LEDBURY'S newest county councillor has indicated support for the High School's position of leaving the school where it is, and not giving the site over to housing.

Cllr Terry Widdows, of It's Our County, a governor at the school, said he had nothing to add to a press statement last week from the headteacher, Andrew Evans, to the effect that the school has a good location and good facilities, and could be expanded or improved with Government grand funding.

Cllr Widdows said: " With regards to the school, I have nothing further to add than the press release that Andy Evans issued."

Ledbury Town Council, when asked to respond formally to Herefordshire Council's Core Strategy document, the authority's planning blueprint for the next two decades, suggested that the High School site should be "assessed as a land block for housing development in the Ledbury area and options for a new site for the high school should be similarly assessed".

Cllr Widdows said of his election win: "I am obviously delighted to have been elected to represent Ledbury for Its Our County and I am looking forward to working to ensure Ledbury is well represented at county level and restore the public's faith in local politics.

"The challenges ahead will be concerning the delivery of the Balfour Beatty contract and how that is shaped to avoid the issues we are currently facing and making sure the service that we have is for Ledbury."

Balfour Beatty has the contract to handle grass cutting and road repairs, - both contentious issues in Ledbury at present.

"Cllr Widdows said: "Bringing the community together is something I am really keen to do, along with Cllr Liz Harvey; and as the reports in the Ledbury Reporter have shown we have some great community spirit going on in the town and together we can achieve an awful lot.

"Ensuring Ledbury has it's share of the allocation of money for roads that has recently been announced so that we can repair some of the road damage throughout Ledbury is also some of the things to get started on."

Cllr Widdows is a former mayor of Ledbury, and he is also a town councillors.

At 33, he is now one of the youngest members of Herefordshire County Council.

Cllr Widdows saw off Conservative rival Cllr Allen Conway, another former Ledbury mayor, and Paul Stanford from UKIP in the by-election last week, which was prompted by the death of Cllr Peter Watts, in May.