An election to the Carmarthenshire County Council was held in April 1952. It was preceded by the 1949 election and followed, by the 1955 election.
Contents
Overview of the result
After capturing control of the Council for the first time in 1949, Labour strengthened their hold by gaining an additional six seats in the Llanelli area. These included the two new wards created after boundary changes and the two wards in Llanelli town lost in by-elections in 1949. This counterbalanced the loss of Llangeler where Labour did not field a candidate. This was augmented by taking seven of the nine vacancies on the aldermanic bench.
Boundary changes
Two additional seats were created, at Burry Port and Felinfoel.
Retiring aldermen
The aldermen who retired at the election were ...
Retiring Labour councillors Haydn Lewis and Evan Bevan stood down in Ammanford and Llandybie respectively to allow Aldermen Frank Davies, and D.B. Lewis to be returned unopposed. Likewise, H.H. Harries and J.H. Davies stood down in Llandissilio and Llansteffan in favour of Edward James and T.Ll. Harries. Aldermen John Phillips (Cwmamman) and J.D. Rees (St Clears) withdrew at the last moment.
Unopposed returns
34 members were returned unopposed, which included both rural and urban seats.
Contested elections
25 seats were contested, including a number of instances where rival Independents fought each other. As in 1949, Independents sought to fight elections in Llanelli as a group, but had little success. Following the elections, Labour held all nine wards in Llanelli town for the first time.
A number of retiring aldermen stood as candidates and were returned unopposed. In Carmarthen, Alderman William Edwards, a member of the Council since 1928, stood in a town ward rather than in Llangunnor which he represented as a councilor until 1946. Edwards was defeated by the retiring Labour member.
Summary of results
This section summarises the detailed results which are noted in the following sections.
This table summarises the result of the elections in all wards. 53 councillors were elected.
Burry Port East
Boundary Change
Burry Port West
Boundary Change
Felinfoel
Boundary Change
Hengoed
Boundary Change
Election of aldermen
In addition to the 59 councillors the council consisted of 19 county aldermen. Aldermen were elected by the council, and served a six-year term. Following the elections, seven of the nine aldermanic vacancies were taken by Labour. The leader of the Labour group, Douglas Hughes, justified this by stating that the Independents had behaved in a similar fashion over many years.
By-elections
Following the selection of aldermen the following by-elections were held. Four members of the previous authority who had stood down in favour of retiring aldermen were now returned unopposed. The two contested elections included a strong showing by Plaid Cymru in Ammanford.