Comment DBCC-8328

Revised Senedd Boundaries Consultation


Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in relation to he above consultation which closes on the 13th of January 2025 to strongly object to the name of the pairing of Monmouthshire and Torfaen.

Whilst it is appreciated that the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024 requires 16 new Senedd constituencies, which will be created by pairing the 32 UK Parliamentary constituencies, in time for the 2026 Senedd election and that there will be a full boundary review after the 2026 Senedd election. It does not mean that the name of the new constituencies has to be unfamiliar to the electorate as proposed for Monmouthshire.


The Commission proposes the single name of Mynwy Torfaen.


Torfaen has been allowed to keep its local authority name and so should Monmouthshire and it would be unfair to do otherwise.

The new Senedd constituency should be simply called Monmouthshire Torfaen.

As a Monmouthshire County Councillor, I do not agree with the Commission argument that this name for Monmouthshire of Mynwy will be recognisable for Monmouthshire residents, it will be totally alien to them and will simply cause confusion amongst residents. This does not apply to the other local authority in the pairing which has been allowed to retain its name and is recognisable by residents.


It is also noted that some of the other local authorities have been allowed to retain their original local authority names.

It is reported in the press that Cardiff South-east Penarth is one of only four that will have bilingual names?


In view of Wales being bilingual and to avoid confusion amongst local residents it would be the most sensible solution to this issue if all pairings were allowed to be bilingual. It would mean that Monmouthshire and Torfaen would be called Monmouthshire Torfaen and Mynwy Torfaen.

It is the ambition of the Welsh Government to have 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050. However, even if that target is reached there are over 3 million people in Wales and this means that only 1 in 3 would recognise a Welsh name and 2 in 3 would not.

In reality based on the Welsh Census 2021, in 2021 , an estimated 538,000 usual residents in Wales aged three years and over (17.8%) reported being able to speak Welsh, which is a decrease since 2011 (562,000, 19.0%). This means that on a very generous 20% of people being able to speak Welsh then less than 1 in 5 would recognise Welsh names and more than 4 in 5 would not.

The percentage of Welsh speakers in Monmouthshire fell from 9.9% in 2011 to 8.7% in 2021. The percentage of Welsh speakers in Torfaen fell from 9.8% in 2011 to 8.2% in 2021. Hence both Monmouthshire and Torfaen have less than 1 in 10 of Welsh speakers and is an even greater argument for the Senedd Constituency to be called simply Monmouthshire Torfaen so that the other 9 in 10 can understand it.

I very much hope that these representations will be seriously considered and the amendments made, as it is fundamentally unfair to allow some to have bilingual names and not all.

I would be grateful if you could acknowledge receipt of this representation as I was unable to find a specific email address to send the consultation response back to.

Kind regards

Cllr Dr Louise Brown
Monmouthshire County Councillor
Shirenewton Ward

Respondent type

Local councillor or other elected official

This comment refers to

The entire area under review.