Powys County Council leader Rosemarie Harris has lost her seat to her competitor Jackie Charlton at the 2022 local elections.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Jackie Charlton won the vote for Llangattock and Llangynidr with 541 votes. The former leader lost out by just under a hundred votes as she received 455.

There were cheers and gasps in the room for press and candidates as the result was announced as the newly merged ward has gone to the Lib Dems.

Cllr Charlton, who was accompanised by her husband and her dog Lucy, said: I feel absolutely delighted and as I’ve said before - I’m truly, truly grateful for all the people in Llangatock and Llangynidor who went out yesterday and voted.

“They’re the ones who put me here and it’s now for me to make sure I stand up and do what they’ve asked me to do and that’s what I intend to do.

Cllr Charlton also took time to graduate the former council leader who has had a long and successful career with Powys council.

She said: It’s been a long trek because we’ve known, both of us have known, that our wards would merge for this election so we’ve known for the last five years that we would be in contest with one another.

“I’ve prepared myself for a long time to do this. I’ve gone to meet people in Llangynidr and sort myself up there and I live in the ward now, I actually live in Llangattock so yeah, it feels good.

“Rosemarie has been around for a very, very long time and she’s had more or less every roll in the council and finished off her career as a real leader so I think congratulations should go to Rosemarie for all her past work and for all those people who voted for her too.”

Cllr Charlton, who represented Llangattock before it merged with Cllr Harris’s former ward Llangynidr, said she will not be celebrating tonight as she is tired after listening to UK elections results through the night.

The count appears to be going well for the Welsh Lib Dems so far, with the Conservatives appearing to lag behind as they have so far only won one single seat which is for Yscir with Honddu Isaf and Llandew, although the count continues.

Here is what Rosemarie Harris had to say: