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It is just under a week before people go to the polls on February 19 for the Van by-election. There are two seats being contested – one on the county council and one on the community council – following the death of Councillor Christine Forehead.

For the county, Plaid Cymru has Jeff Grenfell standing and Alison Vyas is representing us as a candidate for the vacant community council seat. Both candidates are extremely strong, capable people rooted in their community who would make excellent local representatives if given the chance. I hope readers living in the ward will give their backing to Jeff and Alison when they go to the voting booths.

I’ve not been able to get out campaigning while recovering from the ruptured patella tendon I sustained before Christmas. I know the weather has not made things easy either and, although that hasn’t stopped the team, it has limited what can realistically be done in some pretty dreadful conditions. I’ve now started getting out and about again with a crutch and leg brace, and I’m hoping to be back to being more useful on the campaign trail over the coming weeks.

I am certainly hoping to be more mobile by the time the Plaid Cymru conference comes to Newport’s ICC at the end of the month. It will be a chance for party members to get together, discuss policy, share ideas and formulate a solid plan for the last few months of campaigning ahead of the Senedd elections.

The message that came loud and clear from the Caerphilly by-election is that this Senedd election will be between Plaid Cymru and Reform as to who is the biggest party and in the best position to form the next government.

We may not have the deep pockets of a party like Reform who have a long line of questionable, super-rich donors queuing up to lines the party’s pockets. What we do have are the ideas, the drive and the ambition to turn around our communities the length and breadth of Wales.

We know this is not as good as it gets and we are determined to make a positive difference if the people of Wales place their faith in us at the ballot box. If you would like to be a part of our Spring conference – which will include a sizeable contingent from Caerphilly and surrounding areas – there is still time to join up and be a part of it.   

It was welcome that the Welsh budget passed with significant improvements secured through Plaid Cymru’s intervention. We made a deliberate decision not to block the budget, in return for substantial additional investment in the NHS and local government. This was never about propping up Labour, it was about protecting our communities.

Without action, councils were facing the prospect of widespread redundancies and double-digit council tax rises. Plaid Cymru held firm and councils across Wales are now receiving an average uplift of 4.5%, with no authority receiving less than 4.1%.

That has provided a degree of stability, safeguarded frontline services and taken 10%+ council tax increases off the table.

Local government finances remain fragile. As Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson on this, I see firsthand the structural pressures still baked into the system. It does not bear thinking about where we would be without the additional funding we secured for councils and the NHS.

Plaid Cymru acted because someone had to put communities first. And that is the political choice at the heart of this: when funding is tight, you either stand back and let services hollow out – or you use your leverage to protect the people who rely on them.