Battle for Valleys votes begins

1:01pm Tuesday 8th April 2008

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VOTERS in Blaenau Gwent are braced for another bitter election battle - for control of the county borough council.

The Labour Party's iron grip on local authority power faces a major test as People's Voice seeks to build on astonishing successes in Parliamentary and Assembly polls in the constituency.

Twenty candidates will stand under the People's Voice banner at the council election on Thursday May 1. The group's MP Dai Davies believes it could win enough places on the 42-seat council to help form a coalition administration.

27 independent candidates of varying political hue are also standing - including Rector of Ebbw Vale Geoff Waggett, Beaufort cafe owner Marco Carini, bus firm owner Francis Drake and former council leader Bernard Assinder. Eight independent councillors were elected last time.

But Hedley McCarthy, Labour's council leader, is "quietly confident" the party can overcome recent political setbacks.

The former Labour stronghold's political landscape has been transformed since the 2004 council election. Labour AM Peter Law fell out with the constituency party over all-women shortlists and declared his independence, being elected as an independent MP in an historic 2005 General Election poll.

After his death a year later, his widow Trish and election agent Dai Davies won Assembly and Parliamentary by-elections respectively under the nascent People's Voice banner. Mrs Law retained her Assembly seat last year.

Labour enjoyed a comfortable majority in the previous council but Mr Davies believes People's Voice can maintain its progress.

"I've said many times that Blaenau Gwent is a mirror of what is happening at national level in the Labour Party and politics in general," he said.

"Party structures are destroying democracy. Top-down dictatorship is destroying representation from the bottom up."

Mr McCarthy said Labour is the party of achievement in Blaenau Gwent with "a good story to tell voters", citing the new Ebbw Vale-Cardiff rail link as an example.

"We are the party of the people, delivering for the people," he said.

The Conservatives (one), Liberal Democrats (six), Plaid Cymru (one), and British National Party (one) are also contesting in Blaenau Gwent, along with four candidates of undeclared allegiance - three of which are recently resigned former Labour councillors Nigel Daniels, Dennis Hughes and Gill Clark.