A Conservative candidate has won the seven-way battle for a Pembroke Dock county council seat made vacant following the death of veteran councillor Brian Hall.
Before he passed away in April, Councillor Brian Hall had held the Pembroke Dock Market ward seat since 1996.
Following Cllr Hall’s death, Presiding Member of Pembrokeshire County Council, Cllr Simon Hancock said: “Brian was a larger-than-life character who was passionately devoted to Pembroke Dock and his constituents. He never let an opportunity pass without mentioning and advancing the interests of his hometown. We extend sincere condolences to his family.”
Since that seat became vacant, seven hopefuls put their names forward to represent the Market ward, with an election being held on July 9, the results announced this morning, July 10.
The election for the ward, which has an electorate of 1,442 voters, saw a 28 per cent turnout.
Winner was Welsh Conservatives candidate Jamie Street with 143 votes, approximately 36 per cent of all votes cast.
Second place, with 100 votes, went to Independent candidate Claire Francis-Boswell, who can be commiserated by recently becoming a town council member for the very same ward.
Other candidates, and their share of the votes, were: Chloe Louise Richards, Plaid Cymru, 79 votes; Ryan Morgan, Reform UK, 48; Paul Haywood Dowson, Independent, but listed as a member of Restore Britain since March of this year, 11; Lee Herring, Welsh Liberal Democrats, nine; Hayley Wood, Independent, seven.
Cllr Street’s win brings the total number of Conservative Group members on the council to 12, the largest individual political party group; the council also having an Independent Group of 18 members, 15 unaffiliated members, three Plaid Cymru, two Liberal Democrats, nine Labour members, and one Reform.
Cllr Street has been contacted for a statement on what he will bring to the Market Ward and Pembrokeshire’s council.
Back in 2022, the-then Cllr Dowson, representing Pembroke Dock Central as a UKIP councillor, was barred from holding any form of public office for the next three years after being found guilty of bullying, providing fabricated evidence to the Ombudsman and of misleading the public at a case tribunal convened by the president of the adjudication panel for Wales.
Mr Dowson more recently stood as an independent candidate in this year’s Senedd elections for the new Ceredigion Penfro constituency, gaining 88 votes out of a total of 89,402 votes cast.
His 11 votes for fifth place in the Market Ward contest amounted to some 2.77 per cent of votes cast, significantly higher than the 0.0984 per cent in the recent Senedd elections.
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