Council rejects plans to reform town and community councils

Lewis Smith Local Democracy Reporter

Members of Bridgend County Borough Council have rejected plans for changes to the area’s town and community councils.

The proposals which are part of an electoral review could eventually result in a number of town and community councils across Bridgend being abolished, along with the the introduction of a policy for a minimum electorate size.

This would mean that all councils in the borough would need to have a minimum of 5,000 registered voters in the future, with the smaller ones potentially being abolished or merged with larger community councils.

Bridgend currently has 20 town and community councils across the borough, which are made up of four town councils and 16 community councils.

The last full review of these was carried out in 2009 and is said to follow an approximate 10-year cycle.

The proposals were discussed by councillors at a meeting held in October 2025, where there was a unanimous vote against the plans to reduce this number to 13.

Speaking at the meeting the leader of the council, Cllr John Spanswick questioned if implementing a 5,000 minimum electorate size was the right move, and if it would improve democratic deficit for councils in Bridgend.

He added that it was difficult to support the plan when there was a clear majority of people who did not want to close or merge the councils that represented their local areas.

Others agreed, and felt if they wanted to strengthen local democracy and engage with the public, boundary reviews that erased smaller councils were not the way forward.

While there was some support for the plans in certain areas where people were fine with merging for the “greater good”, Cllr Martin Williams described the overall plans as disappointing with many aspects that did not make sense.

Cost

Councillor Alex Williams asked what type of financial cost the rejection would have for the authority if the proposals were not accepted.

Officers said they were unsure of cost at this time though noted that the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales would step in to take over the review in time for the 2032 elections if it was not taken forward.

Cllr Ian Spiller said while he accepted that a minimum electorate of 5,000 may not be the correct number, residents and members had been given the opportunity to take part in a consultation which had led to it being approved by the authority.

He also said it would be “unpalatable” for the commission to come in and force changes that they had no say in, given the amount of time and resource that had been spent on the review.

However, after a lengthy debate members felt the plans could take the voice away from residents in a number of areas across Bridgend, with a decision made to reject them unanimously.

This was done in the hope that they can now create a revised size policy before the Boundary Commission step in, which they could then use when carrying out their own review.