Labour have won both of the highly-sought after seats in Brecon’s by-election for the St Mary’s ward.
Mark Perry, who received 288 votes and Tomos Davies, who received 284 votes were both announced as the newest members to join the town council last night.
Polling stations were open at Brecon’s Guildhall and at the Watton Presbyterian Church from 7am until 10pm yesterday.
Both candidates, who received over a third of all votes between them, have increased the already existing Labour majority on the council which is non-partisan so it does not control the council formally.
The by-election for the St Mary’s ward was the first chance for the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives to regain a foothold on Brecon Town Council.
The two new councillors received the most votes in the election, followed very closely by Conservative candidates Dawn McIntosh with 275 votes and Alan Roberts with 242 votes.
Liberal Democrat David Whittle won 119 votes, while Plaid Cymru’s Nigel Clubb received 102 votes.
Independent candidate Geoff Goodenough won 49 votes meanwhile fellow independent candidate Phil Brown received 34 - the smallest number of votes.
The election took place following the resignation of the council’s only Lib Dem Sam Bennett and independent member Nigel Evans - both resigned their seats as they have moved away from Brecon.
The Tories had lost their St Mary ward seat earlier this yeah when Sarah Lewis resigned her town council seat but Labour’s Liz Rijnenberg won the subsequent by-election.
The only other political party currently represented on the town council is Plaid Cymru but its councillor Grenville Ham, who also represents the St Mary ward, was originally elected as Green Party councillor at the May 2017 council elections.
Cllr Ham had been the leader of the Welsh Green party but announced his defection to Plaid in October.