The sun shone on Torfaen yesterday, but it did not feel that way for the 16 Labour councillors who had just lost their seats, as the party was swept from power in one of its traditional heartlands.

Few can have been expecting to lose control of a council in the land of Nye Bevan. But lose Labour did, in dramatic fashion. The party remains the largest group on Torfaen County Borough Council, but can no longer command a majority after nearly half its 34 members fell victim to an electorate that felt taken for granted by Labour, both locally and nationally.

“It’s time for a change, a fresh look,” said Pat Smith, a customer service agent from Cwmbran. “I think complacency creeps in, it gets stale, when a party has been in power too long.” Asked whether she meant in Torfaen or at Westminster, the 55-year-old replied: “Both.”

She is not alone. Four years ago, when Wales last held all-out elections in its 22 unitary authorities, Labour suffered the painful loss of the major urban councils in Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend and Wrexham. Some argue that longstanding Labour administrations in the big towns and cities were being punished for assuming that power would always be theirs, and this time, that sentiment seems to have spread to the Valleys.

Blaenavon, a former mining town sitting high on a hillside in the north of Torfaen, is a case in point. There is anger about local issues – notably the recent closure of a 1920s swimming pool that was built with miners’ savings – but the 10p tax debate was also repeatedly cited as a betrayal of the area’s poorly paid workers who had spent their lives voting Labour.

They kicked out their last Labour councillor in favour of a third independent representative. The new face is Brian Whitcombe, who until recently served as a Labour member on the smaller town council. Before the vote, there were two Liberal Democrats, one Conservative and no Plaid Cymru members on the council. Today, the figures are two, five and three respectively – and 16 independents.

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