Comment DBCC-7899

[REDACTED]

I am writing on behalf of Neath and Swansea East Constituency Labour Party to register objections to the proposed boundary proposals for the 2026 Senedd Seat, which will see Neath and Swansea East and Brecon, Radnor and Cwmtawe paired to form a new Senedd Seat.

We wish to raise the following objections to the proposal –

1. The size of the constituency is felt to be too large. it will begin in the St Thomas ward of Swansea, and it will cover the area of Presteigne and Kington on the English border.

From The Dockers club in Swansea (First building in the new constituency) to the Northern border will take over 2 hours by car and it will be impossible for a member of the public to make the journey by public transport.

People like to have an affinity with the politicians who represent them and to know that they live locally and share the same life experiences, use the same public services, and send their children to schools in the same area.

You could end up with all the MS living in one part of the seat and people having long distances to meet them for advice surgeries etc.

People like to meet their representatives in person and the size of this constituency will be a major barrier for people being able to meet their representative in person.

There may be a tendency to rely on Email and electronic communication in this day and age but a lot of elderly people do not use email etc and again difficulties in meeting their representative is going to be a major issue.


This is far too large an area to be adequately covered within one seat.

2. The two current constituencies which will make up the new seat are completely diverse with the old Neath and Swansea East constituency being an old industrial area, while the Brecon and Radnor constituency is essentially a rural seat with a large percentage of its population employed within the agricultural sector.

The diverse nature of the seats is reflected within the current set up where Brecon and Radnorshire is contained within the Mid and West Wales Regional Seat. Neath and Swansea East have resided within the South Wales West seat since 1999 and people have some understanding of this.

It is going to be very confusing for people to be lumped with people in communities perhaps 60-70 miles away with whom they have nothing in common.

3. The new constituency will cover 3 different Local Authority areas, different police & Fire and Rescue services and different health boards. This will present challenges for people representing the constituency.

4. Wacknowledge in the response to the Boundary Commission our predecessor seat made strong reference to the links between Neath and the Swansea Valley, the subsequent changes which have incorporated areas of the former Swansea East constituency to create the new Neath & Swansea East constituency have changed the makeup of the constituency.

5. While we acknowledge there will be a full boundary review after the 2026 elections, we fear that the proposals if accepted will form the basis of the full boundary review and will be very difficult to change once in force for the 2026 elections



The people of Neath and Swansea East would be better off as part of a Neath, Swansea East, Aberavon and Maesteg seat because –

• Natural affinity as people living in the Neath, Swansea East and Aberavon parts of a new seat would have affinities from their time as part of the old West Glamorgan County Council area.
• People in the new seat would all live and work along the M4 corridor and could identify with other people living in the seat.
• Shared heritage being former industrial communities.
• Swansea East, Neath Aberavon and Maesteg share public services from Health Boards, local authority joint partnerships and other public services.
• Travel within a seat of Swansea East, Neath, Aberavon and Maesteg would be relatively simple and could be done using public transport in short periods of time compared with the issues of getting to the North of the proposed Brecon, Radnor, Neath and Swansea East Seat.


In conclusion we feel that the size of the proposed constituency, the different characteristics of the two constituencies to be paired and the lack of common interests of people living within the proposed new constituency present serious challenges for the new seat.

We believe that it would be a much more sensible ‘fit’ to pair Neath and Swansea East with Aberavon and Maesteg, 2 seats which share a common heritage, share joint services, and residents could travel with this potential seat much more easily than the Brecon, Radnor, Neath and Swansea East Seat. We also believe that a more appropriate pairing could be identified for Brecon and Radnor with other rural seats which border the current Brecon, Radnor and Cwmtawe Seat.

Thank you for considering our submission

Yours sincerely

[REDACTED]
Neath and Swansea East CLP Secretary

Respondent type

On behalf of an organisation (private or public)

Organisation name

Neath and Swansea East Labour Party

This comment refers to

The entire area under review.