Aber Valley councillor Charlotte Bishop has been voted in unopposed as the first female leader of the Caerphilly Plaid Cymru group.
Councillor Charlotte Bishop, who is 44, became a councillor in 2021, replacing Lyndon Binding. She became deputy leader of the Plaid group following the 2022 municipal elections.
The group has also chosen two deputy leaders, former leader Colin Mann and his fellow Llanbradach ward councillor, Gary Enright, a former Caerphilly Council employee and trade unionist.
Councillor Charlotte Bishop, married with four children, said: “I would like to thank my fellow councillors for their confidence in electing me as leader and the first female leader of the Caerphilly Plaid group. I recognise that it will be a tough act to follow Lindsay Whittle with all his years of leadership, experience and work in the community.
“I intend working very closely with Lindsay as the Caerphilly Senedd member and Plaid’s south-east Wales Senedd Members Delyth Jewell and Peredur Owen Griffiths.”
“Plaid councillors have also decided to strengthen our leadership group by appointing two deputy leaders to take us up to the 2027 council elections.
“Caerphilly Council faces significant challenges with staff morale at an all-time low and that affects everything including service delivery. There is need to rebuild trust inside the council and out in the community. We are at a turning point and working together Plaid Cymru can inspire, rebuild and lead a better future for Caerphilly.”
Councillor Charlotte Bishop, who is a Welsh speaker, has built a strong presence in social media, attracting a huge following for the party locally on TikTok by reaching out to younger people as well as hitting more than one million views on Facebook over a four week period.
She added: “Lindsay’s Senedd by-election campaign reminded me that it’s not just about what we say, but how we say it – with authenticity and heart.”
A nursery school teacher, Charlotte teaches self-defence to volunteers who travel to to Ukraine while she also takes self defence classes in her husband Nathan’s kick boxing club.
- The three previous Plaid group leaders were Lindsay Whittle, who stepped down as a councillor after being elected to the Senedd, Colin Mann and the late Allan Pritchard.