Bridgend Council has published its draft proposals for reforming the county’s 20 town and community councils (pdf).
There’s a lot to cover, so I’ve split this post into sections.
If you don’t want to wade through that, the headline proposals are:
- Town & community councils would be cut from 20 to 13.
- Town & community councillors would be cut from 236 to 176.
- All town & community councils would elect a minimum of 10 councillors and there would be no more “single ward” community councils (where all councillors are elected from a single list).
- There are many proposed boundary changes – meaning the map would look quite different – but these changes are unlikely to affect many people. It mainly results in farmland, open spaces and industrial estates moving from one community to another (with a few notable exceptions).
- Each of the proposed new councils meets BCBC’s target minimum of 5,000 electors. The smallest proposed “new council” (Newcastle Higher) would have 5,516 electors compared to the smallest at present (Merthyr Mawr, 235 electors).
- Consultation responses were generally supportive of the need for change, though there was opposition from within Coychurch Higher and Merthyr Mawr community councils. Though some smaller community councils (Ynysawdre, Llangynwyd Middle, St. Bride’s Minor) support merging with neighbours.
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The full details on the public consultation are available here. Any comments on the draft proposals need to be submitted by 7th April 2025.
19 responses were received from town & community councils and individual councillors (TCC and county); only one response came from a member of the public.
Most responses were in favour of the principle of reform – though there was disagreement on what changes and how/where.
Ynysawdre and St. Bride’s Minor community councils supported merging (which has been proposed to an extent). There was also official support for Llangynwyd Middle Community Council to merge with Maesteg Town (as proposed).
Some community councils – notably Coychurch Higher (Heol-y-Cyw), Garw Valley, Coity Higher and Merthyr Mawr – formally objected to any mergers and/or want things to remain as they are (in their patch at least).
As for my views, BCBC has got this right on balance. These proposals meet all of the requirements set down.
The only criticism is that maybe this should’ve happened before the 2022 local elections. As things stand, the town & community council seats won’t be the same as their respective county council seats. It’s unclear at this stage whether the county council seats will see boundary changes before the next election in 2027 as a result of these proposals (if approved).
There’s a warning in this that bigger doesn’t necessarily mean “better”. We’re still going to get lots of unelected community councillors and positions filled by co-options. We’re still going to get all of these petty disputes over very low-stakes, low-priority stuff.
Ultimately, my preference would be to go even further and abolish town & community councils across Wales, returning to a two-tier form of local government – but that’s way beyond BCBC’s remit.
