New faces, old faces and switched allegiances

No matter what the results of the local elections on Thursday, there will be a host of new faces in the council chamber at City Hall.

Several senior Labour councillors who have served in Marvin Rees’ cabinet over the last eight years are standing down, including both deputy mayors, along with a number of long-serving backbenchers.

There are also some notable changes of political allegiance among this year’s candidates.

Here are all the councillors bidding farewell, those who are hoping to make a comeback following a period of absence and candidates who stood in the past for other parties.

Ashley (three seats)
Jude English was deselected as one of the ward’s three Green candidates earlier this year after the party suspended her following a complaint, which she has described as “vexatious”. Her replacement, Easton businessman Abdul Malik, stood for the Lib Dems in Bristol East at the 2015 General Election where he finished fifth. Two years later he switched to Labour and he is now standing as a Green. The ward is currently represented by two Greens – Tim Wye and English – and Labour’s Amirah Cole. Wye and Cole are on the ballot paper again this time.

Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston (three seats)
Two of the Greens’ three candidates have changed political allegiance. Jo Sergeant was a Labour councillor until 2021 when she quit the group with a scathing attack on Rees and his administration, accusing the party of a “culture of fear and bullying” – claims that the mayor’s office dismissed as a “personal vendetta”. Weeks later she joined the Greens and narrowly missed out on reelection at the polls three years ago by just 16 votes. Mary Page, who was the Lib Dems’ original candidate for mayor of Bristol in 2021 before withdrawing from the race and helping to spearhead the successful campaign to scrap the role, is also contesting the ward for the Greens, who have nominated her to run for Bristol North West’s MP at the next General Election.

Bedminster (two seats)
Former cabinet member and Labour councillor Mark Bradshaw is retiring after 18 years as a councillor. The ward will be represented by two new members because Green councillor Tessa Fitzjohn is also not standing for reelection.

Central (two seats)
Sitting Labour councillor Farah Hussain will not contest this ward, which is also represented by Green Ani Stafford-Townsend and could see a likely crucial two-way fight between the parties. The Greens’ other hopeful for the two seats is Sibusiso Tshabalala who unsuccessfully stood for Labour in Ashley ward three years ago.

Clifton (two seats)
Former ward councillor Jerome Thomas is one of two Greens on the ballot sheet. He did not seek reelection in 2021 and instead stood as the party’s candidate to be West of England metro mayor, finishing third with 22 per cent of the vote. Thomas has replaced Katy Grant – one of two incumbent Greens – in the Clifton race, as Grant is in the running to be the new Avon & Somerset police & crime commissioner whose election also takes place on Thursday.

Clifton Down (two seats)
Green national co-leader Carla Denyer is stepping down from the council to focus on a bid to become the Bristol Central MP at the General Election. The group’s other current ward councillor, Tom Hathway, is also bowing out.

Cotham (two seats)
Green councillor Guy Poultney is hoping to retain the seat he won three years ago following an unsuccessful campaign in 2016, having previously represented Lockleaze as a Lib Dem from 2009 to 2013 before losing out to Labour at the polls.

Filwood (two seats)
Labour holds both seats here but has nominated two new candidates. Group whip Chris Jackson has decided to stand down after 18 years while the party announced last September that Zoe Goodman had also not been reselected. Three months later, Goodman dramatically resigned from Labour at a meeting of full council over its stance over the war in Gaza. She is now an independent but is not on the ballot paper. Jai Breitnauer is standing as a Green in Filwood, as well as being their parliamentary candidate for Bristol South, having previously lost out to the Conservatives in Bishopsworth in 2021 when she represented Labour.

Frome Vale (two seats)
Veteran Conservative councillor Lesley Alexander is calling it a day after representing the ward for 21 years. Incumbent Labour councillor Amal Ali is the only sitting councillor who will contest a different ward at the polls, where she is now standing in Lawrence Hill.

Hartcliffe & Withywood (three seats)
Helen Holland, Bristol’s longest-serving councillor and Labour cabinet member for adult social care, announced in August that she was retiring from local politics after 32 years. She was council leader from 2007 to 2009. Charlie Bolton, who became the city’s first elected Green member in 2006 winning in Southville, is one of the party’s candidates.

Henbury & Brentry (two seats)
Long-time Tory councillor Chris Windows is not up for reelection after serving the ward for 15 years.

Hillfields (two seats)
Labour deputy mayor and cabinet member for finance Craig Cheney is stepping down. He made the “difficult decision” after nine years representing Hillfields. Former Bristol city councillor for Filwood and Marvin Rees’ former election agent, Kelvin Blake, is his replacement in the race, alongside Labour cabinet member for public health and communities, Ellie King.

Horfield (two seats)
Labour councillor Philippa Hulme is not standing again in a ward currently represented by Labour’s new group leader and current cabinet member for housing delivery and homelessness, Tom Renhard. Labour’s other candidate here is Deborah Vittori.

Knowle (two seats)
The two councillors voted back in as Lib Dems in 2021, Gary Hopkins and Chris Davies, defected from the party seven months later to form Knowle Community Party, so this is the first time the group has faced the judgement of the electorate. Davies is not standing this time and has been replaced by Ghislaine Swinburn. The Lib Dems will be hoping to regain both seats but this is probably the most unpredictable of all the wards to call.

Lawrence Hill (two seats)
This ward is hotly contested between Labour and the Greens, with the groups having one councillor apiece from 2021. Labour’s Hibaq Jama has retired, with the party nominating Mohamed Omer and current Frome Vale councillor Amal Ali. Green councillor Yassin Mohamud is hoping to retain his seat, while Shona Jemphrey has changed political colours to Green, having fallen short in fourth place for Labour here three years ago.

Redland (two seats)
Former Conservative councillor for Horfield, Claire Hiscott, the current Avon & Somerset deputy police & crime commissioner, is bidding to return to City Hall, although both incumbent Greens are defending a healthy majority. They include Fi Hance who won as a Green in 2016 and 2021, having also triumphed representing the Lib Dems in 2009 and 2013.

Southmead (two seats)
Brenda Massey, who has been a Labour ward councillor since 2013 and is currently chair of Avon Fire Authority, is retiring. Kaz Self joins cabinet member for housing services and energy, Kye Dudd, as the group’s nominees.

St George Central (two seats)
Both long-serving Labour incumbents announced last year that they are hanging up their boots. Cabinet member for strategic planning, resilience and floods, Nicola Beech, and group leader Steve Pearce, a former cabinet member, are being replaced on the ballot sheet by Sally Bowman and Henry Palmer. Beech has been a city councillor for eight years and Pearce for over a decade.

St George West (one seat)
Deputy mayor and cabinet member for children’s services, education and equalities Asher Craig will not be contesting the local elections. Her replacement for Labour is former councillor Carole Johnson who lost her seat in Ashley ward in 2021. Green candidate Rob Bryher is a former Green group leader and was previously a councillor in Ashley when he used his maiden name, Rob Telford.

Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze (three seats)
Former Lib Dem MP and ex-councillor Stephen Williams is hoping to return to City Hall. The politician served on both Avon county and Bristol city councils and was Bristol Liberal Democrat group leader from 1995 to 1997. Since losing the Bristol West parliamentary seat that he held for ten years until 2015, he has unsuccessfully stood for election as WECA’ss metro mayor in both 2017 and 2021, the European Parliament in 2019, Bristol City Council’s Hotwells & Harbourside by-election last year and his old MP constituency in 2017. Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze’s three incumbent Conservative councillors are standing for re-election.

Windmill Hill (two seats)
Charlie Mercer, one of Labour’s two candidates in Windmill Hill, used to be a Green Party member. The ward’s two incumbent Green councillors, Ed Plowden and Lisa Stone, are both standing for re-election.

Main photo: BRE

Read next:

• All the candidates running in the 2024 local elections
• Bristol council candidate representing his third political party
• Leaving Labour to go Green