TODAY, DAVID DEANS takes a look at the area and the issues which will be hot topics in Monmouthshire ahead of the council elections on May 3.

WILL Monmouthshire remain a true-blue Tory council while the party faces some of its most difficult days in government?

That's the test the area's Conservatives will face this May - while the council has been a party stronghold for eight years, it has swung between Labour and the Tories in the past.

The Conservative group, led by Peter Fox grasped control from Labour's minority administration with 24 seats in 2004, with Labour losing eleven seats to hold just eight.

Labour, led by Caldicot's Jim Higginson, had run the authority from 1995 until 2004.

In 2008 The Tories' majority rose to 29 seats, with the number of Labour members falling to seven.

However, since the 2008 election the number of independents in the authority has crept up.

In 2008, only one independent and one Plaid candidate won seats but by March 2012, six councillors were in the Plaid Cymru/Independent group, with one defection from Labour and three from the Conservatives.

One of them is Andrew Crump - the former Tory leader who was ousted by his party in May 2008 shortly after they won the council election.

Alan Wintle joined the independents and is running against the Conservatives after he was deselected, while former Tory councillors Bob Hayward and Val Smith are also running as independents.

A number of former councillors are not running for election on May 3 - including ex-cabinet members Eric Saxon and Brian Hood.

Much of Monmouthshire, which has a population of around 88,000, is rural and includes the market and former market towns of Chepstow, Monmouth, Abergavenny and Raglan.

It also covers Caldicot - originally built for the steelworkers of Llanwern and a Labour stronghold.

The region lies on the English and Welsh border and is very much a border county - it was the only area in Wales to reject proposals to extend the Assembly's lawmaking powers in last year's referendum.

The proposed closure of Abergavenny Cattle Market has proved controversial for the current Tory group.

The council wants to open a new market near Raglan, with a Morrisons mooted for the Abergavenny site, but campaigners have taken to the courts to try to stop the plans.

A supermarket scheme in Caldicot saw both opposition and support, while disagreements over the local development plan led to Mr Hayward leaving the party.