Comment DBCC-4434

The pairing of Brecon with Neath & Swansea East is nonsensical with the two area having nothing in common apart from the Cwmtawe area. This also has a knock on effect across many seats in south Wales.

I have already made one alternative proposal pairing Brecon with Caerfyrddin which affects a number of adjacent seats. I also suggest the following alternative which will have a wider impact:

Pair Brecon with Monmouthshire, calling the seat 'Brecon & Monmouthshire'.
These seats are well connected along the A40 and are both largely rural and agricultural in nature.

This would enable Neath and Swansea East to join with Aberafan Maesteg and I suggest that this seat be named 'Neath Port Talbot' or preferably 'West Glamorgan'

Rhondda should pair with Pontypridd and I suggest that this seat be named 'Taf Rhondda' or preferably 'Central Glamorgan'.

Merthyr should pair with Caerphilly and I suggest this seat be named 'Taf Rhymni' or preferably 'North Glamorgan' or 'East Glamorgan'.

Newport East should pair with Torfaen and I suggest calling this seat 'Newport Torfaen' or 'Central Gwent'

Newport Islwyn should pair with Blaenau Gwent and I suggest calling this seat 'Newport Ebbw' or 'West Gwent'

The remaining seats across south and west Wales remain unchanged, but I suggest renaming Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend as either 'Bridgend Vale' or preferably 'South Glamorgan'

All of the above proposals form realistic seats which follow natural boundaries with good transport and cultural links and are an improvement on the original proposals.

The use of regional names will help distinguish the new electoral regions from the existing Westminster seats.

The only anomaly in this arrangement is the Cwmtawe area which remains relatively isolated. This is an unfortunate consequence of the poor decision to attach this area to the Brecon seat in the previous Westminster review and which should be corrected at the next Senedd boundary review. But to allow this one anomaly to dictate the arrangements of all seats across south Wales is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.

Respondent type

Member of public

This comment refers to

The entire area under review.