Government
The current borough boundaries date back to 1974, when the former county borough of Merthyr Tydfil expanded slightly to cover Vaynor in Breconshire and Bedlinog in Glamorgan. Merthyr Tydfil became a local government district in the administrative county of Mid Glamorgan at that time, although it reverted back to a county borough again on 1 April 1996.
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council is the governing body for the area. It consists of 33 councillors representing 11 wards. During the local government elections of 1 May 2008, the long-ruling Welsh Labour Party lost its majority control of Merthyr council as a cohort of independents took seats and the Liberal Democrats also made a significant breakthrough. The present composition of the council stands at Independents 13; Labour 10; Liberal Democrats 4; Merthyr Independents 3; 2 UKIP (elected as Independents) and 1 other.
Despite being widely regarded as one of its traditional heartlands, support for the Welsh Labour Party has waned significantly in recent years; as indeed the recent local election results confirm. In the 2005 General Election there was a 3.9% swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats and in the 2007 Welsh Assembly Election there was a massive 15.8% swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats. This was followed in the 2010 General Election by a further 16.9% swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats, the 3rd largest such swing in the United Kingdom. Labour's marority in the seat now stands at 4,000 votes.
The current Member of Parliament for the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency is Dai Havard, while the Welsh Assembly member is Huw Lewis AM.
Additionally, the Bedlinog Ward in the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, which covers the villages of Trelewis and Bedlinog in the neighbouring Taff Bargoed Valley, is governed by a separate local authority, Bedlinog Community Council, which consists of nine elected members, and whose powers and responsibilities cover the two villages within its area. The Ward is the only electoral area within the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council area with its own Council. The Council was created in 1974 by the former Gelligaer Urban District Council prior to its abolition and the subsequent transfer of Trelewis and Bedlinog into the Merthyr administrative area upon local government reorganisation in that year, to which most people in Bedlinog and Trelewis were opposed.
Read more about this topic: Merthyr Tydfil
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“Any man knows when he is justified, and all the wits in the world cannot enlighten him on that point. The murderer always knows that he is justly punished; but when a government takes the life of a man without the consent of his conscience, it is an audacious government, and is taking a step towards its own dissolution.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“I wish my countrymen to consider that whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can ever commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it. A government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length even become the laughing-stock of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches.”
—Thomas Paine (17371809)