The candidates standing in this year’s Caerphilly County Borough Council election have been revealed after nominations closed on April 5.
A total of 73 county borough seats covering 33 electoral wards are up for grabs on Thursday, May 4, with a total of 202 candidates standing.
Labour are hoping to keep control of Caerphilly after winning it from a Plaid Cymru-led administration in 2012.
It currently has 48 seats compared to Plaid’s 20. The remaining five are held by independents.
Since Caerphilly County Borough Council was formed in 1996, following the merger of Rhymney Valley District Council and Islwyn Borough Council and the abolition of Mid Glamorgan and Gwent county councils, it has never been held by the ruling political group.
Labour is putting up 71 candidates, Plaid Cymru 68 and the Conservatives 28.
UKIP is fielding just 11 candidates across Caerphilly County Borough.
Labour’s deputy leader Cllr David Poole, said his party had a record to be proud of and could be trusted to look after services in the face of public spending cuts imposed by the Conservative UK Government.
He said: “We are aware that councillors over the next four years will have to save £29 million, so we have been careful about what we are promising.
“We have been somewhat surprised that Plaid are making promises of taking on extra staff. To do that they have either got to get rid of staff from other areas or cut services.
“We have got a good record. We had the lowest council tax rise in Wales, the highest recycling rates, extra money for education and social services, our libraries have been refurbished while other councils have been closing them and 86% of residents are happy with the job we have done.”
Plaid Cymru, led by Cllr Colin Mann, is fielding what it says to be a record 68 candidates.
Cllr Mann said: “We are expecting a very tough straight fight with Labour but believe our programme of improvements to public services that have been neglected over the last five years will resonate with residents.
“People tell us they don’t believe they are getting value for money for their council tax. They’ve seen worsening litter, fly-tipping, potholes and dog mess while roads and pavements generally have deteriorated.
“We want to address the concerns people have about building on our precious green fields which they feel rightly impact on their quality of life. And, of course, we will ensure the senior officers’ pay scandal never happens again while bringing this terrible waste of public money to an end as quickly as possible.”
UKIP’s Sam Gould, who stood in last year’s Assembly election, disputed the notion that the party had struggled to field candidates.
He said: “We have never fought a council election before, we have the biggest increase in candidates standing in Caerphilly than all the other parties.”
In addition to the county borough council election, a separate ballot will also be taking place to elect community and town councillors.
The county borough council is a unitary authority and has responsibility for a wide range of frontline services from education, highways and refuse to social services, libraries and parks.
Town and community councils have limited powers and responsibilities and provide a link between the local community and the county borough council.
Labour have already shown that they can’t be trusted – the senior officers pay scandal shows that.
But Plaid Cymru say that they would employ extra staff to tackle littering and dog fouling – whilst these are important issues, surely there are other services on which funding could be much better spent,for example Social Care and Housing,with cuts in the region of £29 million in the offing.
On the issue of potholes the council should stop wasting money on surface dressing roads ( a cosmetic exercise )and spend the money on repairing potholes properly.
There is only one party that can sort this mess and thats the conservative party. None of these parties can get us out of this mess has have been proven in the past.
Yes I would agree, Plaid are just Labour in a different colour frock, and UKIP are falling out of favour – but sadly there’s more chance of seeing Elvis shopping in Caerphilly than the Tories getting in.
I agree with your comment, we are getting nowhere with the Labour/Plaid roadshow. The Tories and Lib Dems are not going to be elected. This leaves UKIP – the only alternative – and now fielding candidates in Caerffili council elections for the very first time.
Problem is that Labour only have to turn up to win, they can field a cardboard cut out and it would get voted in. The disgraceful saga of the officers pay scandal should alone see them booted out but when an opportunity presents itself UKIP as well as the other parties do not use it to their full advantage.
I agree the majority of people vote labour because their parents or grandparents voted labour they do not read the policy’s and make a change
I can but agree, there is a tribal loyalty to both Labour and Plaid that flies in the face of facts. There is also a ‘partnership’ syndrome of common purpose between the two parties. I think both are reasonably content with flip flop power, where one party leads the council followed by the other at the next election.
This can be seen in the Welsh Assembly where these parties combine in order to freeze out the other parties. An hilarious example was when newly elected UKIP AMs voted Leanne Wood for First Minister. The result was a tied vote and no First Minister. This was remedied, to Labour and Plaid’s satisfaction, by making Kirsty Williams, the Lib Dem’s only member a minister to make up the numbers for Labour control.
Later Dafydd Elis Thomas quit the Plaid group to vote with Labour, depriving Wood of the title of Leader of the opposition.
The lazy, arrogant, condesending Labour council will once again be voted back into power and we’ll get more of the same, and the 1% council tax rise nothing more than a sweetener to bribe the blinkered voters. The officers pay scandal has proven beyond doubt that this Labour council can’t be trusted, a scandal that is costing every household in Caerphilly £57 and it will only get worse.
Hopefully the public will see through this smoke and mirrors trick and vote them out. My only fear is we will have a rainbow collation in power.
The council need to re-employ traffic wardens in Caerphilly as the parking situation is ripe for a bit if profit
Let’s face it, this is one of the very few motives of elected councils these days.
I agree, I used to think parking enforcement was a matter for the police but changed my mind some years ago when the former Inspector, Paul Staniforth, made it clear to a public meeting in Neuadd Y Parc that parking was low on the agenda for him.
Parking in the town and in areas like St. Martin’s Estate is a day to day problem for residents. To tackle this we need enforcement of the traffic orders. If the police are unable to do this then council wardens need to be employed. It may well be the case that as well as easing the situation for residents and local businesses there would be no cost associated as fines would be collected in sufficient amounts to pay for the wardens.
I dont think making money from motorists isnt a good idea. Motorists pay enough now. Also should we really be giving more money to this failing department called the wardens. This department already takes more money than it needs. If we gave them parking we would need to supply ticket books or machines which would cost another 10,000 a year.
My intent is not to make money from mororists – I have campaigned for nearly ten years to make the council owned car parks free for a lmited duration and continue to do so. What has to be addressed is the situation where people not only can’t park near their own home but often have to park in someone elses street.
This is because the car parks charge and people know that traffic orders are not enforced. They then opt to park on the street. Free carparks will cut this problem at a stroke.
I think if you look at my reply to Edward J Smith that I fear tne fines collected may not be sufficient to pay the total running costs of such a scheme – when you include all factors and costs.
Plus we have the added issue that Gwent Police would first need to get the offence decriminalised before handing responsibility to the local authority.
Typical targeting the motorist again to raise money for councils. You should be disgusted with yourself. We already have enough money making schemes from motorist from speed cameras to bus cameras. Its time we started cutting service that these labour councils have over spent on for years. Lets face the public will b paying for labours mistakes for many years to come. Also by the time you employ people to set up this department the wage bill will out weigh the potential return just like the council wardens
I fear you are right – these people issue on the spot fines for littering and dog fouling but it doesn’t resolve the issues – possibly because the number of fines issued are in low numbers ?
I also agree that by time you factor in training / cost of taking cases to court ( which will also take staff away from their duties while attending court for contested cases )etc it would not be self financed.( ie: fines collected would not outweigh the cost of the departments running costs ).
Also, when South Wales Police handed parking to Cardiff City Council it took over 2 years to decriminalise parking offences.
( You cannot just hand over parking to the local authority – because the offence has to be decriminalised first ! )
You misinterpreted my comment. My request for traffic control was based on the abuse of parking rules by residents in town. Every morning I drive my vehicle out of the service lane behind my house in order to join the main road. Every day I cannot see the oncoming traffic because both sides of the exit are blocked with cars parked on double yellows.
The second sentence in my original post was was more of a jab at local politics than a suggestion.
Maybe you should ring the police everytime you see cars on double yellow lines, even if thy dont respond the first time keep on and on at them. It will soon same them into doing something. I think people need to call the police more once they see something. We are quick enough to moan. However saying that trying to speak to a policeman or contact them now is a nightmare so i can understand why people dont.
The way things are going it’s only a matter of time before the Police Service is privatised ( similar to what happened with the Prison Service ).
To some extent I think the Police are partly responsible for the cut in the numbers of officers.
I’ve attended many a PACT meeting and most residents know that antisocial behaviour is an issue in the community but the priority chosen has been illegal parking.
Maybe because that doesn’t involve as much policing(visit the offending locations – usually town centres – once or twice a shift ) as dealing with antisocial behaviour ( which requires “boots on the ground ” and highly visible police presence ).
The Police and tne Council Wardens are two services that are not delivering the expectations of local residents.
I couldn’t agree more maybe its a good thing that the police is privatised it would mean they would have to do their job. Pact meetings are a waste of time. When i went to them the pc would always pick the easiest option, i always thought that they palmed a lot off on to the council, when it was clearly a police problem
Yes I know what you mean – also I’ve been in meetings where the local Inspector;Sergeant;PC and PCSO have attended the meeting yet one of the biggest issues residents had was a lack of visible police presence in their community ! ( Yet they can have 4 officers attend a meeting ! )