Castle ( cy, Castell) is an electoral ward and

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

in the City and County of Swansea,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, UK. Castle covers most of the heart of the City of Swansea, with Swansea Castle at its centre.

Description

The electoral ward matches the community boundaries and consists of some or all of the following areas:

Swansea city centre Swansea city centre in Swansea, Wales, contains the main shopping, leisure and nightlife district in Swansea. The city centre covers much of the Castle ward including the area around Oxford Street, Castle Square, and the Quadrant Shopping Centr ...

, Brynmelin, Dyfatty, Greenhill, parts of Mount Pleasant, Sandfields and Waun Wen in the parliamentary constituency of Swansea West. The ward borders the wards of St. Thomas to the east;

Landore Landore ( cy, Glandŵr) is a district and community in Swansea, Wales. The district falls in the Landore council ward. A mainly residential area, it is located about 2.5 miles north of Swansea city centre. The north-easterly part of Landore i ...

and

Cwmbwrla Cwmbwrla ( en, Bwrla valley) is a residential area and community of Swansea in Wales, within the Cwmbwrla ward of the city. Located on rising ground about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the city centre, it takes its name from the valley of the Bur ...

to the north; Townhill and Uplands; and Waterfront to the south. For electoral purposes, Castle is divided into a number of polling districts: City Centre, Sandfields, George Street, Mount Pleasant, XE1 High Street, XE2 High Street, North Hill, Baptist Well, XH1 Brynmelin and XH2 Brynmelin. Castle returns 4 councillors to the local council. The Castle ward is a

Communities First Communities First was a Welsh Government programme aimed at reducing poverty. The programme was community focused and supported the most disadvantaged people in the most deprived areas of Wales with the aim of contributing to alleviating persisten ...

area. The community does not have its own community council.

2021 boundary review

Following a local government boundary review, the

Maritime Quarter The Maritime Quarter (including Swansea Marina) is a residential area of Swansea, Wales, UK located immediately south of the city centre shopping core. It falls within Swansea's Castle ward. The area is bounded by Brynmill to the west, Swansea ...

area of Castle was removed to form part of a new Waterfront ward (and community), effective from the 2022 local elections. Despite being reduced in size, Castle ward continues to elect four county councillors.

Demographics

The overall population in the Castle ward and community according to the 2011 UK Census was 15,883. They had an ethnic breakdown of: Ethnic breakdown: The number of people identifying themselves as Welsh was 7,321 (46.1%), Considerably lower than the figure for the county as a whole.

Local election results

Since 1995 the Castle Ward has been a four-member ward for the purposes of

City and County of Swansea Council , coa_pic = , coa_res = , coa_alt = , logo_pic = Swansea City Council Logo.svg , logo_res = , logo_alt = , house_type = Unitary authority , jurisdiction = , foundation = 1 April 1996 , preceded_by = West Glamorgan County CouncilSw ...

elections. The ward is a major Labour Party stronghold.

2017

2012

Following the May 2012 election the ward was represented by four Labour Party councillors: Prior to the 2012 election the City and County of Swansea councillors for Castle Ward were: *Erika Kirchner,

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

*Alan Lloyd,

*David Phillips,

Councillor Barbara Hynes, who had represented Castle for 21 years, died in September 2011 resulting in a byelection.

2008

In the 2008 local elections, there were 21 candidates, each hoping to secure one of four seats. All four sitting Labour councillors were looking to retain their seats. However, the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

and the Liberal Democrats were all fielding four candidates each. The other candidate who was hoping to take a seat represented the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

1999

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, the number of seats increased from three to four. David Phillips had previously represented the Uplands ward.

1995

The first election to the new unitary

took place in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

. All three seats were won by Labour.

1889

Castle was one of the ten wards created to

Swansea County Borough Council Swansea County Borough Council was established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888. The first elections were held in November 1889. The number of electoral wards had been increased, from four to ten, namely Alexandra, Brynmelin, Castle, E ...

, electing two representatives in the November 1889 elections. The election was fought on local issues and the winning candidates had no party affiliation. * = sitting councillor prior to the election

References

External links

Castle ward
{{Coord, 51.6195, -3.9514, display=title Swansea electoral wards Communities in Swansea