The year's biggest Leeds council talking points including a failed Eurovision bid and a spat with Liz Truss

Anyone who says local politics is dull need only look at what’s happened at Civic Hall in Leeds over the last 12 months, where events have been anything but.

And in 2022, local authorities across the UK showed again why they and the decisions they make are so important. It was they that administered the on-the-ground response to the Ukraine refugee crisis as well as the payments to the generous people who welcomed them into their homes.

Their welfare teams handled rising demand as the cost-of-living crisis hit most of us – but particularly the most vulnerable – very hard. And they led their towns and cities in mourning as we lost Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

In Leeds, where the UK’s second largest local authority sits, all of this has happened and more. With rising energy costs and demand in social care, the city council itself is anything but immune to economic pressures itself. For the first time in living memory, it’s having to use its cash reserves to ensure it can deliver a balanced budget and pay its bills on time – a position its leaders warn isn’t sustainable.

Council taxpayers, who’ve already been getting fewer services for more money for several years, are likely to see that continue and become ever more visible. But while the economic outlook is far from rosy, 2023 will mark Leeds’ long-awaited Year of Culture and with it, some much-needed fun and entertainment.

It’s widely viewed as a massive opportunity to promote the city nationally and internationally, draw on its rich (but often untapped) cultural heritage and inspire the current generation of schoolchildren to become our next artists, dancers, poets and beatboxers.

It looks like there’ll be plenty of talking points in 2023 as well thanks to the unfinished political business around the Otley Run, the council’s fallout with the local taxi trade, efforts to stop the government creating more academies, knackered public transport, staff shortages across public services and another round of local elections.

But before turning the page on another year, here’s a round-up of some of the big stories that have spilled out of Leeds’ Civic Hall over the last 12 months, where so many decisions that affect all of us are made.

January

- The city’s director of public health says Leeds needs to “keep hold of every care worker we can” amid a serious shortage of staff in the sector. Nearly 300 patients are stuck in hospital, despite being medically fit to leave, because of the issue.

- Taxi drivers go on strike in protest at proposed changes to licensing rules, which would see the penalty points threshold for which they could be banned reduced.

- A High Court judge rules the council acted unlawfully by refusing to list TV Harrison Sports Ground in Wortley as an asset of community value. Campaigners had been fighting plans to build houses on the land.

February

- A new environmental crime unit is set up to tackle industrial-scale fly-tipping in the city.

- A rare order banning anyone from entering a Beeston home linked to drug dealing is granted by a court, following an application by the council.

- Calls to the council’s customer service centre are taking longer than 10 minutes to be answered, on average, according to a report.

March

- Leeds Bradford Airport abandons its expansion plans, for which it received planning permission in 2021. Environmental campaigners celebrate the news.

- The council’s energy bill is forecast to rise by £9m this year.

April

- Dozens of EU-funded council jobs are revealed to be at risk, though the authority later gives assurances that they are likely to be saved.

- It’s revealed the local NHS is grappling with a backlog of tuberculosis patients, with Leeds currently suffering from more cases than the national average.

May

- At the local elections, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) wins its first council seat in Leeds since the late-1980s, surprisingly defeating Labour in the Middleton Park ward. Labour enjoys success in other parts of the city, however, boosting its majority and taking seats off the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Greens.- Following the elections Labour holds 58 of the council’s 99 seats, with the Conservatives on 21 and the Lib Dems on seven.

- Long-serving Morley councillor and former deputy headteacher Bob Gettings is appointed the city’s new Lord Mayor.

June

- Conservative group leader Andrew Carter brands the road surface at Stanningley Bottom in west Leeds “dangerous” and likens it to the surface of the moon, as he urges the council to improve it and change its layout.

- Leeds launches its bid to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023, but ultimately loses out to Liverpool in the race to stage the competition.

July