Preston City will see six candidates compete for the publics vote in this years upcoming local election – as a defected Labour candidate holds the seat.
Current county councillor Yousuf Motala has currently been in office since 2021 – he gave up the Labour whip in 2023 and sat as an independent due to the position on Gaza.
He was elected as a Labour candidate in 2021 and has been a county councillor since 2009. He has a majority of 1,445 votes in the last election.
He’ll face Labour, Reform, Lib Dem, Conservative and Green candidates in a six-way battle.
Read more: Mini manifestos for each party ahead of Lancashire County Council local elections
Where is Preston City?
The division runs across the city centre, plus Avenham and Frenchwood and then across to Broadgate and down to Preston Docks too.
It has one of the lower turnouts, with less than 30 per cent of people voting – the turnout was 27% last time around. You can use this tool on the Lancashire County Council website to see where your voting division is in the LCC elections.
Who are the candidates?
We asked each candidate to complete the following three questions, to give them the opportunity for the public to see and find out more about them.
The questions include a general who are they, why are they standing and why should people vote for you.
The candidates below appear in alphabetical order – despite our best efforts we didn’t receive information from Holly Harrison (Green), Tayo Korede (Conservative) and Julie Van Mierlo (Lib Dem) by the time of publication.
Connor Dwyer, Labour
Hi! I’m Connor, I’m 26 and proud to have lived in Preston my whole life, now living on the Docks. In my day job, I support local people as a caseworker – helping residents get solutions to all sorts of issues – healthcare, disabilities and welfare, education, immigration, and transport are just a few. Before this, I worked in education locally, and before that, I worked for four years at the wonderful Harris Museum.
Since 2023, I have been proud to serve as City Councillor for Sharoe Green in Fulwood, and I serve as the City’s Licensing Chair and Champion for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.
I’m active in the community, volunteering with various groups, backing campaigns to better preserve Preston’s heritage, and previously founded a mental health charity which supported hundreds of young people in Preston and Lancashire.
Outside politics and community work, I’m a (long-suffering) North End fan home and away, and have a love for travel, history, live music and a good traditional pub!
Preston City Division is where I live, grew up, went to school, and college, and have worked throughout my life. This is my community, I care about it deeply, and understand the many challenges – as well as opportunities – it faces.
I want to see our area have active, visible, accountable representation at Lancashire County Council, which we’ve lacked for some time now. We both need and deserve a more effective voice, and a change of control, at County Hall. Only Labour will remove the Tories from power at County Hall – after years of failure.
I’m fighting for cleaner and safer streets, better highways (including removing ridiculous bus gates blighting access to our city), effective youth services, and tackling the SEND crisis in our schools. I know these are the priorities for Preston City because I have ears to the ground in our community – that’s what we need, and that’s why I’m standing.
I won’t promise what I can’t deliver – I have a track record as a City Councillor, as a caseworker, as a community activist and volunteer of delivering – of getting things done for residents and our area.
In just the last few months, you told me that Euston Street needed cleaning up – it’s cleaned up. You told me PCC need holding to account on heritage buildings – we’re holding them to account. You told me about highway concerns in Frenchwood – I’m fighting hard on them for you.
I will be your active, accountable voice in the community, because I believe in service to the community, in doing good by my word, and in making the place I’m proud to call home an even better place.
These are local elections that are fought on local action – remember that and the record of local candidates on May 1st.
Yousuf Motala, Independent
I have lived in Preston City Division since 1962′ as a parent and grandfather, I understand the needs of local people, having dealt with a range of issues as a county councillor for the past 16 years.
I have over 40+ years of extensive work experience in the local government, as a principal community regeneration officer, and tutor in the FE / HE education sector plus many years working in voluntary and community sectors as an inner cities youth officer and community development officer, and prior to that as a qualified structural engineer, over the years I have gained the respect and trust of local residents which has given me the ability to identify and deal effectively with local peoples issue.
As a county councillor over the past 16 years I have been involved in tackling and addressing a range of issues and concerns on behalf of local residents across Preston City Division – Town Centre/Riverways Wards, I have had roads fully resurfaced, pot holes filled in, resident parking area’/bays relined/repainted, trees pruned/grass/hedges trimmed.
Being disabled myself I have taken up a range of issues for people with disabilities including access to public places, disabled parking bays, lowering pavements for wheel chair users and helping to improve disabled facilities in homes, plus adult social care services.
I have challenged cabinet members and decision makers on behalf of residents and local businesses in relation to the county council’s decision to implement bus lanes across the city division, due to their impact on local communities and businesses, such as the Fishergate Bus Lane, Corporation St bus gate, including the introduction of recent New Hall Lane Bus Lane.
I have also been challenging the tory administration as to why millions of pounds are taken from bus lane fines in Preston aren’t being put back into Preston to sort out our pothole-ridden roads, but are put into a general pot for schemes across Lancashire, monies raised in Preston should be spent on Preston.
Lancashire Tories’ a party that previously stated that council tax would never be raised, have continued to raise the burden for families each year, due to the previous Tory governments cuts to public sector finances, and now the Labour government putting additional pressure on Lancashire county council finances with the burden put on already stretched Lancashire residents, to pay an additional 4.99% again this year.
Labour is now the same as the Tories and it’s time for change which only independent Cllr’s can provide Preston residents.
I strongly feel that successive governments continued Austerity measures, such as the cost of living crisis together with the current Labour government push to target disabled people, families and pensioners’ with household bills continuing to rise above inflation, is putting a strain on many of Lancashire’s vulnerable people and households, with more families struggling to pay bills or having to rely on food banks, pushing more and more people particularly children into poverty.
I resigned from the Labour Party due to Keir Starmer’s statement to collectively punish Palestinians, by supporting food, water electricity/fuel and medical supplies, the basis for human survival, condemning thousands of innocent lives to death and destruction.
Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and previously the Tory government have both been complicit in genocide in Gaza and the West Bank and continue to do so, by providing arms and weapons to Israel, to continue their horrific massacre and indiscriminate targeting of innocent babies, children, women, elderly, infirm, aid workers and medical staff.
I have also worked closely with local Cllrs dealing with issues such as dog fouling, cleansing, environmental concerns/noise pollution, and worked closely with the Police on crime and disorder issues and anti-social behaviour. I have regular update meetings with local CBM including PCSO’s regarding Community safety concerns across the Division.
It has been an honour and privilege to serve the residents of Preston City Division for 16 years and I hope that with their support, I can continue to represent them to ensure that their issues and concerns are fully addressed, I also believe that far too often decisions are made without effective community consultation or engagement with local residents and that can only be achieved if they have a more pro-active role in local governance and decision making processes, if they have the right people in place to represent them and hold those in power accountable for many of the decisions that impact on their daily lives.
Scott Pye, Reform
I attended sixth form at Cardinal Newman College and, until recently, worked in the city centre, so I’ve witnessed first-hand how the area has changed. I currently serve as the local chairman for Reform in Preston, and I believe it’s important for people who care about their communities to get involved and contribute. In my free time, I enjoy a round of golf or a game of squash, although it’s fair to say I’m much better at the latter than the former.
I am standing because all three of the other political parties have played their part in running Preston and Lancashire into the ground. The decline is visible, but it is not inevitable. It’s painful to see how many premises on Church Street, Fishergate, and Friargate lie empty. We need people to come to our city centre, yet the council wants to chase them away with the Corporation Street bus lane and extortionate parking charges.
People should vote for me because I will fight tirelessly at County Hall to rejuvenate our city centre and secure value for taxpayers. Reform will bring in the auditors to ensure taxpayers get value for their money. We must restore sanity at county hall.
When is the vote?
The local elections take place on Thursday 1 May, with polling stations open from 7am to 10pm.
We will then have full coverage of the local election results as the counting takes place on Friday 2 May. We should expect to know the overall outcome by Friday afternoon.
I’m not in Preston or South Ribble…
You can see the full list of candidates for each area on the county council website. You can also see our breakdown of the candidates for Wyre, Fylde, Ribble Valley and Chorley.
Subscribe: Keep in touch directly with the latest headlines from Blog Preston, join our WhatsApp channel and subscribe for our twice-a-week email newsletter. Both free and direct to your phone and inbox.
Read more: See the latest Preston news and headlines
