Laura Moynahan

Tell us a little bit about yourself

I was born in Sheffield and have lived here most of my life and my sons attended local schools. I am retired but I previously worked as Chief Executive of Zest, a local development trust which aimed to provide health, leisure, employment and youth activities in a deprived area of Sheffield.

What do you think makes a good local councillor?

A good, local councillor engages with all sections of the community and seeks to listen to their issues and priorities and reflects these back into the Town Hall. Leadership is also important in order to share the Labour Party’s vision for the city and to get community buy in for that vision. The key goal is to bring positive change to people’s lives.

Tell us three things you're aiming to focus on or achieve for your ward during your term as councillor

Manor & Castle Ward has high levels of deprivation overall. My three priorities are to focus on tackling poverty (particularly child poverty), improving health and wellbeing and to increase educational attainment and skills levels in order that local residents can benefit from economic growth within the city and the region.

Tell us three things you're aiming to focus on or achieve for the city of Sheffield during your term as councillor

There are actually five priority areas for Sheffield in the Labour manifesto:

Tackle the cost of living crisis

Growing our local economy

Make Sheffield more connected

Investing in our neighbourhoods

Protecting our health and wellbeing

Environment: Sheffield City Council has stated that to reach its aim of net-zero by 2030, "change will be difficult... we will have to take hard decisions as a council on behalf of the city". If elected, what changes will you make to enable Sheffield to reach net zero by 2030?

Some examples of our commitment to moving to net zero include:
1) Expanding the District Heating Network.
2) Introducing a net-zero test for council spending so that council projects are in line with net-zero commitments.
3) Expanding the retrofitting of homes.
4) Adopting “fabric first” planning policies that eliminate domestic fossil fuel burning in new developments.
5) Supporting community energy schemes.
6) Continuing our support for smaller businesses to improve their energy efficiency.
7) Continuing to work with South Yorkshire Mayor, Oliver Coppard to bring re-skilling and training opportunities to Sheffield, building a new workforce to deliver carbon reduction projects.
8) Continue with our commitment to get buses under public control so that people have genuine options to avoid dependency on private cars.
9) Press Central Government for funding to enable us to deliver an adequate EV charging network.
10) Pro-actively implement our commitment Community Wealth Building using local supply chains.

Transport: Sheffield City Council, and the Mayoral Combined Authority, have been awarded multi-million pound pots to improve cycling and walking networks. What are your priorities for transport infrastructure in Sheffield?

We are committed to bring buses into public control, like we have with the tram. Ensuring communities are served by good bus services that get people where they need to go is a vital element of non-car-based travel.

We support active travel and low traffic neighbourhood schemes, but know that these need public buy-in. We’ll work with communities to ensure schemes are delivering for residents. With the support of Active Travel England, we want to take a more informed, evidence based approach to future active travel and low traffic schemes.

We will never sideline those who have physical needs that prevent them from walking or cycling.

Local Economy: Sheffield City Council has a forecasted cumulative budget gap of £111million by 2026/27. How would you raise revenue for the city going forward?

A core commitment for Sheffield Labour’s 2023 election campaign (manifesto here) is to “grow our local economy”.

Key to to achieving this, Labour will:
1) Develop a local Industrial Strategy
2) Support the creation of thousands of new jobs in green manufacturing through the Advanced Manufacturing District
3) Deliver a Local Plan focused on local sustainable growth
4) Make Sheffield a global hub for sporting and cultural events, and deliver a Gallery of the North creating a new regional flagship artspace
5) Establish Sheffield as a Centre of Expertise for retrofitting homes
6) Increase the number of apprenticeships.

Housing: On 14th December 2022 the council adopted a motion asking the housing policy committee to consider adopting further selective licensing throughout the city. Do you think Landlord Licensing in Sheffield should be extended, from currently applying to Abbeydale Road, Chesterfield Road and London Road, to covering more wards?

• Yes
• Unsure
• No

If you'd like to add details on your position, please do so here

Sheffield Labour is committed to using all powers available to improve housing standards throughout the city, whether for social tenants or private renters – including implementing selective licensing schemes. Such schemes have proven success in promoting clear expectations, targets and progress metrics, as well as transparent, robust enforcement measures. Licensing reduces the risk of illegal property conversions, poor fire safety and poor management standards.