Principal areas of Wales

Description

For local government, Wales is divided into 22 sub-divisions collectively called "principal areas" in the 1994 act. They may be styled as either a "county" or a "county borough". Each principal area is overseen by a "principal council", which may also adopt their principal area style, being called a "county council" (Welsh: cyngor sir) or a "county borough council" (Welsh: cyngor bwrdeistref sirol). Although four principal areas, Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and Wrexham, have since obtained city status, therefore they may style their principal councils as a "city council" instead.

The basic framework of local government and specifically a council's constitution and general powers were set out in the Local Government Act 1972, which simplified the existing local governing structure in Wales that existed prior. The later Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 restructured local government, by significantly amending the previous act. The councils of the principal areas are generally supervised by the Welsh Government.

The names of the principal areas, in both English and Welsh, are set out in the 1994 amended version of the 1972 act, under Schedule 4. Section 74 of the 1972 act allows principal councils to change their names, if there is a two-third majority support for such in a specially convened meeting. Since their establishment, multiple councils have pursued a name change. Any notice of a name change has to be submitted to the Welsh Ministers and the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales. The 1972 changes were enacted in 1974 by the then Conservative administration.

The principal areas' councils are unitary, and are sub-divided into communities and electoral wards.

Some of the principal areas have county borough status, a largely historical status that reflects their historical existence as major population centres. The eleven county boroughs of Wales are Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Conwy, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Torfaen, Vale of Glamorgan and Wrexham. County borough status does not award any different rights compared to the other counties. The 1994 act stated they should not be treated as a "borough" as defined by earlier legislation.

The other eleven have county status, and are styled as "counties". Four principal areas, Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and Wrexham, also have city status.

The principal areas' boundaries are made up of its electoral wards, and the average number of electoral wards in a principal area is 40.

Name changes

Five of the principal areas use different names to those given in the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994. In each case the council renamed the area immediately, with the changes taking effect on 2 April 1996. The changes were:

• Conwy from "Aberconwy and Colwyn"
• Isle of Anglesey from "Anglesey"
• Gwynedd from "Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire"
• Ceredigion from "Cardiganshire"

Other simpler changes also took place such as:

• Neath Port Talbot from "Neath and Port Talbot"
• Rhondda Cynon Taf from "Rhondda, Cynon, Taff" or "Rhondda Cynon Taff"

Boundary changes

The following changes to principal areas have been made since 1996:

• Llangollen Rural, was originally in entirely in Denbighshire, but part was transferred to Wrexham County Borough on 1 April 1997.
• Parts Ewenny and Llangan in the Vale of Glamorgan were transferred to the county borough of Bridgend on 1 April 1997.
• Part of the community of Rhymney in Caerphilly in the area of Tafarnau-bach become part of the community of Tredegar in Blaenau Gwent on 6 April 2002.
• Part of Pontardawe in Neath Port Talbot became part of the community of Clydach in Swansea on 6 April 2002.
• Part of the community of Michaelston in Vale of Glamorgan was transferred to the community of Grangetown in Cardiff on 1 April 2003.
• St Dogmaels was transferred from Ceredigion to Pembrokeshire on 1 April 2003.
• Clynderwen, and parts of Cilymaenllwyd and Henllanfallteg, originally in Carmarthenshire, but was transferred to Pembrokeshire on 1 April 2003.
• Part of Talybont-on-Usk in Powys was transferred to Vaynor in Merthyr Tydfil on 1 June 2009.