RUBBISH, pavement parking and finding something for teenagers to do have been identified as pressing issues in by-election in a new political battleground.

Torfaen has provided solid support for the Labour Party for generations and should the Trevethin and Penygarn seat change hands at the upcoming borough council by-election it will have only a minor impact in the council chamber where Labour will still have a healthy majority.

But the vacancy created after the resignation of one of two Labour councillors elected in the Pontypool ward, at the last council elections in 2022, has opened the door for the Reform Party to try and win its first council seat in Wales.

The successor to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party already has three members on the council, but all were elected as independents before forming a Reform group last summer – shortly after Torfaen was one of 13 Welsh seats where it achieved a second place general election finish.

“I’ve had the lot of them knocking the door,” said one 65-year-old man who didn’t want to give his name: “Reform, Labour all trying to preach to you, ‘vote this, vote that’, but I don’t like it, being........

© South Wales Argus