The proposals were contained in a report by the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales published in May 2011 but were put on hold by the previous Minister before last year’s elections. The changes are slightly altered by the Commission from those reported by this blog in 2010.
The five seats that will now be lost at the next council elections
in 2017 are as follows:
· * Lampeter
will reduce from two councillors to one
· * Cardigan will
reduce from three councillors to two
· * Llangeitho
ward will be split between expanded Tregaron
and Llangybi wards
· * Capel
Dewi ward will be split between expanded Llandysul and Troedyraur
wards
· * The four wards of New Quay, Llandysiliogogo, Llanarth and Llanfihangel Ystrad will have their boundaries altered to become
three.
This blog has previously identified that the southern half
of Ceredigion is significantly over-represented compared to the North. Although
the Minister probably doesn't read the blog, this
is the issue tackled by the proposals, the intention of which is to produce a
more equal number of electors in each ward.
Other more minor changes are:
Padarn and Faenor wards on the outskirts of Aberystwyth to combine into one ward with two councillors
Aberaeron ward to take
in the Aberarth section of Llansantffraid
Llanfarian ward
to take in a small part of Melindwr
By my calculations, if the new boundaries had been applied
to the 2012 elections, Independents would have lost three councillors and Plaid
Cymru two. However 2017 is a long way off...
The map shows the distribution of councillors following the 2011 election. Plaid are in green, Independents in light blue and Lib Dems yellow. Image source: Wikipedia.
The map shows the distribution of councillors following the 2011 election. Plaid are in green, Independents in light blue and Lib Dems yellow. Image source: Wikipedia.