User:GreyGreenWhy/The Vale Independents Group

The Vale Independents Group is a political grouping of councillors that split from the Welsh Conservative party group on Vale of Glamorgan Council in May 2019.

Background
Following the 2017 Vale of Glamorgan Council election the Conservatives controlled 23 out of 47 seats on the Council and formed a minority administration led by John Thomas, who replaced Labour's Neil Moore. After the Conservative local councillor for Rhoose resigned over plans to shut Llancarfan's primary school, the February 2019 by-election returned former Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew R. T. Davies, who also opposed the closure. Davies and 3 other Conservative councillors then initially blocked the council's budget for the financial year. Anger over plans for parking also contributed to what BBC News's Local Democracy Reporting Service called "serious discontent" between Thomas and other councillors in the party by April 2019.

As result, local Conservative Party members voted at their 29 April annual meeting to replace Thomas with Vincent Bailey as leader, and Thomas then confirmed his resignation as council leader. Cabinet members Bob Penrose and Jonathon Bird then resigned from the Conservatives to become independents.

Formation
On 8 May, all six members of the council's cabinet, including Thomas, joined councillors Michael Morgan and Kathryn McCaffer in leaving the Conservative group on the council to form The Vale Independents Group. The group's leader was announced as Ben Gray.

On 20 May they backed the new Labour council. On 24 May Gray said they would not fight by-elections.

Elections
In the 2022 Vale of Glamorgan Council election,

Finding refs

 * https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/ce1qrvlexylt/vale-of-glamorgan-council
 * https://www.walesonline.co.uk/all-about/vale-of-glamorgan-council
 * http://www.glamorgan-gem.co.uk/archive.cfm?sectionIs=news&cat=Politics
 * https://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/en/our_council/Council-Structure/councillors/Councillors.aspx