Over the years, the Rotary Club of Roundhay has been honoured to be visited by many of the
serving Lord Mayors of Leeds. This week was the turn of the 131 st occupant of that honourable
office, Councillor Dan Cohen, who came to the club with his wife the Lady Mayoress Elayna Cohen.
The Lord Mayor is an excellent ambassador for the city, having lived all his life in Alwoodley, apart
from pursuing a misconceived attempt to study ancient history and archaeology at Manchester,
and a more successful pursuit of a law degree at Northumbria University. After qualifying as a
solicitor, he went into business, selling ladies’ hosiery for the next twenty years. In 2010 he served
for one year as a councillor for the Moortown ward, and the following year was elected to serve his
home ward of Alwoodley, where he has remained.
In the light of his long experience, the Lord Mayor was invited to talk to us on ‘The Trials and
Tribulations of being a Ward Councillor’.
Currently, there are nine political groups making up the Council: Labour, Conservative, Liberal
Democrats, the Greens, Reform, the SDP, Morley for independence, Garforth and Swillington for
independence, and another group simply described as ‘the independents’. There have never been
so many. Perhaps it is as well that very little of the work of a ward councillor involves party politics,
but consists of collaboration in committees by public spirited individuals. Their motivation is a
desire to improve life for the people in their local community.
Leeds City Council is, after the NHS, the largest employer in Leeds. Like all huge organisations, there
can be problems of communication, and where ward councillors prove their worth is in knowing
who to call, and what buttons to press, in order to solve residents’ seemingly intractable problems.
Being scrupulous to observe the prohibition on a Lord Mayor commenting on party politics, Dan
diplomatically declined to give his personal views on the best way to deal with issues of concern
such as potholes, roadworks, planning, and schools. He did however tell us that the weather in the
last few months has been so wet and freezing that reports of new potholes, normally 30 a week,
were now up to 300 a week. He recommended to us that we should bring problems to the
attention of our local councillors, who would do their very best for us all.
The Lord Mayor graciously commended the work done by Rotarians for the benefit of the
community, and we were very happy to make a contribution to the Lord Mayor’s charity Leeds
MENCAP, which aims to support young people with learning disabilities so that they can be the
best they can be.