Plaid Cymru suffers setback as independents continue to dominate in Pembrokeshire
Katy Jenkins, local democracy reporter
There will be some new faces in County Hall as Pembrokeshire elects its 60 councillors for the next five years.
There were 19 uncontested seats in the county but there were also 25 new councillors elected along with some familiar faces returned.
Plaid Cymru was the party that suffered most with its six seats reduced to two, while the Liberal Democrats lost its cabinet member Bob Kilmister but replaced him with two new members.
The Conservative party kept its 11 seats although there was some movement in the area the members represent, while Labour increased its number of seats to 10.
As always in Pembrokeshire it was the independent and Independent Group councillors that did best with 35 elected to the new council, it just remains to be seen how many join with Jamie Adams and his group – and whether this will give the group an overall majority once again.
Another cabinet member to lose his seat was Cris Tomos in Crymych and Mynacholg-ddu but leader David Simpson kept his Lampeter Velfrey seat. Who will form overall control and appoint a cabinet – and leader – will be decided at a full council meeting later this month.
Turnout for the election was 43.28% with 28,457 votes cast out of a potential 65,750 electors.
There were some close results, there was only three votes in it in Johnston with Aled Thomas taking it for the Conservatives with 229, ahead of Daniel Metcalf of Labour with 226 and nine votes in Solva, where Mark Carter held his seat for the Conservatives.
There were also some conclusive wins, Neil Prior, cabinet member, held his on to his Llanrhain seat with 670 votes to 65.
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PC dominates the rural West where the language thrives. Labour dominates in the industrial heartlands. NOC battles between Independents, Lib Dems and Tories prevail in pretty areas with good commuting links to England and pretty areas favoured by English retirees.
As a Nationalist obviously it’s never good when seats are lost, but it’s way better when they are Conservative. They’ve suffered mammoth loses in which I’m truly grateful.
As a nationalist voter in Newport & Dinas (Cemais) what was I supposed to do? Huw Thomas Murphy knocked on my door in an out-of-the way ‘feidr’ at 7.30pm on a chilly Saturday evening and breezed away in Welsh. I don’t like his only policies (on road speed limits), and he’s a Tory under an Indpt banner, I think. But he’s a big hearted Welshman and I voted for him. He deservedly won by miles. Plus he runs the Dyfed Shire Horse Farm which is great. Dim yw dim from the Plaid candidate. My mother was taught by DJ Williams… Read more »
And don’t start me on Cris Tomos. Formerly the rubbish guy on Pembs CC, he ran a cumbersome Covid control-freaky recycling system which, being so intrusive, dominates conversation round here and irritates me because its too fiddly for the bois with the bins. So 2021… And you still have to book online to dump at a Pembs CC site. Fortunately Tomos also lost. Plaid, you’re going to have to pick better candidates, more middle of the road people who represent middle Wales