The 1971 Cardiff City Council election was held on Thursday 13 May 1971 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 ...

in Cardiff,

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

, Wales. It took place on the same day as several other county borough elections in Wales and England. The previous elections to this one were in May 1970 and the next elections would be in May 1972. The 1971 election would be the penultimate all-Cardiff election 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 a significant number of seats back from the Conservatives.

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 1971 would serve for less than three years, before the dissolution of the present Council in April 1974. The local government elections took place in the context of Edward Heath's new Conservative UK government (which had been elected only 11 months previously) and rising prices and unemployment.

Overview of the result

Nineteen seats in 19 electoral wards were up for election in May 1971. In what was described as a "night of disaster for the Conservatives" the Labour Party more than recovered the position they had been in Cardiff prior to the 1967 elections. Labour gained a total of 11 seats, including one in the previous Tory stronghold of Whitchurch. A number of former Cardiff Labour councillors won their seats back, including Eva Davies, Emyr Currie-Jones,

Philip Dunleavy Philip Dunleavy CBE (5 October 1915 - 13 January 1996) was a Labour Party councillor in Cardiff, Wales. He was Lord Mayor of Cardiff 1982-83 and leader of Cardiff City Council for five years.Tony Heat"OBITUARY: Philip Dunleavy" '' The Indepen ...

, Harold Bartlett and Dengar Evans.

Council composition

Following the May 1970 election the balance on the city council was 57 Conservatives, 18 Labour and one Plaid Cymru. With 11 out of 19 seats changing hands in May 1971, Cardiff Labour chairman Cllr

Jack Brooks Jack Brooks may refer to: * Jack Brooks (cricketer) (born 1984), English cricketer *Jack Brooks (footballer) (1904–1973), English footballer *Jack Brooks (lyricist) (1912–1971), British-American lyricist *Jack Brooks (American politician) (1922� ...

called for the other two thirds of Cardiff seats to be put up for election, saying it was unfair that the Conservatives should remain in control.

Ward results

Contests took place in every ward at this election.

Adamsdown

Canton

Cathays

Central

Ely

Gabalfa

Grangetown

Llanishen

Llandaff

Penylan

Plasmawr

Plasnewydd

Rhiwbina

Riverside

Roath

Rumney

South

Splott

Whitchurch

* = 'retiring' ward councillor for re-election

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 1971 Cardiff Council elections in Cardiff 1970s in Cardiff