Tory councillor argues against Welsh only names

Twm Owen Local Democracy Reporter

Welsh only names shouldn’t be imposed on a council which should stick to using English and Welsh, a Tory councillor has said. 

Welsh names could be suggested for council areas, known as wards, under a review of electoral arrangements such as how many people there should be in each area and how many councillors an authority has. 

But Conservative Louise Brown, who represents Shirenewton near Chepstow on Monmouthshire County Council, said she would like to continue with bilingual names. 

She told the council’s democratic services committee, which was considering how it should respond to a consultation by the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru: “I would argue for bilingual names. I would like my ward called Shirenewton and its Welsh equivalent.” 

She said new Senedd constituencies, for the 2026 election, have Welsh only names and said: “I don’t think that works.”

Disagreement

Labour member for Abergavenny Park ward, Tudor Thomas, said he “strongly disagreed” with Cllr Brown and said: “We do live in Wales.” 

He said councils in Scotland have Scottish names but his party colleague, Croesonen member Su McConnell said while she agreed with Cllr Thomas on using Welsh names he was wrong to believe Scottish names were in use. 

She said: “I’m from Scotland and the names of councils although they may sound Scottish they are not, the Gaelic disappeared a long time ago, it’s a tragedy.” 

Conservative member for Gobion Fawr, Alistair Neill, who is also Scottish said he believed a “pragmatic approach should be taken” and said “it appears to me bilingual would be appropriate.” 

Cllr Neill said members would struggle to spell many Scottish place names such as Ecclefechan which is Eaglais Fheichein in Scottish Gaelic.

“A sense of history”

Party colleague Rachel Buckler, who represents Devauden, said she had grown up in Sutherland and had a lot of experience of “the Gaelic as a child” and noted many names are Norse in origin “that gives you a sense of history and helps tether you to the land”. 

She added: “I think bilingualism gives you the sense of history. I’m a proponent of the Welsh language thriving and our children learning it and it being embedded in Wales but I also think we should note the history of the principality of Wales and I’m a proponent of bilingualism.” 

Cllr Buckler said she also thought the views of communities should be considered. 

Labour’s Peter Strong said he was “personally happy to use Welsh names where appropriate” but said he didn’t think there is a Welsh word for his Rogiet ward. 

The committee, whose comments will be provided to the council’s Labour-led cabinet, said it believed there should be “flexibility” on using Welsh or bilingual names while it also said it wanted changes to wards, made ahead of the 2022 elections, to settle in before any further changes are made in Monmouthshire where the number of councillors increased, by three, to 46. 

The committee said it accepted how the boundary commission has agreed the council should have between 41 to 48 members and there should be flexibility within that range for the number of councillors needed, recognising Portskewett could have up to 50 per cent more voters than the average elector to councillor ratio of 1,634. 

The committee also said it preferred single member over multi-member wards, which elect more than one councillor, of which there are currently six in Monmouthshire.