On 23 June 2016, the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales was asked by the then Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government to restart its boundary reviews of the 22 local authorities local government ward boundaries, with the review expected to be completed for the 2022 local elections.[1]
A public consultation ahead of any draft proposals was held between 15 October 2018 and 7 January 2019.[1]
On 6 January 2020, the commission published its draft proposals, and held another consultation for 12 weeks between 14 January 2020 to 6 April 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales, the consultation was prematurely suspended on 27 March 2020, and reopened from the 1 July 2020 to 13 July 2020.[1]
Draft proposals
Under draft proposals, the LDBCW proposed a 55-member council (increase of 3), and 48 electoral wards (increase of 1), with 7 being two-councillor wards. 22 wards would be retained.[1]
Final proposals
Under final proposals, the LDBCW proposed a 56-member council, up 1 from the draft proposal and 4 from the existing configuration. An extra ward would be added to the proposals, to a total of 49 wards, compared to the pre-existing 47 wards. 24 wards would be retained, up from the proposed 22 in the draft proposals.[1]
In July 2021, the Welsh Government accepted the various ward change proposals made by the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales, with only slight modification, for Wrexham County Borough.[2] The number of electoral wards would increase from 47 to 49.[3] The number of councillors will increase by four, from 52 to a total of 56, giving an average of 1,801 electors per councillor.[2] These took effect from May 2021 following the election. The changes gave a better parity of representation. The Welsh Government rejected three recommendations on the names of three wards.[2] Twenty-four wards remained unchanged. Seven wards have two councillors, up from four wards having two councillors in 2017.[2] The changes came into force following the passing of The County Borough of Wrexham (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2021.[4]
Of the other wards, and not mentioning minor boundary changes, the major changes are:[1][5]
Acton ward expanded to include Maesydre as Acton and Maesydre
Bronington ward expanded to include Hanmer as Bronington and Hanmer
Bryn Cefn expanded to include parts of Brynteg ward
Gwenfro ward expanded to include parts of New Broughton and Brynteg wards
Parts of Abenbury wards moved to Whitegate ward, parts of Whitegate ward (near Newton Street) moved to Smithfield ward, and parts of Smithfield ward moved to Wynnstay ward
Split Cefn ward (a two councillor ward) into separate East and West wards (one councillor each), as Cefn East and Cefn West.
Refer to the dually named Dyffryn Ceiriog/Ceiriog Valley ward by only its Welsh name, Dyffryn Ceiriog
^All wards listed in this column are referring to the community electoral wards for their respective community councils. These wards are within the brackets following the name of the community. Many community wards share names with current and former county borough council electoral wards.
^"Pentre Yr Ardd", with "Yr" capitalised in source, was a name suggested by Wrexham County Borough Council for the electoral ward.[9] However, this recommendation was not applied, English name "Garden Village" is used in Welsh, following the Welsh Language Commissioner's standardisation policy,[10] as the commissioner stated they have no evidence of a used Welsh name for the settlement.
^The Welsh name Marchwiail was proposed by the LDBCW to be the name for the ward in both Welsh and English, but rejected by the Welsh Government in July 2021. The ward would be known as Marchwiel in both Welsh and English.
^Initially proposed as Y Mwynglawdd by the LDBCW, rejected by the Welsh Government in July 2021 for Mwynglawdd.
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