Llantwit First Independents () are a political party created in 2004 who stand candidates for election in the town of

Llantwit Major Llantwit Major ( cy, Llanilltud Fawr) is a town and community in Wales on the Bristol Channel coast. It is one of four towns in the Vale of Glamorgan, with the third largest population (13,366 in 2001) after Barry and Penarth, and ahead of Cowb ...

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg ), often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol C ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Their elected councillors sit on Llantwit Major Town Council and represent the Llantwit Major ward on the

Vale of Glamorgan Council The Vale of Glamorgan Council is the governing body for the Vale of Glamorgan, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. It was run by the Conservative Party after the 2008 United Kingdom local elections, taking over the council from no overall contr ...

. Llantwit First Independents were registered as a political party on 19 March 2007 and re-registered in March 2017.

Town Council

Llantwit First Independents councillors have been elected to Llantwit Major town council, though in July 2008 the Llantwit First town mayor, Molly Lane and her husband, Councillor David Lane, resigned from the group to join the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

, citing disagreements on a number of issues. The Llantwit First Independents have had a power struggle with the Conservative Party on the town council, with the Independents having a very small majority. However, in May 2017 they won 12 of the 14 town council seats.

County Council

Following the 2004 Vale of Glamorgan Council election the Llantwit Major ward was represented by three

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

county councillors and one Conservative. At the 2008 Vale of Glamorgan Council election the Independent councillors in the ward stood under the Llantwit First Independents banner, retaining the three independent seats. At the 2012 county council election Llantwit First Independents won all four Llantwit Major seats. The Labour Party became the largest party on the county council but did not have a majority, so governed for the next five years in coalition with the Llantwit First Independents. Llantwit councillor Eric Hacker was elected mayor of the Vale of Glamorgan for 12 months, from 23 May 2012. Llantwit councillor Eddie Williams became deputy mayor of the county in May 2016. A by-election took place on 26 March 2015 following the death of Llantwit First councillor, Keith Geary. The seat was regained by the Conservatives. At the May 2017 county council election Llantwit First Independents won all four Llanwit Major seats, including one lost at the by-election. They claimed that their previous coalition with Labour had benefited Llanwit Major with funding for local school and library investment. However, the 2017 election had restored the Conservative Party as the largest council group, and a coalition with two Sully independent councillors was likely. On 24 May 2019 the four Llantwit First councillors joined a new governing coalition on the council, led by Labour councillor, Neil Moore. At the May 2022 county council election, Llantwit First Independents held all four of their seats in Llantwit Major. There was a slight reduction in their overall share of the votes in the ward from 56.4% in 2017 to 50.3% in 2022, but their majority over the fifth place candidate increased.

References

{{reflist Llantwit Major Politics of the Vale of Glamorgan Locally based political parties in Wales