The 2022 Welsh local elections took place on 5 May 2022 to elect members of all twenty-two local authorities in Wales. They were held alongside other local elections in the United Kingdom. The previous elections were held in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. The

Welsh Conservatives The Welsh Conservatives (), also known as the Welsh Conservative Party (), is the branch of the United Kingdom Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party that operates in Wales. At United Kingdom general elections, Westminster elections, it is ...

lost over a third of their seats and their majority on

Monmouthshire County Council Monmouthshire County Council (or simply Monmouthshire Council) () is the governing body for the Monmouthshire principal area – one of the unitary authorities of Wales. The current unitary authority was created in 1996 and covers the eastern ...

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; , ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, and often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left, Welsh nationalist list of political parties in Wales, political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from th ...

won outright control of four councils, which was the highest number in the party's history, however their overall number of councillors elected decreased.

Background

In the local elections in 2017, 1,271 seats were elected.

Welsh Labour Welsh Labour (), formerly known as the Labour Party in Wales (), is an autonomous section of the United Kingdom Labour Party (UK), Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics. Welsh Labour and its forebears have won a p ...

won 468 seats, independent candidates won 309 seats,

won 208 seats, the

won 184 seats, and the

Welsh Liberal Democrats The Welsh Liberal Democrats () is a Liberalism, liberal, Federalism, federalist political party in Wales, part of UK Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrats. The party is led by Jane Dodds, who has served as an Member of the Senedd, MS for Mid ...

won 63 seats. Other parties including the

Wales Green Party The Wales Green Party () is an autonomous section of the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) covering Wales. The Wales Green Party puts up candidates for council, Senedd, and UK Parliament seats. Since 2018, the Wales Green Party has been ...

won 22 seats. The 2022 Welsh local elections were initially scheduled for 2021, to give councillors a four-year term, but they were delayed to 2022 to avoid clashing with the

2021 Senedd election The 2021 Senedd election took place on Thursday 6 May 2021 to elect 60 members to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). It was the sixth Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved general election since the Senedd (formerly the National Assembly for ...

. The 2021 Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act permanently changed the term length for councillors from four years to five years. Ahead of the 2022 elections, eleven of the twenty-two councils in Wales were under

no overall control In the context of local authorities in the United Kingdom no overall control (NOC; ) is a situation in which no single political group achieves a majority of seats, comparable to a hung parliament. Of the 248 councils who had members up for elec ...

with no single party holding more than half of the seats. Labour controlled seven councils, Independents controlled two councils, and the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru each controlled one council.

Process

To have been able to vote in the 2022 local elections in Wales a person must be aged 16 or over on the day of the election (also called "polling day"), have been registered to vote by the morning of the 14 April 2022, registered at an address in Wales, and not be legally excluded from voting. The deadline for applications to vote by post was 19 April 2022, of which a request must have been put in writing. Persons wishing to vote must also be one of the following: * a British citizen * an Irish or EU citizen * a qualifying Commonwealth citizen * a citizen of another country living in Scotland or Wales who has permission to enter or stay in the UK, or who does not need permission For this election, councils in Wales use

first-past-the-post voting First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

(FPTP) in single-member wards and

block voting Block or bloc voting refers to a class of electoral systems where multiple candidates are elected simultaneously. They do not guarantee minority representation and allow a group of voters (a voting bloc) to ensure that only their preferred candi ...

in multi-member wards. For the next election in 2027, councils will choose whether to conduct elections under FPTP or the

single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

, due to changes in legislation in Wales.

Principal councils

Elections were held for all councillors in all 22 local authorities, all of which were conducted under new boundaries. These boundary changes mean a number of seats have been redrawn and the total number of councillors in Wales will fall from 1,254 to 1,233, a decrease of 21.

Candidates

2,436 candidates sought election to 1,231 seats. : 1.Plaid Cymru figures include Plaid Cymru and Green Party Common Ground Alliance candidates in Cardiff.

Councils

Results

The Conservatives lost 86 councillors and lost control of the one council which they administered, Monmouthshire. Though Plaid Cymru lost a small amount of councillors, they consolidated and gained three councils. The Liberal Democrats became the largest party in Powys council. The Welsh Green Party gained 8 councillors across 7 councils.

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gained one councillor in Cardiff. Whilst Labour gained two councils and lost one, they gained 66 councillors across the country.

Analysis

Ward result maps

By council

File:2022 Isle of Anglesey County Council Election Map.png, Anglesey 2022 result map File:Cardiff Council Election 2022 results map.png, Cardiff 2022 result map File:2022 Ceredigion County Council election map.png, Ceredigion 2022 result map File:2022 Conwy County Borough Council Election.png, Conwy 2022 result map File:Denbighshire County Council 2022 Election results map.png, Denbighshire 2022 result map File:2022 Monmouthshire Council Election results.svg, Monmouthshire 2022 result map File:2022 Powys County Council Election Map.png, Powys 2022 result map File:Vale of Glamorgan Council 2022 Election results map.png, Vale of Glamorgan 2022 result map File:2022 Wales Wrexham Ward election results map.svg, Wrexham 2022 result map

References

{{Authority control Council elections in Wales May 2022 in the United Kingdom 2022 United Kingdom local elections