'We've got everything on our doorstep ... we're in the centre of everything'

Turning to Reform, he said: "They seem to be able to say what they want and get away with saying what they want without any consequence or any meaning to it. It's easy to jump on board and say we'll stop immigration, we'll do this and we'll do that.

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"Obviously it’s easier said than done. But people seem to be jumping on the bandwagon and seeing, 'Oh they're going to do this and they're going to do that.

"But underneath, do Reform really want us to have a free NHS, et cetera, going forward? I think people can see a lot of these things and they jump on to it without realising the full consequences. And I think it’s very, very similar to what we did with the EU.

"You know, you look at Merthyr Tydfil. Merthyr Tydfil was built on immigration. It was people come from all over the world to work here.

"European money paid for a vast amount of the regeneration in Merthyr Tydfil, paid for the road network across the Heads of the Valleys.

"We don't realise that, and I don’t think we sang enough about it. You know, we've seen the signs go up across the roads built by European funding, etc, but you don’t quite realise it and it just gets swept along

"So it is a worry. I do hope people will see through it come the 2026 Senedd elections and the 2027 local elections as well and see Reform for what they are really. They're just jumping on the bandwagon, very similar to what Ukip did a few years ago."

On the cost of living, Cllr Carter said: "It has affected us all. And it is, obviously, it is a national issue and, you know, the [UK] Labour government have had to make some really difficult decisions during the first year.