VOTING comes early to part of Brecon this week as a council by-election is being held.

Britain is currently gripped by the 2019 General Election campaign but voters in the St Mary ward, which includes the town centre and eastern end of town, will have the chance to vote for a new member of Powys County Council this Thursday, November 14.

The seat was held by Conservative Sarah Lewis but she resigned from the council last month and has moved to Cornwall.

The Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and one independent are all standing in the by-election and polls will be open from 7am until 10pm.

It is the third by-election in recent weeks to Powys council with the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives having won polls in Llandrindod Wells and Newtown respectively.

Of those contesting the St Mary ward seat two are already town councillors for the area with Labour candidate Liz Rijnenberg and Plaid Cymru’s Gren Ham both keen to win a seat in County Hall.

Alan Roberts will defend the seat for the Conservatives and Gareth Roberts is the candidate for the Lib Dems who had held the seat until the 2017 local government elections.

Independent Gareth Phillips, who was a child star in the BBC school drama Grange Hill, is also standing. His mother Mary had been a town councillor for the same ward.

Whoever wins the seat it will not alter the balance of power at County Hall which remains in the hands of the largest group, the Independents and their Junior coalition partners the Conservatives.

The Independent Group has 24 members and the Conservatives, following their recent by-election success in Newtown, have 18 councillors.

Jake Berriman’s success in winning the Llandrindod North by-election boost the official opposition, the Liberal Democrats, to 14 and the council’s only Green Party councillor also sits with the Lib Dem group.

Should Labour win the by-election it would have eight councillors and would hold all three council wards in Brecon.The recently formed breakaway independent group, Action for Powys (Action for council tax in our neighbourhoods) has four members.

At the 2017 election Ms Lewis won the seat for the Conservatives with 485 votes while the Lib Dems had 321, Labour 246 and current Plaid candidate Mr Ham, who stood as a Green Party candidate, had 119 votes.