The Labour Party retained Cardiff in the last Local Election because stood against budget cuts and delivered an improvement on certain services, according to Ali Ahmed, a counsellor from the Butetown ward.
“Labour has run Cardiff in the last five years. We had massive cuts from the government. Almost 45 million every year. But we handle to deliver good services to the people of Cardiff, and that is why residents voted for us again”, said the counsellor in an interview.
“Firstly we achieved our recycling target. Our streets are much cleaner compared to five years ago, and before, that was a problem. Also, our education system is better than five years ago”, he added.
Ahmed said that in the case of education, the system in Cardiff was below average compared to the rest of Wales, and now is above that level. The counsellor also mentioned that there were improvements in the conditions of the roads, a factor that improves safety for drivers.
“We also introduced a speed limit, a state of the art bus station in Cardiff, and the Bay has improved”.
According to the election results, the Welsh Labour retained the control of Cardiff Council. However, the Conservatives won 20 seats, an increase of 13. In total, Labour kept 40 seats, a decrease of 6 compared to 2012.
Although the Labour Party won 380 seats in all Wales, they lost 97, while the Conservative Party increased their share by 71 seats, the larger increase among all parties, securing a total of 260. Independents increased their share by 15 seats, with a total hold of 260 seats.
The Local Election 2017 was a victory for the conservatives, with losses of Labour in Wales, England and Scotland. The UKIP also suffered significant losses and their seats were absorbed mostly by the Conservative Party.
