Four wards in and around Bromyard are being contested in council elections on May 4. Here is our guide to each. Incumbent councillors are in bold.

(None of the places on Bromyard town council are being contested, as there are fewer candidates than vacancies.)

Hampton

  • BAKER, Bruce Allen (Local Conservatives)
  • HARRINGTON, John Dennis (Independent)
  • MOTLEY, William (Liberal Democrats)

Extending from Bodenham in the southwest to Edwyn Ralph in the northeast, this largely rural ward only came into being in 2015, but is likely to be a key test of whether the Independents for Herefordshire can remain in joint control of the county.

Its group leader and county transport supremo Coun John Harrington took this seat from the Conservative incumbent Bruce Baker in 2019 by a 13-percent margin. It remains to be seen whether the inclusion for the first time of a LibDem opponent as well will make it easier or harder for him to retain it.

Bromyard West

  • DAVIES, Clare (no affiliation listed)
  • HARPER, Paul Christopher (Local Conservatives)
  • HOLMAN, Liam Frank Dylan (Labour Party)
  • WEST, Clare (Liberal Democrats)

Former town mayoress Clare Davies, who sits with the True Independents grouping on the council, took this ward in March 2022 following the resignation of Independents for Herefordshire councillor Alan Seldon who had held the ward since its creation in 2015. Before that, the single Bromyard ward returned two councillors.

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Like Coun Davies, Labour’s Liam Holman is a serving town councillor, both having been returned unopposed this time round.

Bromyard Bringsty

  • HOBBS, Clare (Liberal Democrats)
  • PAGE, Roger William (Independent)
  • ROCK, Karen Dawn (Green Party)
  • STODDART, Peter John (Local Conservatives)

Extending from the east of the town to the Worcestershire border, this ward has fallen vacant with the retirement of Conservative councillor Nigel Shaw, who in 2019 narrowly beat his only opponent Roger Page by 61 votes, a six per cent margin.

Another former mayor of the town, Mr Page is standing as a True Independent, although he stood for Labour in Bill Wiggin’s North Herefordshire parliamentary constituency in 2017.

Pete Stoddart is a serving Brockhampton parish councillor, as is Karen Rock, an environmental and animal rights campaigner.

Bishops Frome and Cradley

  • CHOWNS, Ellie (Green Party)
  • FRANKLIN, Mark (Local Conservatives)
  • TURNER, Robert Henry (Liberal Democrats)

Arguably the only sitting councillor with a political profile beyond Herefordshire, Ellie Chowns is the Green Party of England and Wales’ housing and communities spokesperson, a former West Midlands MEP, and the Greens’ candidate to stand again in North Herefordshire in the next General Election.

For the past four years she has also been in charge of economy and environment on Herefordshire Council, having taken nearly four times the number of votes as her sole Conservative opponent in 2019.

Her Tory opponent this time is deputy mayor of Bromyard Mark Franklin.

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