09/05/2008

Election Winners Denied Governing Role

Despite Plaid Cymru winning the County Council in Ceredigion elections with 19 seats against 12 for the Independents and 10 for the Lib Dems, the latter two have, once again, formed a coalition to deny the winners the opportunity to govern the County.

The decision was taken this morning at a meeting of the full Council in which the existing Council leader, Keith Evans, was voted back in by 23 votes to 19 against Plaid Cymru's Ellen ap Gwynn. Labour's lone councillor, Hag Harris, also joined the coalition, giving them a majority of four.

The coalition's previous majority was a much more comfortable 26 - 16. The next four years is likely to be tougher for the ruling group with the prospect of losing controversial votes unless all their members are present.

07/05/2008

Election Reflections

The major shock of the County Council elections in the five Aberystwyth wards was the election of Plaid Cymru's Rob Gorman as County Councillor for Penparcau. Goronwy Edwards, last time's runaway winner, scraped into second place in the two-seat ward by just 14 votes over Plaid's other candidate Steve Davies, narrowly avoiding a double shock in a ward which was regarded as a safe seat for Independents. Owen Jones, the previous holder of the second Penparcau seat finished fourth.

The other four County Councillors in Aberystwyth were all re-elected, although, in North Ward, not without a struggle. Aled Davies, Plaid Cymru's widely-fancied candidate finished just 23 votes behind the sitting councillor and Cabinet Member Carl Williams. At the last election the margin between the same two candidates was 26 so little has changed and the ward remains on a political knife-edge.

In Bronglais ward I was delighted to win the largest majority in Aberystwyth in finishing 300 votes ahead of the Lib Dem candidate. The Bronglais turnout, at 46.22% was also the highest in the town.

In Central ward, Mark Strong pushed the Plaid Cymru vote up to 30% from the previous 22% but, despite working extraordinariliy hard, still finished 154 votes short of sitting councillor Ceredig Davies.

In Rheidol ward, Plaid Cymru's Sue Jones-Davies knocked 105 off the majority of Eric Griffiths, the sitting councillor, but still finished some way behind.

Aberystwyth now has two Plaid Cymru councillors, three Lib Dems and one Independent. However Plaid Cymru increased it's vote in all five wards of the town and missed two more seats by just 14 and 23 votes respectively. They won 45% of all votes cast across the town compared to 33% at the last local elections. By contrast the Lib Dem vote went down from 37% to 31%.

Similarly, in the Town Council elections, where 35 candidates stood for 19 seats, the Plaid Cymru vote went up from 40% to 46% whilst the Lib Dems went down from 36% to 32%. These figures may well have implications for the next general election where the Lib Dems will be defending a slim majority.

The Town Council now has nine Plaid Cymru councillors, six Lib Dems, two Independents, one Green and one Labour. The total turnout across the town went up from 3608 in 2004 to 3890 this time, showing that democracy is alive and well in Aberystywth.

See the full results below.

02/05/2008

Canlyniad Etholiad Cyngor / Council Election Results

1 Mai 2008 / 1st May 2008

ABERYSTWYTH BRONGLAIS


CYNGOR SIR CEREDIGION COUNTY COUNCIL
(1 seat)
Alun Williams (Plaid Cymru) 376 (77.5% - up 6%)

Trevor Shaftoe (Lib Dem) 76 (15.6% - down by 12%)
Robert Schofield (Conservative) 33 (6.8%)

Majority of 300 (up by 73)
The turnout was 46.2% - up by 4.7%

CYNGOR TREF ABERYSTWYTH TOWN COUNCIL (4 seats)
Alun Williams (Plaid Cymru) 387
Sue Jones-Davies (Plaid Cymru) 347
Aled Davies (Plaid Cymru) 337
Ann-Marie Hinde (Plaid Cymru) 311

Michelle Shaftoe (Lib Dem) 104
Gerard Thompson (Lib Dem) 98
Matthew King (Lib Dem) 95
John Thornton (Lib Dem) 74



ABERYSTWYTH GOGLEDD / NORTH

CYNGOR SIR CEREDIGION COUNTY COUNCIL (1 seat)
Carl Williams (Lib Dem) 275
Aled Davies (Plaid Cymru) 252
Antony Pickles (Conservative) 40

CYNGOR TREF ABERYSTWYTH TOWN COUNCIL (3 seats)
Chris Simpson (Green) 292
Mark Strong (Plaid Cymru) 271
Wyn Thomas (Plaid Cymru) 236
Terry Lynch (Lib Dems) 176
Christopher Chaudhuri (Lib Dems) 175
Richard Morgan-Ash (Lib Dems) 159
Anthony Pickles (Conservative) 116


ABERYSTWYTH GANOL / CENTRAL

CYNGOR SIR CEREDIGION COUNTY COUNCIL (1 seat)
Ceredig Davies (Lib Dem) 296
Mark Strong (Plaid Cymru) 142
Emily Dale (Conservative) 24

CYNGOR TREF ABERYSTWYTH TOWN COUNCIL (3 seats)
Alec Dauncey (Lib Dems) 215
Lyn Lewis Dafis (Plaid Cymru) 193
Trevor Shaftoe (Lib Dems) 191
Michael Woods (Lib Dem) 184
Samantha Mackenzie-Grieve (Plaid Cymru) 179
Mark Mainwaring (Conservative) 80



ABERYSTWYTH RHEIDOL


CYNGOR SIR CEREDIGION COUNTY COUNCIL (1 seat)
Eric Griffiths (Lib Dem) 490
Sue Jones-Davies (Plaid Cymru) 197
Jason Edwards (Conservative) 38

CYNGOR TREF ABERYSTWYTH TOWN COUNCIL (4 seats)
Lorrae Jones-Southgate (Lib Dem) 412
Sam Hearne (Lib Dem) 378
Mair Benjamin (Lib Dem) 362
Ceri Meehan (Lib Dem) 273
Sandra Oliver (Plaid Cymru) 247
Catherine Trim (Plaid Cymru) 231
Oli Morys (Plaid Cymru) 230



ABERYSTWYTH PENPARCAU


CYNGOR SIR CEREDIGION COUNTY COUNCIL (2 seats)
Rob Gorman (Plaid Cymru) 419
Goronwy Edwards (Independent) 391
Steve Davies (Plaid Cymru) 377
Owen Jones (Independent) 195
Michael Jones (Lib Dem) 97
Richard Boudier (Labour) 95
David Cogdell (Conservative) 46
Graeme Smith (Conservative) 31

CYNGOR TREF ABERYSTWYTH TOWN COUNCIL (5 seats)
Rob Gorman (Plaid Cymru) 609
Goronwy Edwards (Independent) 557
Steve Davies (Plaid Cymru) 541
Owen Jones (Independent) 413
Richard Boudier (Labour) 224
David Cogdell (Conservative) 121
Graeme Smith (Conservative) 121

Full results for Ceredigion can be found here: http//www.ceredigion.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4295&splashpage=false