FIVE political parties and one independent candidate will fight it out to fill a vacant seat on Torfaen County Borough Council.
A by-election will be held in Cwmbran’s Llantarnam ward following the resignation of former independent councillor Nick Jones, who quit the authority in November having only been elected for the first time in May.
Labour is currently the only political party represented at the Civic Centre, in Pontypool, and it holds 30 of the council’s 40 seats, with the remaining nine all non-affiliated. The party hopes to add to that number having selected David Bolton as its candidate.
The Welsh Conservatives, Plaid Cymru, the Wales Green Party and Welsh Liberal Democrats are all standing candidates who they hope will be able to fly their flag on the borough council, while Jason O’Connell has put himself forward as an independent candidate.
The Conservative candidate is John Stephen Senior; Plaid’s hopes rest on Matthew Woolfall Jones; the Welsh Liberal Democrats have selected Andrew Miles Cook; and the Green Party’s Philip Davies completes the all-male ballot paper.
Former councillor Mr Jones had been a member of the Independent Group but since his resignation its six remaining members have opted to sit as individual independents, not affiliated to any group, while there are also three members of the Torfaen Independent Group.
The election will be held on Thursday, February 2 with polls open from 7am to 10pm.
