2012 Welsh local elections

The 2012 Welsh local elections took place on 3 May 2012 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 2008.

2012 Welsh local elections

← 2008 3 May 2012 (2012-05-03) 2017 →

All 1,235 seats to 21 of 22 Welsh councils[1]
  First party Second party
 
Leader Carwyn Jones Leanne Wood
Party Labour Plaid Cymru
Leader since 10 December 2009 16 March 2012
Last election 340 seats, 27.0%[2][3] 198 seats, 16.7%
Seats won 577 158
Seat change Increase237 Decrease40
Popular vote 304,466 134,201
Popular vote (%) 35.6% 15.7%
Swing (pp) Increase8.6% Decrease1.0%

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Andrew RT Davies Kirsty Williams
Party Conservative Liberal Democrats
Leader since 14 July 2011 8 December 2008
Last election 172 seats, 15.9% 163 seats, 13.2%
Seats won 105 72
Seat change Decrease67 Decrease92
Popular vote 108,580 68,619
Popular vote (%) 12.7% 8.0%
Swing (pp) Decrease3.2% Decrease5.2%

Colours denote the winning party with outright control (left), and the largest party by ward (right)
Key:

The Labour Party made gains at the expense of the other three major parties and of independents. Labour won majority control of ten councils—up eight from the 2008 local elections—while two remained under the control of independents and nine councils had no overall control.

The Welsh Government announced that elections for Anglesey council would be postponed to May 2013.[4]

Results

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Party Votes[5] % +/- Councils +/- Seats +/-
Labour 304,466 35.6%  8.6% 10  8 577  237
Independent 201,110 23.5%  1.5% 2  1 286  25
Plaid Cymru 134,201 15.7%  1.0% 0   158  40
Conservative 108,580 12.7%  3.2% 0  2 105  68
Liberal Democrats 68,619 8.0%  5.2% 0   72  92
Green 10,310 1.2%  0.5% 0   0  
UKIP 2,552 0.3%  0.1% 0   2  2
Other 25,542 3.0%  1.3% 0   25  15
No overall control n/a n/a n/a 9  5 n/a n/a

For comparative purposes, the table above shows changes since 2008 excluding Anglesey, which was not up for election.

Councils

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Council 2008 result 2012 result Details
Blaenau Gwent No overall control Labour gain Details
Bridgend No overall control Labour gain Details
Caerphilly No overall control Labour gain Details
Cardiff No overall control Labour gain Details
Carmarthenshire No overall control No overall control hold Details
Ceredigion No overall control No overall control hold Details
Conwy No overall control No overall control hold Details
Denbighshire No overall control No overall control hold Details
Flintshire No overall control No overall control hold Details
Gwynedd No overall control No overall control hold Details
Merthyr Tydfil Independent Labour gain Details
Monmouthshire Conservative No overall control gain Details
Neath Port Talbot Labour Labour hold Details
Newport No overall control Labour gain Details
Pembrokeshire Independent Independent hold Details
Powys Independent Independent hold Details
Rhondda Cynon Taff Labour Labour hold Details
Swansea No overall control Labour gain Details
Torfaen No overall control Labour gain Details
Vale of Glamorgan Conservative No overall control gain Details
Wrexham No overall control No overall control hold Details

Isle of Anglesey

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Elections to the Isle of Anglesey County Council were postponed for a year, to May 2013, because of a review of electoral arrangements for the island.[4] The result of the postponed election saw the Independents lose their majority, with Plaid Cymru hoping to form a coalition with Labour.[6]

Opinion polling

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Date(s)
conducted
Polling organisation/client Sample size Lab Con PC Lib Dem Others Lead
3 May 2012 2012 Welsh local elections 853,593 36.0% 12.8% 15.8% 8.1% 27.3% 20.2%
12-16 Apr 2012 YouGov 1039 48% 17% 14% 7% 14% 31%
1 May 2008 2008 Welsh local elections 950,216 27.0% 15.9% 16.7% 13.2% 28.2% 11.1%

Notes

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References

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  1. ^ "Local Election Results 2012" (PDF). National Assembly for Wales. May 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  2. ^ "Local Elections Handbook 2008" (PDF). Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, Local Government Chronicle Elections Centre, University of Plymouth. 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  3. ^ Note that these 2008 results exclude Anglesey for the purposes of comparison and thus do not match up exactly to the 2008 Wales-wide results
  4. ^ a b "Anglesey council election postponed for year to 2013". BBC News. 17 January 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2012. Local government elections on Anglesey have been delayed for a year. It will mean people on the island will elect their new council in May 2013, 12 months later than in the rest of Wales.
  5. ^ "Year Tables | Elections Centre". electionscentre.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 June 2016.
  6. ^ "Anglesey election: Plaid to seek Labour council deal". BBC News. 3 May 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
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