All 79 (previously 75) seats to Cardiff Council 40 seats needed for a majority
First party
Second party
Third party
Leader
Huw Thomas
Adrian Robson
Rhys Taylor
Party
Labour
Conservative
Liberal Democrats
Leader's seat
Splott
Rhiwbina
Gabalfa
Last election
40
20
11
Seats before
39
21
11
Seats won
55
11
10
Seat change
15
9
1
Fourth party
Fifth party
Leader
Neil McEvoy
Party
Common Ground
Propel
Leader's seat
Fairwater
Last election
New party
New party
Seats before
4
3
Seats won
2
1
Seat change
2
1
Map showing the results of the 2022 Cardiff Council elections.
Council control before election
Labour
Council control after election
Labour
The 2022 Cardiff Council election took place on 5 May 2022[1] to elect 79 members to Cardiff Council. On the same day, elections were held to the other 21 local authorities and to community councils in Wales as part of the 2022 Welsh local elections.
The 2022 election had been postponed from 2021, and was contested under new ward boundaries, which also increased the number of seats from 75 to 79.[2] The next election will take place in 2027, following an increase in the council term from four years to five years.
At the election, Labour maintained its overall control of the council, increasing its number of seats from 40 at the last election to 55. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats lost ten seats and one seat respectively, to a total of 11 and 10, while Common Ground, an electoral pact between Plaid Cymru and Wales Green Party, won two seats. Propel won one seat.
Background
Postponement
Council elections in Wales were originally scheduled for May 2021, but were delayed to avoid a conflict with the 2021 Senedd election.[3]
The length of council term was also increased from four years to five years to avoid future clashes, meaning that, after 2022, the next council election is expected in 2027.[3]
Ward changes
The number of councillors increased from 75 to 79 at the 2022 election, with a number of ward changes.[4]
In October 2021, Cardiff Council accepted a number of ward change proposals for the next election made by the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales, with only slight modification.[2] The changes gave a better parity of representation. Twenty-one wards remained unchanged.[4] Of the other wards:[2][5]
Butetown increased from one to three councillors.
Creigiau/St Fagans merged with the Pentyrch ward and was renamed "Pentyrch and St Fagans", with a total increase in councillors from two to three.
Grangetown increased from three to four councillors.
Lisvane was renamed "Lisvane and Thornhill", with the addition of Thornhill from the neighbouring Llanishen ward, and increased from one to three councillors.
Llanishen decreased from four to two councillors following the transfer of Thornhill to Lisvane.
The Labour group have been in control of Cardiff Council since 2012.
In 2019, three by-elections (Ely, February 2019; Cyncoed, July 2019; and Whitchurch & Tongwynlais, October 2019) were called following the deaths of the sitting councillors.[6][7][8] Plaid Cymru gained the Ely seat from Labour,[6] while the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives held their seats in the other by-elections.[9][10]
In March 2018, Cllr Neil McEvoy was expelled from Plaid Cymru after allegedly disruptive behaviour at the party's 2017 spring conference.[11] Following the controversy, in October 2019, the three remaining Plaid Cymru councillors resigned their whips, and formed an independent group with McEvoy.[12] McEvoy and Cllrs Keith Parry and Lisa Ford would later join McEvoy's new party Propel, while Cllr Andrea Gibson, who won the Ely by-election, was elected for Common Ground in Pentyrch and St Fagans at the 2022 election.
In November 2019, the Conservatives gained a seat in Llanishen following a by-election triggered by the resignation of the sitting Labour councillor.[13][14] In November 2021, Labour won a by-election in Heath following the resignation of an independent councillor.[15]
The Welsh Cladiators, a residents group campaigning against fire defective buildings, hoped to stand in the Butetown ward, but ultimately did not.[16]
In September 2021, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party announced an electoral pact which would see them fielding a joint slate of candidates in Cardiff. Neither party had sitting councillors: Plaid Cymru's councillors elected in 2017 had been either expelled or had quit the party.[1] In the election, the two parties fielded a common slate of candidates, known as the Common Ground Alliance.[17] Of the 70 Common Ground Alliance candidates, 46 were from Plaid Cymru with the remaining 24 from the Green Party.[18] The alliance's campaign was formally launched on 24 April 2022.[19]
In the election, Common Ground won 17% of votes across the city, coming third behind Labour and the Conservatives.[20] They won two seats, both in the Pentyrch and St Fagans ward,[21][22] while the Liberal Democrats returned 10 councillors on a smaller share of the vote.[20]
The Alliance's elected councillors are Andrea Gibson and Rhys Owain Livesey.[22]
Candidates by party
A total of 358 candidates stood for the 79 seats on the council, an average of 4.5 candidates per seat. Eleven parties or alliances stood candidates, plus two independent candidates.
Both the Labour and the Conservatives stood the full 79 candidates. The Common Ground Alliance and the Liberal Democrats stood in all 28 wards, while Propel stood in 21 wards (75%) and the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition stood in 15 wards (54%).
^Votes in this table are the total for the top candidate for each party in each ward. Votes % is calculated as the votes for the party divided by the total votes in this table (110,003). Vote change is compared with the same calculations for 2017.
^ abCommon Ground Alliance figures compared with combined previous Plaid Cymru and Green Party performance.
Ward results
* = sitting councillor in this ward prior to election
Sitting councillors, McEvoy, Ford and Parry, were elected for Plaid Cymru at the 2017 election. McEvoy was expelled, Ford and Parry later resigned and sat as Independents.[27] McEvoy later founded a new party, Propel.
In this election Labour gained two seats from Plaid Cymru, and McEvoy retained his seat representing a gain for Propel from Plaid Cymru.
Sitting councillor, Julie Sangani, had been elected at a by-election in November 2021, following the retirement of long standing Independent councillor Fenella Bowden.[28]
Boundary changes resulted in the community of Thornhill being moved out of the ward at this election (merging with Lisvane to form the new Lisvane and Thornhill ward). Prior to the election all seats were held by Conservative councillors.
Common Ground candidate Andrea Gibson was elected as a Plaid Cymru councillor for Ely in a by-election in February 2019.[29] Gibson left Plaid Cymru in October 2019[27] and later sat as an independent.[30]
This ward was formed by a merger of Pentyrch and Creigiau/St Fagans, which both elected one Conservative councillor each in 2017. In this election, Pentyrch and St Fagans elected three councillors (a net increase of one).
Labour leader Huw Thomas put the parties success down the parties track record and a "positive campaign".[31] The party had reached an historic third term in power, going forward Thomas promised to make Cardiff "stronger, greener, and fairer".[31]
Adrian Robson leader of the Cardiff Conservatives blamed the election results on the national picture,[32] Conservative party leader and Prime Minister Boris Johnson had become under fire for parties hosted during lockdown (See: Partygate)
^ ab"Plaid Cymru and Greens form Cardiff council election pact". BBC News. 24 September 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
^ abcAlex Seabrook (5 October 2021). "Cardiff will get four extra councillors in May as electoral ward boundaries redrawn". Wales Online. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
^ abMosalski, Ruth (24 September 2019). "The date of the next council elections in Wales has moved". Wales Online. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
^ ab"Plaid Cymru beat Labour in Cardiff council's Ely by-election". Wales Online. 22 February 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
^Discombe, Matt (18 May 2019). "'Gentle and courageous' Cardiff councillor Wendy Congreve dies after battle with illness". Wales Online. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
^Discombe, Matt (6 June 2019). "'Father of Cardiff Council' Tim Davies has died aged 77". Wales Online. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
^"Cyncoed By Election - Tuesday 16th July, 2019". City of Cardiff Council. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
^"Whitchurch and Tongwynlais By-Election - Thursday, 3rd October, 2019". City of Cardiff Council. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
^"Neil McEvoy drops Plaid Cymru membership bid". BBC News. 10 July 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
^"Plaid Cymru Cardiff councillors resign party whip". BBC News. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
^"Llanishen By Election - Thursday, 21st November, 2019". City of Cardiff Council. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
^Discombe, Matt (18 May 2019). "Former leader of Cardiff council Phil Bale to step away from politics". Wales Online. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
^Seabrook, Alex (2 November 2021). "The candidates battling to win Cardiff's by-election next week after councillor retires". Wales Online. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
^Graham-Brown, Daisy (30 November 2021). "Campaigners appeal for cladding victims to stand at council elections". The Cardiffian. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
^Owen, Twm (8 April 2022). "Plaid Cymru launch local election campaign on Tory ground". The National. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
^"Council elections 2022: Green Party predicts double figure result in Wales". BBC News. 12 April 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
^Ruth Mosalski (19 April 2022). "Plaid Cymru and Green Party alliance reveal their plans for Cardiff". Wales Online. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
^ ab"Election results by party, 5 May 2022 : Cardiff Council". cardiff.moderngov.co.uk. 5 May 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
^ ab"Cardiff local election results 2022: Labour leader describes party victory as 'historic' as it grows seat number". Wales Online. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
^ ab"Election results for Pentyrch and St Fagans, 5 May 2022 : Cardiff Council". cardiff.moderngov.co.uk. 5 May 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
^"Election results by party, 5 May 2022". Cardiff Council. 5 May 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaab"Statement of Persons Nominated (County)". Cardiff Council. Cardiff Council. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaab"Election results by wards - Cardiff Council Elections 2022 - Thursday, 5th May, 2022". Cardiff Council. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaab"Report on the May 2022 elections in Wales". Electoral Commission. 21 September 2022. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
^ ab"Plaid Cymru Cardiff councillors resign party whip". BBC News. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
^"Labour wins by-election in Cardiff gaining a councillor in Heath and Birchgrove". Wales Online. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
^ abBarnes, Ed; Mosalski, Ruth; Hayward, Will; Seabrook, Alex (6 May 2022). "Cardiff Labour leader describes party's election victory as 'historic'". Wales Online. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
^Mansfield, Mark (6 May 2022). "Labour hold Cardiff council and win third term increasing majority by 16 seats". Nation.Cymru. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
^"Grangetown By Election - Thursday 26 April, 2024". City of Cardiff Council. 26 April 2024. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
^"Emotional tributes as councillor and beloved community figure dies suddenly". Wales Online. 16 February 2024. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
External links
Party manifestos
Manifesto for Cardiff 2022, Common Ground Alliance
Putting Cardiff First: A Promise of Action, Conservative Party
Stronger Fairer Greener - Welsh Labour's Manifesto for Cardiff 2022, Labour Party
Manifesto 2022 - Greener, fairer, safer Cardiff, Liberal Democrats