Next Thursday (11th August 2022), a by-election will be held to fill one of the three Bridgend County Borough Council seats in Bridgend Central.
Why is this by-election happening so soon after the local elections?
Labour’s Stuart Baldwin – a former Mayor and Cabinet member – was elected to the newly-created Bridgend Central ward in May, finishing in second place.
Within days it was announced he wouldn’t accept his office after being offered a politically-restricted position with Bridgend Council, later revealed to be Climate Change Officer (meaning he disqualified himself).
He also was discouraged from staying on as a councillor by abuse he’d received, at least one incident of which is/was being investigated by the police.
He hasn’t done anything wrong in refusing to accept the office. However rare a situation it is, he was perfectly entitled to do so.
His appointment as a BCBC officer, however, is currently subject to an internal audit. Some concerns have been raised over his appointment as he was the Cabinet member in charge of the department he’s now been employed by – effectively overseeing his own recruitment. Bridgend Council is seemingly confident that the proper processes and procedures were followed.
Bridgend Central: Ward Profile
Bridgend Central was created ahead of the 2022 local elections through the merger of the former Morfa and Newcastle wards.
Bridgend Central covers the majority of Bridgend town centre (including the Caeffatri and Coity Fields/Morfa Street areas), Wildmill, the northern most part of Waunscil Avenue, Ystrad Fawr, Cefn Glas Road and the Oaklands Road/Sunnyside/Park Street areas. It’s a relatively densely-populated urban ward, with an estimated population of 10,300 in mid-2020.
In socio-economic terms, Bridgend Central is mixed.
In the latest Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) the Park Street, Sunnyside and Oaklands Road areas (formerly in the Newcastle) ward ranked amongst the least-deprived neighbourhoods in Wales.
Meanwhile, Morfa 2 (Tairfelin, Glanffornwg, some of Maes-y-Felin and “The Saints” in Wildmill) ranked as the fourth most-deprived neighbourhood in Bridgend county and among the top 10% most deprived areas of Wales – driven mainly by poor scores in employment and education. It’s fair to say that Wildmill used to (and still does to an extent) have a “reputation”, but things have improved since the 1980s and 1990s – largely down to grassroots community action and changing demographics than the council or housing associations – even if some issues remain.
The other two areas of the former Morfa ward – Morfa 1 (the area around Penybont Primary School, Mackworth Street, the town centre itself) and Morfa 3 (Cemetery Road/Coity Road/Caeffatri, most of Quarella Road and Tremgarth/Lawrence Close in Wildmill) – are above average on deprivation measures as well but not to the same extent.
That said, Morfa 1 is the most deprived part of Bridgend – and the 20th most deprived in Wales – on the measure of community safety. Given it includes Bridgend town centre that’s not a surprise and it doesn’t mean the residential areas are any less safe than any other part of Bridgend.
Welsh-speaking ability is below the Welsh (19%) and Bridgend county (9.7%) averages at around 8.5%.
The Issues
As the ward includes Bridgend town centre, more general issues such as anti-social behaviour (the area around the bus station and job centre have had pronounced problems) and town centre regeneration efforts will be more important here than elsewhere.
The stop-start Sunnyside Wellness Village development has caused anxiety amongst nearby residents. While some remedial work has resumed at the site, a new contractor is yet to be appointed and it’s become an eyesore – far worse than what was there before.
BCBC continue to work on solutions to poor air quality along Park Street, but no firm proposals have come forward yet with deadlines pushed back due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
One issue that continues to frustrate residents in Wildmill is recycling collections.
For the unfamiliar (particularly those reading this outside Bridgend), Wildmill was built in the 1960s using the “Radburn design” – where homes often face footpaths, open space and alleys instead of streets. This means household waste has to be collected at communal car parks, which has led to bins being overfilled and Wildmill attracting fly-tippers. No long-term solution has yet been found despite the problems going back at least five years.
In the previous council term, Newcastle Hill, Sunnyside and the area around Penybont Primary School (Minerva Street, Morfa Street, Acland Road etc.) were selected for the introduction of residents-only parking permits. Those plans seem to have stalled (again).
There have also been calls for additional road safety measures along Coity Road (particularly near the Cemetery Road junction) due to several accidents; a house right on the corner almost always seems to get hit by cars. The issue is complicated by Coity Road being the main access to/from the Princess of Wales Hospital.
The circumstances which led to the by-election could be an issue too – like it or not, it’s an embarrassing situation for Labour. That’s more likely to be amongst those who pay close attention to local politics, so I doubt it’ll have much of an impact overall.
Candidates & Outlook
The candidates are (in alphabetical order by surname):
- Edward Curran (Lib Dems)
- Thomas Dwyer (Conservative)
- Steven Easterbrook (Independent)
- Ceri Evans (Labour)
- Paul John (Green)
The campaign has had an edge to it at times, but as things stand it’s going to be between Labour and Independents as they’re the only two candidates that have seemingly put any serious effort in.
Labour need to win to eliminate some of the embarrassment caused by the circumstances which have led to the by-election, but they would stand to gain little from it politically. Technically, they already hold the seat even if there’s nobody there to fill it.
The Independents would want to build on the momentum they had in the Bridgend town area from May (Steven Easterbrook having won a town council seat) and ensure Labour’s working majority on the council remains razor thin.
Regardless, I’d expect turnout to be poor as it usually is for by-elections – and that might help Labour if they can “get out the vote” in big enough numbers; it’s probably the main advantage they hold over the Independents.
Elsewhere, the Tories had success in the old Newcastle ward with Thomas Dwyer receiving around 12-13% of the vote in May. The Bridgend Central ward no longer favours them demographically so perhaps the best they can hope for is a distant third.
The Lib Dems currently have no county elected representation in Bridgend at any level and it’ll be asking too much to get one back.
The Greens didn’t do that well in Bridgend in May – especially when compared to other councils in Wales – though they are reorganising. It’s too soon to expect anything from them.
