Well it's old news by now but here are the final results for NPT
However, while this is clearly how the Council is now made up, those trends of gains and losses are misleading. This is why.
In 2012, following the last local government elections Labour had an impressive 52 seats, Plaid had 8 seats and there were 4 "Other" - Independents.
But since 2012, we've had various by-elections and recent defections from Labour following deselection of sitting Labour councillors (and because Finbarr wouldn't sit straight in his chair a few years ago). And by the time of the 4 May election, this was the situation in NPT:
Labour 42 Plaid 8 Independent Unaffiliated 9 Independent Democrats 4
You'll note this gives only 63 seats not 64. That's because of the death a few months ago of John Bryant, the PC Councillor for Bryncoch North. That seat remained vacant until the election just been when it was retained for Plaid by Wyndham Griffiths.
You could say that the electorate has broadly reinforced, at least in the numbers game, the Labour representation at Council due to internal defections - in fact, given Labour one more!
This is how the individual wards stand now:
iN THE ABOVE TABLE, NEW COUNCILLORS ARE SHOWN IN BLUE ITALICS. THOSE WHO WERE PREVIOUS COUNCILLORS AND RETAINED SEATS ARE SHOWN IN BLACK ITALICS
Apologies that the image above has lost the Port Talbot ward and 2 of its 3 councillors. (I wish we could in real life). They are three Labour councillors who in fact had a shoo-in because no other candidates stood against them.
--------------------------------------
For lovers of historical fact, when the 2008 local elections were over, this was the make up of NPT.
Labour 37 Plaid 11 SDP 3 Ratepayers 3 Independents 6 Lib Dem 4
2012 was a great election year for Welsh Labour in NPT, with us being under a deeply unpopular Tory/Lib Dem national coalition. The global economic collapse was some 4 years previous, plus we were 2 years into the effects of the austerity measures introduced as the policy of that coalition government. Lib Dem seats were lost as Labour locally reaped the benefits of some tough national decisions that had been made.
But I find it hard to believe that Welsh Labour has actually got 6 seats more in 2017 (43) than it had in 2008 (37). Are the electorate mad? Are they putting some hypnotic chemical into our water round here? Please someone tell me what on earth Welsh Labour has done in the last decade here in Neath to possibly justify this?
I have to blame the opposition as well, they have to shoulder some responsibility for this. When you have to deal with a nasty, rabid, old dog that ought to be put down, you don't do it by trying to be nice. You get a fucking big stick to smack it with when it inevitably turns on you, and you don't give up on your task until the job is done. Just because you didn't get it euthanised in 2008, you don't leave it to build up its strength for four years then have another crack at it in 2012. Then let it chew on its bones another five years. You need to pester that dog unmercifully. You need that dog to know you are there 24/7, just waiting to deliver the fatal blow. You want to get that dog so paranoid and fearful, it can't concentrate on gnawing the bone, because it's so shit scared of you.
If you don't want to do it because you've grown to really like the wretched creature after sharing its bed for so long, then step aside and let someone else have a crack.
Neil McEvoy has done precisely that in Cardiff's local politics and does it every day in the Welsh Assembly. I've spoken to loads of people, including non-Plaid voters, who have said to me, "if only we had a Neil McEvoy here as well". Sadly, there's only one Neil. But people like him do exist across the land. It's just a matter of identifying them, signing them up and letting them off the leash.
That's how strongly I feel about Plaid's efforts in these elections and perhaps more importantly - the years between our elections. Not from their individual councillors, many of whom have fought amazing campaigns and some of whom have had unbelievable results. IT'S THOSE THAT LED THEIR CAMPAIGN NEED TO TAKE A LONG, HARD LOOK AS TO WHETHER THEY ARE UP TO THE JOB. Too many open goals to score votes against Labour were missed or wilfully ignored.Your Plaid membership and candidates deserve better. The electorate deserve better.
There, I feel a bit better for getting that off my chest.
-------------------------------------------------
COMING UP (very soon I hope)
That's the dead boring bits out of the way with a brief history lesson to really send you reaching for a drink.
STaN will next post up a tour of the Neath and valleys' wards, where it'll be (hopefully) a lot less boring and we'll meet some of the characters involved as well as some of the stories of the elections.
I'll break it up into 2 or 3 bites as there are so many wards. Not decided yet whether to go alphabetically or geographically, as you'd do a round the valleys drive. We'll see.
