The final local election preview takes in the post-1996 authorities that were part of the former South, West and Mid Glamorgan.
Pedants who will say, “Well, Rhymney Valley was in Mid Glamorgan so surely you should put Caerphilly here?” are politely redirected to the Gwent preview.
- Current Administration: Labour majority.
- Current Leader: Cllr. Edward Latham (Lab).
- Number of Seats (2022): 60 (-4).
- Current Seat Distribution: Labour (37), Plaid Cymru (15), Independents & Non-Affiliated (11), Liberal Democrats (1).
Previous Results:
- 1995 – Labour control.
- 1999 – Labour control.
- 2004 – Labour control.
- 2008 – Labour control.
- 2012 – Labour control.
- 2017 – Labour control.
There’ve been some fairly big changes as a result of the boundary review, but it’s hard to tell how that could impact the results. One ward has also had its election postponed until June due to the death of a candidate.
Labour are the undisputed dominant force, usually by virtue of hoovering up multi-member seats in Port Talbot, Baglan, Briton Ferry and Neath. They’ve already won 2 uncontested seats and are seemingly guaranteed another four.
They don’t have it all their own way everywhere. Plaid Cymru did very well in the Swansea Valley and Amman Valley (Pontardawe, Cwmllynfell etc) in 2017 and also finished top in the Aberavon ward. Independents have made a couple of wards relatively safe for themselves – including Seven Sisters (now part of a new multi-member ward) and the new Gwynfi and Croeserw ward.
Labour has also endured a few losses over the previous term losing 6 members in total – including two who defected to an Independent group.
The opposition parties and Independents have been gradually getting closer to the numbers needed to deny Labour a majority, but they may need a big performance to do that this year.
