Independent wins Conwy county council by-election

An independent candidate has taken a county council seat vacated by the death of a Plaid Cymru councillor in September last year.

Cllr Gail Jones took the vacant Eirias ward position on Conwy county council in the poll on Thursday.
It was previously held by Cllr Dave Cowans, who died peacefully at his home on September 10 last year, aged 73.

Cllr Jones won by 55 votes from Conservative candidate Debra Jones, with 34% of the turnout.

She is an independent living skills coordinator at Coleg Llandrillo and had already worked along fellow Eirias ward member Cllr Bob Squire and Cllr Cowans on community issues in Old Colwyn prior to seeking office.

One of the big issues she stood on was the plethora of planning applications for new housing in the area over the past few years.

She said she wanted to scrutinise “onerous planning applications alongside other issues impacting the residents and businesses”.

She added: “Party politics and the party line dictated from Cardiff or London can often be against the interests of those people that elected officials are supposed to represent.

“Too often the parties are more interested in scoring points over their rivals than concentrating on working for the people who they are elected by.

“My policies will be decided by the needs of the electorate of Eirias Ward and the wider community of Conwy County.”

By Jez Hemming – Local Democracy Reporter