The 1970 Cardiff City Council election was held on Thursday 7 May 1970 to elect councillors to

Cardiff City Council Cardiff City Council was the local government district authority that administered the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales, from 1974 until 1996. The district council replaced the pre-1974 county borough council. It was succeeded in 1996 by Car ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It took place on the same day as many other local elections in Wales and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The previous elections to this one were in May 1969 and the next elections would be in May 1971. These would be some of the last all-Cardiff elections before the dissolution of the unitary authority and the creation of the new second-tier district authority of

in 1974. The election saw the Labour Party taking seats from the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Background

Cardiff County Borough Council had been created in 1889. Cardiff became a city in 1905. Elections to the local authority were held annually, though not all council seats were included in each contest, because each of the three councillors in each ward stood down for election in rotation. The councillors elected in 1970 would be the last to serve a full three year term in office. Nineteen seats in 19

electoral wards The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and distri ...

were up for election in May 1970.

Overview of the result

The Labour Party recovered the position they had been in prior to the 1967 election, gaining three seats from the Conservatives. This was credited to the fact Labour's supporters had come out to vote, rather than staying home as they had done at the last election. The campaign against the new hook road in the north of the city was a factor. Two wards where Labour made gains,

Cathays Cathays ( ; Welsh: officially ''Cathays'' but also , 'the constant meadow') is a district and community in the centre of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It is an old suburb of Cardiff established in 1875. It is very densely populated and contains ma ...

and

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

, were directly affected. Bill Herbert, who won in the Central ward, was chairman of the Cardiff United Residents Association and a leading campaigner against the new road. The most prominent casualty of the election was Councillor Mary Hallinan, the Lady Mayoress, who lost her seat in the Central ward. The morning after the election, the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Alderman Lincoln Hallinan, broke an 18 year tradition when he refused to welcome the three newly elected (Labour) councillors, Herbert, Matthewson and Edwards, in his parlour. He later agreed to meet them before the first council meeting the following week. Despite winning their first seat on the council in 1969, and fielding a large number of candidates at the 1970 election,

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

performed poorly, though managed to come second in

Llandaff Llandaff (; cy, Llandaf ; from 'church' and '' Taf'') is a district, community and coterminous electoral ward in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It was incorporated into the city in 1922. It is the seat of the Bishop of Llandaff, whose ...

Council composition

Following the May 1970 election the balance on the city council was 57 Conservatives, 18 Labour and one Plaid Cymru.

Background

Overview of the result

Council composition

Ward results

Adamsdown

Canton

Cathays

Central

Ely

Gabalfa

Grangetown

Llanishen

Llandaff

Penylan

Plasmawr

Plasnewydd

Rhiwbina

Riverside

Roath

Rumney

South

Splott

Whitchurch

References