One of Birmingham’s highest profile community activists has announced he will stand for election to the City Council in May.

Desmond Jaddoo will stand as an independent in the safe Labour inner-city seat of Ladywood.

He had previously hoped to stand for directly elected mayor of Birmingham before the proposal was rejected in the 2012 referendum.

The activist has fought campaigns for social justice and claims to represent the dispossessed and poor who have been abandoned by the main parties.

He will challenge Labour Coun Carl Rice, who has represented Ladywood since 1987.

Mr Jaddoo said: “Ladywood is a ward that suffers from mass disaffection, with turnout in the last local elections in 2012, as mere 16.5 per cent. “It is a clearly a tale of two cities with the extreme wealth of the City Centre, The Jewellery Quarter and Broad street and then the areas of mass depravation in Ladywood and parts of the Edgbaston/Winson Green Border and Lee Bank.

“The figures speak for themselves as Ladywood ward is one the poorest parts of the Country.”

He is also critical of council mananagement over the equal pay issue which has cost taxpayer’s £1.1 billion and against cuts to public services and facilities

With turnouts low in Ladywood it means the threshold to get elected is lower than in many other wards - as long as Mr Jaddoo, who has been running voter registration campaigns in the area, can get supporters to vote.