GRASSROOTS politics has taken over Buckfastleigh Town Council, after a group of campaigning residents took up their seats on Wednesday and vowed to make themselves more accessible to the community.

All nine candidates from the Buckfastleigh Independents Group were voted in after the first election in the town for decades. Only three of the former councillors remain – Katie Coates, Graham Squires and Janet Jones – on the 12-seat council.