1966 Cardiff City Council election

The 1966 Cardiff City Council election was held on Thursday 12 May 1966 to elect councillors to Cardiff City Council in Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales. It took place on the same day as several other county borough elections in Wales and England.

The previous elections to this one were in May 1965 and the next elections would be in May 1967.

The election saw the Labour Party lose control of the council to the Conservatives.^[1]

Background

Cardiff County Borough Council had been created in 1889. Cardiff became a city in 1905. Elections to the local authority were held annually, though not all council seats were included in each contest, because each of the three councillors in each ward stood down for election in rotation.

The council also included aldermen who were elected for a six-year period by the councillors.

At the 1965 Cardiff election the Conservatives had won seven seats from Labour and the Liberal Party, leaving Labour in control of the City Council as a result of the Lord Mayor's casting vote.^[2]

Overview of the result

Seventeen seats in 17 electoral wards were up for election in May 1966. All seats were contested by Labour and the Conservatives, three seats were contested by the Liberals, Independents stood in Grangetown and Gabalfa (where the Tories had won seats in 1965)^[2] and a sole Plaid Cymru candidate stood in Splott.

In Grangetown, the sitting Labour councillor Maxwell Christie was deselected by the Cardiff Labour Party, but stood as an Independent Labour candidate.^[3]

The Conservatives won two seats from Labour, in Grangetown and Canton, giving them a majority on the Council.

Council composition

Prior to the election the council had been divided with 34 seats held by Labour and 34 by the Conservatives.^[2] By dint of winning two seats, the Conservatives now had a majority of 36 to 32.

Ward results

Contests took place in every ward at this election.^[4]

Adamsdown

Adamsdown ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	John Iorwerth Jones *	1,485
	Conservative	Jeffrey Paul Sainsbury	647
	Liberal	Henry Charles Edwards	483
Majority			838
	Labour hold		Swing

Canton

Canton ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	William Albert John Adams	1,753
	Labour	George Thomas Cashman *	1,473
Majority			280
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Cathays

Cathays ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	Emyr Currie-Jones *	2,057
	Conservative	Thomas H. Ablett	1,617
	Liberal	George Parsons	1,489
Majority			440
	Labour hold		Swing

Central

Central ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Cecil Herbert Rapport *	2,021
	Labour	Manuel C. Delgado	1,149
Majority			872
	Conservative hold		Swing

Ely

Ely ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	Blanche Adelaide McDonald *	1,955
	Conservative	Roger Hambleton	1,265
Majority			690
	Labour hold		Swing

Gabalfa

Gabalfa ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	Gertrude Louise Baines *	1,762
	Conservative	Henry Peter Farthing	1,528
	Independent Labour	John Francis O'Sullivan	546
Majority			234
	Labour hold		Swing

Grangetown

Grangetown ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Norman William Henry Leworthy	1,345
	Labour	David Joseph Seligman	1,289
	Independent Labour	Maxwell Christie *	1,147
Majority			56
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Councillor Maxwell Christie was deselected by the Cardiff Labour Party, but stood as an Independent Labour candidate. He had been a Grangetown councillor since 1962. The local Labour Party threatened to expel him and his two main supporters.^[3]

Llandaff

Llandaff ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	(Sir) Charles Hallinan *	3,018
	Labour	Elizabeth Diane Toogood	836
Majority			2,182
	Conservative hold		Swing

Llanishen

Llanishen ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Joseph Gerald Gaskell *	3,349
	Labour	William John Phillips	1,375
	Liberal	John Evan Lee	1,086
Majority			1,974
	Conservative hold		Swing

Penylan

Penylan ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Gerard Alan Smith Turnbull *	4,295
	Labour	Armour Bernard Matthewson	920
Majority			3,375
	Conservative hold		Swing

Plasmawr

Plasmawr ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	William Campbell-Belfour	2,096
	Conservative	Robert Clive Mogridge	1,447
Majority			649
	Labour hold		Swing

Plasnewydd

Plasnewydd ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	Margaret Sylvia Jacobs *	1,928
	Conservative	Desmond Griffith Rees	1,748
Majority			180
	Labour hold		Swing

Riverside

Riverside ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Sidney William Doxsey *	1,853
	Labour	Doris Elizabeth Cashman	1,114
Majority			739
	Conservative hold		Swing

Roath

Roath ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Norman Lloyd-Edwards *	3,339
	Labour	David Melville Porter	843
Majority			2,496
	Conservative hold		Swing

Rumney

Rumney ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	Lilian Clarice Scrivens *	2,463
	Conservative	Joan Taylor	1,802
Majority			661
	Labour hold		Swing

South

South ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	Philip Dunleavy	1,724
	Conservative	John Anthony Clarke	1,165
Majority			559
	Labour hold		Swing

Splott

Splott ward 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Labour	David Myfyr Evans *	2,207
	Conservative	Brian Sandford Hill	1,471
	Plaid Cymru	Donald Arthur Nicholson	387
Majority			736
	Labour hold		Swing

* = 'retiring' ward councillor for re-election

References

^ "Tories in big poll come-back". South Wales Echo. 13 May 1966. p. 1.
^ ^a ^b ^c "South Wales goes to the polls - Socialists on the defensive". South Wales Echo. 12 May 1966. p. 9.
^ ^a ^b "Poll split widens as Coun. Christie again refuses to quit". South Wales Echo. 5 May 1966. p. 4.
^ "How South Wales Voted". South Wales Echo. 13 May 1966. p. 8.

[SWE_Tory_comeback-1] "Tories in big poll come-back". South Wales Echo. 13 May 1966. p. 1.

[SWE_Socialists_defensive-2] "South Wales goes to the polls - Socialists on the defensive". South Wales Echo. 12 May 1966. p. 9.

[SWE_Grangetown_split-3] "Poll split widens as Coun. Christie again refuses to quit". South Wales Echo. 5 May 1966. p. 4.

[SWE_results-4] "How South Wales Voted". South Wales Echo. 13 May 1966. p. 8.

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