VOTERS are due to go to the polls this week to fill a vacancy on a community council caused by the automatic removal of a councillor.
David Thomas forfeited his place on Cwmbran Community Council after failing to attend meetings for six months.
The leader of the Reform UK group on Torfaen Borough Council had won a by-election to represent the Two Locks ward, as an independent, on the community council in 2023 but blamed his time being “increasingly stretched” for failing to attend meetings. That led his removal under local government legislation at the end of December.
He had remained an independent on the Labour-dominated community council, which isn’t run along party political lines, but Reform is standing a candidate with the four others also standing under party colours.
Registered voters aged 16 and over are entitled to vote and there is no requirement to bring or show identification at the polling stations at Hollybush and Coed Eva Community Centre and the Bowls Pavilion in Cocker Avenue, St Dials, Cwmbran which will both be open from 7am to 10pm on polling day, Thursday, February 26.
There are 19 seats on the council with 18 currently held by Labour.
The five candidates are:
- Daniel Bennett, Plaid Cymru
- Chase Blount, Welsh Conservatives
- Miles Andrew Cook, Welsh Liberal Democrats
- David Cornish, Welsh Labour
- Stephen Whitehorn, Reform UK.