Ottery St Mary Rural will have a new district Councillor after the May 5 election with Ray Bloxham moving wards.

Ottery St Mary Rural will have a new district Councillor after the May 5 election with Ray Bloxham moving wards.

Cllr Bloxham, who now lives in Exmouth, will represent Raleigh from next month, leaving Tony Howard, a Conservative Party candidate, independent Claire Wright, and Labour party candidate Judy Blackwell to standing alongside current EDDC leader Sara Randall Johnson to contest for the two ward places.

In Ottery St Mary Town Mrs Blackwell’s husband Andrew is standing for the Labour party against the two incumbents for the ward, Conservative David Cox and independent Roger Giles.

And at Ottery Town Council three councillors will be stepping down, one leaving from each ward except the North, but there will be no contested elections.

Peter Williams is leaving as a representative of the Town, Councillor Aherne is stepping down from the Tipton St John Ward and Cllr Bloxham is stepping down from the Town Council as a representative for West Hill as well as the district.

Planning Chairman Paul Carter, who was a councillor for Tipton St John, will move to fill the space left by Cllr Williams in the Town, allowing Tipton to be represented by husband and wife duo John and Lyn Harding, preventing an election in the ward.

The other six councillors for the Town will remain the same, while George Hansford will remain in one of the North ward spaces, but there will be still be a vacancy both there and in West Hill.