The penultimate local election preview looks at the five local authorities that make up most of the former county of Gwent or the Gwent Police force area – take your pick.
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- Current Administration: Independent majority.
- Current Leader: Cllr. Nigel Daniels (Ind).
- Number of Seats (2022): 33 (-9).
- Current Seat Distribution: Independents & Non-Affiliated (29), Labour (13).
Previous Results:
- 1995 – Labour control.
- 1999 – Labour control.
- 2004 – Labour control.
- 2008 – No Overall Control.
- 2012 – Labour control.
- 2017 – Independent control.
Blaenau Gwent has lost the most councillors as a result of the local boundary review and that was perhaps expected given it’s also one of Wales’ smallest local authorities population-wise.
The reduction in the number of councillors may make Labour’s goal of pushing to be the single largest group – even get a majority – a bit easier, but they’ve fallen short of putting up a full slate meaning Independents are already guaranteed 6 seats.
It’s not all good news for the Independents as some of the new wards – such as the new 3-member Abertillery & Six Bells ward – have already resulted in significant notional Independents losses. Other Independent-held or dominated wards have had the number of councillors cut. As a result, all wards are likely to be far more competitive than in 2017.
The Independents are currently in at least two groups, so if Labour falls short, there’s the chance they could form a coalition with one group over the other.
The only other party you could perhaps see secure representation is perhaps Plaid Cymru. They won a seat in Cwm in 2017, but the councillor left the party a year later. Their best chance is perhaps in the 2-seat Georgetown ward in Tredegar – where they’re the only party/group other than Labour on the ballot.
Blaenau Gwent is taking part in an advance voting pilot, where anyone registered to vote in the county can go to the Ebbw Vale Learning Campus and vote on Tuesday (3rd May) and Wednesday (4th May) between 8 am-4 pm. It’ll be interesting to see if this affects turnout.
