EITHER a current Forest of Dean District Council cabinet member or a former leader of the authority will lose their seat in the chamber after May’s local government elections.

That is because the Cabinet member for environment, wildlife, heritage and culture, Cllr Chris McFarling, and Cllr Patrick Molyneux, who stood down as the council leader in 2017, will be battling for a single seat in the St Briavels ward.

The list of candidates, which was announced last week, has thrown up some interesting contests with the council being reduced from 48 to 38 members in future, and the wards reduced from 27 to 21 following Local Government re-organisation last year.

Cllr McFarling, of the Green Party, is the sitting councillor for the old Newland and St Briavels ward which has now been changed to, simply, St Briavels.

Cllr Molyneux, who also sits on the Gloucestershire County authority, is the present district member for Hewelsfield and Woolaston.

Twelve candidates will be fighting for just three seats at the Tidenham ward but where the Conservatives held all three seats in the last district council elections in 2015, none of the sitting members will be wearing an official blue rosette this time.

FULL STORY AND LIST OF CANDIDATES IN THIS WEEK’S FORESTER