Tag: Graves Park

Sheffield Greens win popular vote and oust Labour leader to make historic local election gains

10th May 2026

The Green Party put on their best performance ever at Sheffield’s local election, winning ten and gaining six new council seats

 

Sheffield Green Party are celebrating its best-ever performance at a local election after gaining six new councillors.

The Greens won 47,886 votes across Sheffield – 27.5% of the vote-share – making them the party with the most votes across the entirety of Sheffield and beating Reform by nearly 2,000 votes.

Greens now hold 20 council seats, against Labour’s 25, LibDems’ 22 and Reform’s 13, on Sheffield City Council.

Councillor Angela Argenzio, Green Council Group Leader, said: “I am elated with our results. “People told us time and time again on the doorstep that they would vote for us, but the scale of the support has surprised me. We work hard in our wards, and people trust us with the responsibility of making Sheffield a place that affords opportunities to all. We will always put people and planet first and I would like to thank all the people of Sheffield who have used their votes at this election.”

9 of the 10 elected and re-elected Green Councillors. (Apologies to Lynsey who is not in the photo!)

The biggest upset of the night: defeating the Labour council leader

The most sensational win of the day was in Walkley, where the Green Party’s Andy Davies unseated Labour council leader Tom Hunt by a margin of 73 votes after a recount.

Speaking after his win, Andy Davies said: “I’m overjoyed to have repeated history by ousting the council leader in our wonderful city, and I’m now looking forward to working with my new colleagues to improve lives for the people of Walkley and Sheffield.”

The Green Party also gained second councillors in Ecclesall ward and Nether Edge & Sharrow ward, and won councillors for the first time in Burngreave, Manor Castle and Graves Park.

Sheffield Green Party won four seats from Labour and two from the Liberal Democrats. With their win in Walkley, they are now represented in all four wards of the Sheffield Central constituency and received 52% of the vote-share in the constituency, where the party got their closest second-place result in the 2024 General Election. 

Greens will share power on Sheffield City Council to deliver for our city

The Greens will now be entering negotiations with the other parties on Sheffield City Council to determine the best way to run the council for the people of Sheffield.  Under the committee system, which has been in place since 2022, all parties have to work together. Greens are already part of the administration alongside Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

New councillors Mustafa Ahmed (Burngreave), Tessa Lupton (Ecclesall), Tom Atkins-Withers (Graves Park), Ruth Abbey (Manor Castle), Lynsey Angell (Nether Edge and Sharrow) and Andy Davies (Walkley) are all in new seats for the Greens, whilst outgoing City Ward councillor Martin Phipps and Hillsborough councillor Henry Nottage were replaced by Maia Salman-Lord and Richard Tinsley, respectively.

Alongside the six council seat gains, the party also retained Cllr Marieanne Elliot, (Gleadless Valley) and Cllr Maleiki Haybe (Broomhill & Sharrow Vale).

Election results: key facts

  • The Green Party now holds 20 seats on Sheffield City Council, up from 14 before this election, making them the third largest party on the council.
  • The Greens won 47,886 votes across Sheffield – 27.5% of the vote-share – making them the party with the most votes across the entirety of Sheffield and beating Reform by nearly 2,000 votes.
  • Sheffield Green Party also came within 101 votes of winning a Liberal Democrat “safe seat” in Fulwood, and 573 votes from unseating Labour in Crookes & Crosspool.
  • This is the second time Sheffield Green Party has unseated a Council Leader after Cllr Christine Gilligan Kubo defeated Labour’s Bob Johnson in 2021, in the party’s then-best performance when they gained five new councillors, and Labour lost its overall majority.
  • The full list of Green Party councillors elected to Sheffield City Council:

The full results are here.

Councillor Douglas Johnson speaks out about the closure of the Rose Garden Cafe in Graves Park.

8th November 2022

Cllr Douglas Johnson talks about the petition to save Rose Garden Café in Graves Park.

 

Douglas Johnson in Abbeyfield Park
Cllr Douglas Johnson

“This week in Council we had campaigners for the Rose Garden Cafe in Graves Park bring their petition of over 11,000 signatures to the Council and they are asking for a restoration of the cafe which was suddenly closed in the summer due to building defects that are said to make it unsafe. It’s a really difficult situation, closing that popular cafe right at the beginning of the school holidays. Not a good look for the Council to be fair. And of course, this all stems from a mistake in 2009 under a previous administration when they outsourced the Council service to a private company and they set up the building with no provision for repairs. Literally, the Council should have done the repairs but there was no plan for it, so we have now got a building defect which means the building can’t be used. There’s a big question as to what happens to the cafe building next. And in response to the campaigners it’s really difficult because we would just love to say, yes, that’s a priority, we’ll put the money in there. But the reality is the Council is really, really stuck for money at the moment and putting money into one park means that we have to take it away from other parks, like Abbeyfield Park in Pitsmoor which really needs the investment as well. So for me as a Green, the really important thing is to work with campaigners and think about how they can work alongside our staff in the Parks Department and try and make a better park for everyone given all the restraints on resources and time available to us. There’s a great community there. They could do fundraising, they could get the word out, support designs for how they want to see the cafe work and run well into the future and make it fit for another hundred years to add to the hundred years it has already been going.”