De-selection row costs Labour Maesteg Town Council

Labour has led Maeteg Town Council for more than four decades

Labour has lost control of a town council for the first time since it was created in 1974, in one of its south Wales heartlands.

Seven Maesteg town councillors have quit the party in a row over the de-selection of a number of Labour Bridgend county borough councillors.

It follows infighting over attempts at local government reorganisation.

A Welsh Labour spokesman said the party's "tough" procedures ensured the "best candidates" were selected.

The dispute began after five Bridgend county borough councillors refused to support a proposal for Bridgend to merge with the neighbouring Vale of Glamorgan council in 2014.

They were originally suspended but have now been told by an internal Labour panel that they will not be allowed to stand for the party in May's council elections.

They are Ross Thomas, Keith Edwards, Edith Hughes, Gareth Phillips and Martyn Jones. Another councillor, Cleone Westwood, defied the party whip in a vote on remaining in the EU, and has also been deselected. Two of those borough councillors represent Maesteg.

At a meeting of the Maesteg branch of the Labour Party on Wednesday night, a total of nine party members resigned, including four county borough councillors and seven who are members of the town council.

The four county borough councillors include the suspended Ross Thomas and Keith Edwards, plus Wyn Davies and Phil John.

All of them are also members of Maesteg Town Council, along with Lynne Beedle, Phil Jenkins and mayor Jen Terry, who have also resigned from the party.

'Disappointing'

One of those who quit, Wyn Davies, said they had left Labour in protest at the way the party had deselected the members.

He said: "The party has been spiteful by not respecting hard working local councillors who have done a lot. To embarrass them in this way is indecent."

In his resignation letter, Ross Thomas wrote: "The sad irony in all of this, of course, is that at a time when the national Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is looking to rejuvenate itself with a new, kinder, breath-of-fresh-air-type politics, the local party appears to be heading in the opposite direction and there is a 'nagging rot' in its upper echelons."

Following the resignations, Maesteg Town Council has 17 members who are made up of nine independent and eight Labour councillors.

A spokesman for Welsh Labour said: "It is always disappointing to lose members but we are proud of our robust and tough selection procedures that ensure only the very best candidates are selected.

"Our communities in Bridgend deserve nothing less."