A ROUTINE by-election is now a high stakes fight as the county’s newest political group flexes its muscles for the first time.

It’s Our County (IOC) wants a win in Hereford’s St Nicholas ward to be a statement of intent ahead of the coming local council elections.

IOC – born out of the It’s Our City campaign which opposes the Edgar Street Grid in its current form – was formally launched this week, boldly branding itself the alternative to the “incompetent, thoughtless, lacklustre”

opponents it expects to come up against next May.

St Nicholas is the first test for IOC’s talk, pitching its candidate Justin Lavender up against rapper Anthony “Mouthmaster Murf”

Murphy whom the Hereford Times recently reported as standing for the Liberal Democrats.

Led by former Central ward independent councillor Mark Hubbard, IOC’s current county council presence also includes councillors Marcelle Lloyd-Hayes and Julie Woodward. The council’s sole Green, Councillor Gerald Dawe, has said he will support IOC as part of its voting block.

Couns Dawe and Lloyd- Hayes were members of the Alliance for Accountability and Democracy, which has now been dissolved.

Coun Hubbard told the Hereford Times that IOC was already confident of attracting defectors from the established parties and independents as its “local solutions to local challenges” manifesto rolled out over the next eight months.

“With 13,000 signatures on the It’s Our City petition alone, and 60 percent not even voting (at the last local elections), we are excited by the chance to offer real and sustained change,” said Coun Hubbard.

“The national parties are simply not delivering for Herefordshire and we know local people are ready to take our county back from the party politicians,” he said.

IOC has set up a website – itsourcounty.org – and plans a launch party at Hereford Shirehall on September 16.