{"id":753082,"date":"2026-02-09T16:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/753082\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:35:13","slug":"green-party-councillor-david-blackburn-to-retire-at-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/753082\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Party councillor David Blackburn to retire at election"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Baron<\/strong><\/p>\n

Farnley & Wortley Green Party councillor David Blackburn has announced that he will be standing down at the local election in May. <\/p>\n

Cllr Blackburn was elected as the first Green councillor in Leeds in 1998 in what was Wortley Ward. He continued to represent the Farnley & Wortley area for all but five months of the last 28 years. <\/p>\n

Cllr Blackburn, 74, said he was stepping down due to ill health.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with great sorrow that I announce my retirement, but I have been suffering with mobility problems for a while and recently I have been faced with other health problems,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBearing this in mind I have decided the right thing to do for my constituents, my party and myself is to stand down in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a great honour to represent the people of the Farnley & Wortley area for
over 27 years and, while I will miss doing it in future, it is time for me to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"David Blackburn (centre) with Green Party supporters and councillors celebrating outside Leeds Civic Hall after regaining the seat in the 2024 by-election. Photo: Leeds Green Party<\/p>\n

Cllr Blackburn said he had enjoyed meeting and helping people over the years, but expressed frustration at the state of local government finances, particularly since the start of austerity in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have loved to have served on the council when money wasn\u2019t so tight,\u201d he told WLD. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tight in 1998 when I first started, but not as tight as it\u2019s been since 2010. Since then it\u2019s been all about fighting to keep services rather than making things move forward and improve. It\u2019s been frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

As highlights of his time as councillor, he picks out rehousing Lower Wortley Community Centre into the old infants block at Lower Wortley Primary School, and working alongside Conservative Cllr Andrew Carter to move the council\u2019s parks department into Farnley Hall, which was under threat of being sold at the time. <\/p>\n

Cllr Blackburn has previously served as a scrutiny board chair, the chair of the Outer West Community Committee on several occasions and he sat on the decision-making Executive Board for three years. <\/p>\n

For most of his time he served on either City Plans Panel or Plans West, and was chair of Roseville Enterprises and Green Leeds for several years. <\/p>\n

At a national level Cllr Blackburn was the chair of the Steering Committee of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities for four years.<\/p>\n

A Green Party candidate to stand in Farnley & Wortley ward at May\u2019s Leeds City Council elections will be announced shortly. <\/p>\n

All 33 council wards in Leeds will be contested at the elections.<\/p>\n

Follow WLD\u2019s coverage of the\u00a02026 local elections here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sponsored content<\/p>\n

\"\"https:\/\/www.specsavers.co.uk\/stores\/kirkstall<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By John Baron Farnley & Wortley Green Party councillor David Blackburn has announced that he will be standing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,221942,221943,393,215174,4884,1860,212529,16,15,207326],"class_list":["post-753082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-leeds","tag-britain","tag-cllr-david-blackburn","tag-david-blackburn","tag-england","tag-farnley","tag-great-britain","tag-leeds","tag-leeds-local-elections-2026","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wortley"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116041647831530148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}