LABOUR retained the Cinderford West seat in a by-election for Cinderford Town Council with UKIP in second place.

The by-election took place as it was confirmed the Forest will be a key target for UKIP at the next General Election.

Around 17.3 per cent of those on the electoral roll voted, with Andrew Knight coming out on top with 248 votes. UKIP's Roy Bardo followed closely behind with 213 and Mark Turner with 109. Jeremy Charlton-Wright (Ind) had 52 votes and Jill Raymond received 43.

Cllr Knight said: "I would like to thank everyone who voted for me on Thursday. I appreciate the faith shown in me. I am pleased that Cinderford will continue to be Labour at heart and look forward to making a real difference on Cinderford Town Council. Thank you once again."

As the results were announced it was formally confirmed the Forest is a key UKIP target seat for the General Election in May. The UKIP head office target seat team has identified through poll results that the Forest falls 'firmly' in the target list of 15 seats. At present the Forest ranges between number five and 10 which fluctuates slightly as new polls come in and seats are added. Many of these seats were "notional wins", meaning that if those results were replicated at a General Election, UKIP would win the parliamentary seat.

Steve Stanbury was selected as UKIP's Parliamentary Candidate for the Forest of Dean last month by local branch members.

He said: "Being a target seat means we will get significant resources from head office.

"It is an honour and a responsibility to be chosen by local members for such an important seat for our party nationally. My job is to work tirelessly with our outstanding team of elected councillors to build upon their great success and effective representation of local voters' real concerns.

"I am pleased that we did so well in the Cinderford by-election in what is a Labour stronghold."