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Cllr Jamie Pritchard has been named the new leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council, and has pledged to work across party lines for the benefit of the borough’s residents.

The Labour councillor takes the top job after serving as the local authority’s deputy leader under Cllr Sean Morgan, who stepped down in September.

At a full council meeting, on Tuesday November 11, the Morgan Jones ward councillor Pritchard thanked colleagues for their support and said it would be an “honour” to serve as leader.

Councillors at the meeting also confirmed Plaid Cymru’s Cllr Charlotte Bishop as the new leader of the opposition.

Cllr Pritchard, 40, is understood to be the youngest person to lead Caerphilly Council, and has also selected a female-majority cabinet in what is believed to be a first for the authority.

The new appointment is Cllr Amanda McConnell, from the Machen and Rudry ward, who steps into a specially-created climate change cabinet role which Cllr Pritchard said would help “redouble our efforts to become net-zero by 2030”.

Cllr Carol Andrews and Cllr Shayne Cook, who already serve as the cabinet members for education and housing, respectively, will serve as Cllr Pritchard’s co-deputies and share that role’s salary.

The pair will take on responsibility for the council’s programme of ‘transformation’ which is aimed at modernising services and reducing unnecessary spending.

In an early indication of his priority issues, Cllr Pritchard said he had already begun “urgent” discussions on the future of the A469 and wanted an “immediate solution” to longstanding engineering problems on the road in the Upper Rhymney Valley.

He also underlined his commitment to securing investment in the borough and supporting people to find work and training, calling austerity “a failed concept”.

Describing himself as “not one for personal attacks”, the new leader added he would work cross-party for the borough’s benefit, even if it brought him into conflict with Labour in national government.

The Aber Valley ward’s Cllr Bishop is the new opposition group leader, following the election of her predecessor Lindsay Whittle to the Senedd.

In a short speech, she reminded councillors “we work for our communities” and also criticised the “climate” of the recent Senedd by-election, and the “hate and the unfairness we’ve seen”.

Cllr Pritchard called it “an awful period of time” and told councillors “the far right is on the rise”.

“People are trying to divide us – we’ve got to see through that,” he added. “We’ve got to do everything we can to stop that from happening.”