-election for his seat was triggered just two months later due to “health reasons”.
Now back in her seat and following the first week of her new tenure, Cllr Davies explained that running for the spot in the by-election after her loss was a “no-brainer” – praising Almondbury’s engagement in a “sensible election”, rather than “riding on national concerns or the national reaction” during the May elections.
Cllr Davies said: “What was disappointing for me at the last election, and in some terms at this one, was the message I was getting from people who were coming into the ward for the election claiming that ‘Almondbury is broken and Almondbury needs fixing.’
“My view is that there was already a lot of good work going on. There are many action and community groups in Almondbury, Lepton, and across the ward. I know what was going on. We need to build on that. Almondbury has its issues, but there is still some great stuff there.”
When asked how she planned to cooperate with other political parties – including her Reform UK colleagues for the Almondbury Ward, Cllr Pip Harvey and Cllr Gill Floyd – Cllr Davies explained that she “genuinely felt” that all the councillors individually “want the best for Kirklees as a whole.”
Cllr Davies said: “We have to fight for our own wards, but Almondbury won’t thrive unless the rest of Kirklees is thriving as well. We’ve got to make sure that the whole of Kirklees works for everyone. To do that, we need to work with other councillors, whether that is on committees, working parties, or constitutional groups. I’ve done that in the past, and I’m happy to do that going forward. I’m a collaborative person, as we Liberal Democrats all are.”
Looking to the future, Cllr Davies’ tenure is only earmarked for less than a year before she will be up for re-election. However, she has promised that her tactics to hold her position in 2027 will be “more of the same” of what she has done for the last seven years.
Cllr Davies said: “It’s about listening to the public’s concerns and reacting to their issues. It isn’t always about the big, dramatic issues; what I’ve learned from being a councillor is that it’s about being there and reacting when the bins aren’t emptied, when the drains need cleaning because they’re clogged, or when flooding occurs because the gutters are full of leaf litter.
“It’s about reacting and doing all of that. There are also issues with the local plan coming up at the council soon, so I will make sure that Almondbury is protected and that the best outcomes for the ward are reflected in the new local plan.”
In the long term, Cllr Davies said her priorities lay with protecting the Tolson Museum.
Cllr Davies said: “I want to make sure that the museum and the park are used as the assets that they really are to Kirklees. I presented a petition a couple of years ago that had over 2,000 signatures to get a better plan in place.
“I think now that we’ve got a change in leadership and control at the council, I would like to see the Tolson Museum used going forward in line with the covenant stating it should be there for the education of the people of Kirklees.”