Comment DBCC-8418

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to submit a personal comment on the proposals which I understand will also be submitted by the Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare Parliamentary Constituency Labour Party of which I am Vice-Chair.

I have no objection to the boundary of the proposed Senedd Constituency.

However I do take issue the proposed name of the Senedd Constituency in paragraph 10.5 of the revised proposals as follows:

“10.5 The Commission proposes the single name of Merthyr Cynon Taf for this constituency. The Commission has determined that the name is acceptable for use as a single name as it incorporates both local authority names within the proposed constituency and is likely to be recognisable to residents. The Welsh Language Commissioner has agreed with the orthography of the single name.”

There is more than 1 place named Merthyr in Wales. It may be argued that everyone knows you mean "Merthyr Tydfil" when you say Merthyr but I this isn't necessarily the case. For example, when I worked in Abergavenny, when people said "Ponty" they meant Pontypool but here in Merthyr Tydfil when we say "Ponty", we mean Pontypridd. The same may be the case for those living near other places with "Merthyr" in their name.

I therefore ask you to reconsider the name of the proposed Senedd Constituency and change it to Merthyr Tudful Cynon Taf - using the Welsh version for the constituent parts, per your guidelines.

You will be aware that Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is shortened locally to RCT and the same is likely to happen with the new Senedd Constituency of Merthyr Cynon Taf being shortened to MTC. The addition of one extra word in the title would not make for difficult reading and It would avoid the potential for confusion that could be caused by the similarity between MCT and RCT! Four word titles are already proposed for our neighbouring constituency, Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni.

Yours sincerely,

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