Labour will put forward 12 candidates in May’s county council elections, focusing on urban areas, the local party has announced.

The 12 will stand on a platform of “Value for Your Money”, campaining for funds to be better used to support the county’s needs.

They are:

  • Neil Barrington (Widemarsh, Hereford)
  • Anna Coda (Bobblestock, Hereford)
  • Nick Comley (Leominster South)
  • Joseph Emmett (Newton Farm, Hereford)
  • Melvin Rodgers (Ross North)
  • Liam Holman (Bromyard West)
  • Will Hopkins (Ledbury South)
  • Kath Hey (College, Hereford)
  • Bilge Kupeli (Whitecross, Hereford)
  • Ed Philpot (Ross West)
  • Adam Spencer (Aylestone Hill, Hereford)
  • Steven Woolley (Eign Hill, Hereford)

Last month Kath Hey, the only serving county councillor of the 12, switched to Labour from the Independents for Herefordshire group.

Coun Hey said: “The residents of the county deserve the chance to vote for a party that promotes opportunity and equality for all.”

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The party put forward 10 candidates at the last county elections in 2019, though only one, Phil Probert in the rural Hope End ward, polled over 25 per cent of the vote.

But Labour is now on a roll nationally, with 47 per cent of voters backing the party compared to the Conservatives' 25 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 10 per cent, according to aYouGov/Times poll published earlier this week.

Mr Emmett, who is also policy officer for Hereford and South Herefordshire Labour, said the party “have the national plans that can and will benefit us locally”.

“What we can’t do is allow the past mistakes to be repeated, of money wasted on a road to nowhere and our rivers under threat as happened under the Conservative administration, or of the hollow promises of playing politics with the city bypass as the Lib Dems are again offering.

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“Instead we need financially and socially responsible decisions to improve the lives of people in Herefordshire.”

He added that local party members who are interested in standing can still do so. Nominations close on April 4.

The party is meanwhile organising a debate on the city bypass issue at Saxty’s cocktail bar and restaurant, Hereford, on the evening of Wednesday March 15.

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