Council elections can often throw up some interesting prospects in terms of seats and candidates. You don’t have to look much further in Rhondda Cynon Taf than the fact that Andrew Morgan, who heads into the election as the leader of the council, and former leader of the council and now main opposition leader Pauline Jarman will be standing in the same ward in Mountain Ash.
The RCT Labour leader Mr Morgan and RCT Plaid Cymru leader Ms Jarman will be standing in the new Mountain Ash ward which replaces the former Mountain Ash East that Ms Jarman has represented and the Mountain Ash West that Mr Morgan has represented. Wendy Treeby of Labour who has also represented Mountain Ash West, Mia Hollsing of the Welsh Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and Kurt Thomson of the Conservatives are also standing in this ward which will see two councillors elected.
It will be interesting to see what happens in wards where long-standing councillors are moving on. In Treherbert, long-standing Plaid Cymru councillor Geraint Davies is standing down after decades in public office including serving as the first Assembly Member for the Rhondda.
Other long-serving councillors who won’t be seeking re-election include Labour councillors Mark Adams of Tylorstown, Mike Forey of Aberdare East, Linda De Vet of Aberaman North, Margaret Tegg who has already stepped down and Roger Turner of Brynna. Several councillors are standing down after becoming either a Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of the Senedd (MS).
These include Labour’s Alex Davies-Jones who represented Tonyrefail West but is now MP for Pontypridd, Plaid Cymru’s Heledd Fychan who represented Pontypridd Town but is now an MS for South Wales Central and Conservative Joel James who represented Llantwit Fardre but is now an MS for South Wales Central too. There are 75 seats up for grabs in this election, as there were in 2017, but there have been changes to some of the wards.
Labour are putting forward the most candidates with 75 and Plaid Cymru the second most with 55. There are 34 Conservatives standing, 21 independents, six Liberal Democrats, three Green Party, three Gwlad and three Propel candidates.
There are also two Welsh Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidates, two unspecified candidates and one Britain First candidate. Back in 2017, Labour won a majority with 47 seats and Plaid Cymru got the second most seats with 18.
The independents picked up four and so did the Conservatives with the Liberal Democrats and The Cynon Valley Party getting one seat each. As well as Mountain Ash East and Mountain Ash West becoming Mountain Ash, other changes to wards include the creation of Aberaman where three councillors will be elected instead of two in Aberaman North and two in Aberaman South as there were in 2017.
Another area that’s seen a change at this election are the Beddau and Tyn-y-Nant wards which have become the ward of Beddau and Tyn-y-Nant and will elect two councillors. Brynna and Llanharan have joined to become one ward and three councillors will be elected in it at this election.
Church Village will be electing two councillors instead of one this time and so will Cwmbach. Ferndale and Maerdy are joining to become one ward electing two councillors.
A new ward of Graig and Pontypridd West will be contested at this election, electing two councillors. Another new ward at this election is Hawthorn and Lower Rhydfelin which will elect one councillor while Hirwaun, Penderyn and Rhigos will join to become one ward this time round with two council seats available here.
Llantrisant and Talbot Green will be one ward with two seats up for grabs. Pontyclun was one ward in 2017 which elected two councillors but there will be a Pontyclun Central, Pontyclun East and Pontyclun West in 2022 electing one councillor each.
Tonteg’s representation will go down from two to one councillor and Tonyrefail West’s representation will increase from one to two councillors. Treorchy’s representation will fall from three to two councillors while Tylorstown and Ynyshir will become one ward represented by two councillors.
There will be a ward called Upper Rhydfelen and Glyn Taf represented by one councillor and Ynysybwl will have two instead of the current one councillor.
