Lib Dems celebrate growing council presence with rally in Wollaston
DUDLEY'S Liberal Democrats launched a bid for a big council comeback by staging a rally in Wollaston where they welcomed their newest member and some familiar veteran campaigners.
Independent councillor Andrew Tromans announced yesterday (Saturday March 1) that he had joined the Lib Dems – six months after he quit the Labour Party and formed a Unity Group with the Lib Dems to work on campaigns of mutual interest.
The move means the Lib Dems are now a four-strong team on Dudley Council – still a far cry from their heyday in the early noughties when they had around half a dozen councillors on the local authority, which is made up of 72 councillors.
Liberal Democrats, left to right, Cllr Ethan Stafford, Cllr Carl Cashman, from Liverpool, Cllr Ryan Priest, Cllr Andrew Tromans and Cllr Kash Khan at Wollaston Village Hall. (Image: Bev Holder / Newsquest)
But there's a change in the spring air, and lots to be done, the buoyant yellow, gold and orange clad campaigners told the News as they announced the Wollaston and Stourbridge Town Focus team would be known as the Stourbridge Lion team going forwards.
Headed up by Cradley and Wollescote councillor Ryan Priest, who won his council seat in a byelection in August 2023, and Lib Dem ward councillors Ethan Stafford and Kash Khan who both won seats in May 2024, the Liberal Democrats in Dudley have made gains locally in the last two years and they have their sights set on taking even more council seats in the next local elections in 2026 in the hope of becoming a new opposition force.
Cllr Priest, Dudley Lib Dem Group leader, said: 'I'm proud of what the Liberal Democrats are doing in Dudley, providing a real opposition to this Conservative administration. It's about getting involved and getting things done, despite not being in power and despite the financial restraints on the authority.'
The local visibility of the Lib Dems has also seen veteran campaigners and former councillors David Sheppard, Chris Bramall and Lois Bramall, who were at the rally and raring to go door knocking afterwards, express an interest in a return to frontline politics.
Former Wollaston and Stourbridge councillor Lois, who has spent the last decade building up a counselling service in Wolverhampton, said: 'It would be nice. I'm certainly considering it. I'm keen to do whatever we need to do get the numbers up again. If we work hard things can happen.'
The Liberal Democrat Stourbridge Lion team for Wollaston and Stourbridge Town (l-r) David Sheppard, Cllr Andrew Tromans and Lois Bramall at Wollaston Village Hall. (Image: Bev Holder / Newsquest)
David Sheppard, former leader of the Dudley Lib Dem Group, also fancies making a return to the council.
He told the News: 'It's an exciting time. It's just what Dudley borough needs – some form of third-party force that tells it like it is, tells the truth and goes out and campaigns for things people are really concerned about – like the local toilets.'
Mr Sheppard, a Lib Dem councillor for Norton from 1993 to 2004, celebrated a victory on Monday February 24 when Dudley Council confirmed it would reverse a planned budget cut that would have seen Wollaston and Netherton's public toilets axed and instead look to ditch the mayoral car and attendant.
Assisted by Cllr Tromans and Lib Dem colleagues, he led a successful campaign to save the toilet blocks – putting up posters and starting a petition which was presented to the council ahead of Monday's budget meeting.
He said: 'I'm hoping to get back in. I'm going to be standing in this ward with Andrew.'
READ MORE: Independent Stourbridge councillor joins the Lib Dems
Seasoned Lib Dem campaigner and former Norton councillor Chris Bramall also hasn't given up on local politics.
The party's candidate for the Parliamentary seat of Stourbridge for the last decade or so, who has stood without success more times than he can remember, remains determined to do what it takes to support the party he's belonged to for more than two decades.
He remembers the local heyday the Lib Dems enjoyed when they held around 15 per cent of the seats in the council chamber.
Chris said: 'It was exciting times. We had all three council seats in Norton and in Wollaston and Stourbridge and we pressed all the time for more power for Stourbridge.
'We used to have the area committee which could actually achieve things - and the Lib Dems are now pushing for local councils for each area, with the first in Cradley.'
Liberal Democrat campaigners at the rally at Wollaston Village Hall. L-r - Cllr Andrew Tromans, Cllr Ryan Priest, Cllr Ethan Stafford and Cllr Kash Khan. (Image: Bev Holder / Newsquest)
He described the return of the Lib Dems to the council chamber as 'amazing' and said: 'They've achieved so much, saving The Dell Open Space, saving the public toilets and the leisure centres. All that's been done by working with the Conservatives, we had to; it was the right thing to do.'
There's still plenty of work ahead though.
Councillor Kash Khan said: 'We're hoping in 2026 that we'll have another two to three Lib Dem councillors.'
The Liberal Democrat Stourbridge Lion team for Wollaston and Stourbridge Town (l-r) David Sheppard, Cllr Andrew Tromans and Lois Bramall at Wollaston Village Hall. (Image: Bev Holder / Newsquest)
As they celebrated their local achievements, they were joined by Liverpool Lib Dem councillor Carl Cashman who gave a speech in the recently reopened Wollaston Village Hall.
He told supporters how the Lib Dems fought back after having zero councillors after the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government and said it's quite a 'difficult thing to do' and he would be watching to see how the Dudley group fares in the local elections in 2026, 2027 and beyond.
Labour's Cat Eccles, who is MP for Stourbridge as well as a councillor for Wollaston and Stourbridge Town, was less happy about the news that her former ward colleague has defected to the Lib Dems.
She said: 'I'm sure residents who voted in three Labour councillors last May will be disappointed with what they've ended up with.
Cllr Andrew Tromans in his Labour Party days with Cllr Cat Eccles, who became Stourbridge's MP in the general election in July 2024. (Image: Handout)
'It was obvious from when the Unity Group formed that it was Cllr Tromans' intention to rejoin the Lib Dems, the party he started out as a member of.
'Following the council budget meeting it's clear the Lib Dems are propping up Harley's Conservatives and willing to throw residents under the bus for a backroom deal.
'They demonstrated this with their self-serving amendments to the budget to spend £75k on a town council feasibility study and 'saving' a public toilet by handing the mayor's driver his P45.
'Councillor Jason Griffin and I will continue to work hard for our residents in Wollaston and Stourbridge Town and we're proud to have backed Labour's amendment to the budget which would have saved vital services for people across the Dudley borough.'
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