SEVEN candidates have put their names forward for the forthcoming Powys County Council by-election in the Crickhowell with Cwmdu and Tretower ward.

The deadline for candidate nominations was late on Friday afternoon, October 13.

When they go to polls on Thursday, November 9 voters will be electing two councillors to represent them in the multi-member ward.

The election follows the resignation of the former councillors for the ward – husband and wife team Matt and Sarah-Jane Beecham.

They both stepped down from the roles in September – triggering the election.

Both Matt and Sarah-Jane Beecham been elected to the ward in May 2022 as Liberal Democrats – but left the party earlier this year.

This followed a decision by the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet to close Llanbedr Church in Wales primary school in the Vale of Grwyney.

The couple had campaigned to keep it open.

For several months they represented the ward as non-aligned councillors – but resigned after moving to live in Pembrokeshire over the summer.

Of the seven hopeful candidates there are two Welsh Liberal Democrats, two Welsh Conservatives, two are Independent and one represents Welsh Labour.

The candidates in alphabetical order are:

  • Zoe Claire Allen – Labour.
  • Sam Games – Independent.
  • Claire Catherine Hall – Liberal Democrat.
  • Rosemarie Harris – Conservative.
  • David Dennis Markinson – Independent.
  • Chloe Masefield – Liberal Democrats.
  • David Lloyd Thomas – Conservative.

The council have confirmed that an election will also take place in the Tal-y-Bont on Usk ward following the resignation of Liberal Democrat councillor Anita Cartwright at the end of last month.

No date for this election has been announced yet and the council have said that: “arrangements will be made in due course.”