Mountain Ash is an

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

Rhondda Cynon Taf Rhondda Cynon Taf (; RCT; also spelt as Rhondda Cynon Taff) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff (Welsh: ''Taf'') and Ely valleys, plus a number of towns and vil ...

, electing two councillors to

Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council ( cy, Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Rhondda Cynon Taf) is the governing body for Rhondda Cynon Taf, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. The council headquarters are located in the community of Cwm Clydach o ...

. It was re-created by the merger of Mountain Ash East and Mountain Ash West, following a local government boundary review, effective from 5 May 2022, the date of the

2022 Welsh local elections The 2022 Welsh local elections are due to be held on 5 May 2022 to elect members of all twenty-two local authorities in Wales. They are being held alongside other local elections in the United Kingdom. The last elections were held in 2017. Bac ...

. The Mountain Ash ward covers the

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

of Mountain Ash East and Mountain Ash West. It is a two-seat ward.

Background

Mountain Ash was created as an electoral ward to

Mid Glamorgan County Council Mid Glamorgan County Council () was the upper-tier authority for the Welsh county of Mid Glamorgan between its creation in 1974 and its abolition in 1996. History Local government in England and Wales was reorganised in 1974 under the Local Govern ...

in 1988, subsequently electing a

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 ...

councillor,

Pauline Jarman Pauline Jarman (born 15 December 1945) is a Welsh politician. She was the Plaid Cymru National Assembly for Wales Member for South Wales Central from 1999 to 2003 as well as being leader of Rhondda Cynon Taff Council from 1999 - 2004. Educated ...

, at the 1989 and 1993 local elections. Upon the creation of the new unitary authority of Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough in 1996, Mountain Ash was divided between Mountain Ash East and Mountain Ash West wards.

2022 county borough election

At the

2022 Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council election The 2022 Rhondda Cynon Taf election took place on 5 May 2022 to elect 54 members across 46 wards to Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. On the same day, elections were to the other 21 local authorities and to community councils in Wales as par ...

the council leader,

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

's Andrew Morgan, and the former leader (and leader of the

group on the council) Pauline Jarman, were pitted against one another in the new ward. Morgan was the retiring councillor for Mountain Ash West and Jarman had been the councillor for Mountain Ash East. Morgan and fellow Labour candidate Wendy Treeby (who had also been a Mountain Ash West councillor) won the new seats. Jarman had been a councillor for 46 years. After the result, she pledged to "wallow in the luxury of my family now" and spend her new free time finishing a book she had been writing.

References

{{reflist Mid Glamorgan electoral wards Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf Wards of Rhondda Cynon Taf