North Wales local elections 2017: Gwynedd constituency profile

Gwynedd has long been a Plaid Cymru heartland but in recent local elections it has faced a challenge from the Llais Gwynedd group.

The party was formed in reaction to the Plaid run council closing rural schools and made headway in the 2008 elections.

Since then it has been a persistent thorn in the side to the council leadership.

As with other councils, cuts to spending have become a big issue as the authority tries to deal with a difficult financial situation.

The county has already made the headlines when nominations for this election closed.

Nearly a third of council seats will be uncontested as 21 wards will have only one candidate standing.

Current make up of the council:

Plaid Cymru – 39

Independent – 21

Llais Gwynedd – 7

Labour – 4

Liberal Democrats – 2

Individual member – 2

European referendum:

Gwynedd voted to remain in the European Union in last summer’s referendum.

Remain won the day by 35,517 votes to 25,665 votes.

Welsh language

In the last census 77,000 people were recorded as being able to speak Welsh with 40,789 saying they could not speak the language.

Population

In the 2011 census the population of the county was 121,874.

Candidates

There are 156 candidates running for 75 seats in this week’s election. The number of candidate standing for each party is:

Conservative – 3

Independent – 46

Labour – 15

Liberal Democrat – 5

Llais Gwynedd – 17

Plaid Cymru – 67

Socialist Labour – 2

Ukip – 1

General Election:

There are two constituencies covering the Gwynedd council area for both the UK parliament and the Welsh Assembly – Arfon and Dwyfor Meirionnydd.

General Election 2015: Arfon

Plaid Cymru: Hywel Williams 11,790

Labour: Alun Pugh 8,122.

Conservative: Anwen Barry 3,521

UKIP: Simon Wall 2,277

Liberal Democrat: Mohammed Shultan 718

Socialist Labour: Kathrine Jones 409

Liz Saville Roberts and Hywel Williams both voted against triggering Brexit

General Election 2015: Dwyfor Meirionnydd

Plaid Cymru: Liz Saville-Roberts 11,811

Conservative: Neil Fairlamb 6,550

Labour: Mary Clarke 3,904

UKIP: Christopher Gillibrand 3,126

Independent: Louise Hughes 1,388

Liberal Democrat: Steven Churchman 1,153

Green: Marc Fothergill 981

Welsh Assembly Election 2016 result: Arfon

Plaid Cymru: Siân Gwenllian 10,962

Labour: Sion Jones 6,800

Conservative: Martin Peet 1,655

Liberal Democrats: Sara Lloyd Williams 577

Welsh Assembly Election 2016 result: Dwyfor Meirionnydd

Plaid Cymru: Dafydd Elis-Thomas 9,566

Conservative: Neil Fairlamb 3,160

Labour: Ian MacIntyre 2,44

UKIP: Frank Wykes: 2,149

Independent: Louise Hughes 1,259

Liberal Democrats: Stephen Churchman 916

Green: Alice Hooker-Stroud 743