1972 Cardiff City Council election

The 1972 Cardiff City Council election was held on Thursday 4 May 1972 to elect councillors to Cardiff City Council in Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales. It took place on the same day as several other county borough elections in Wales and England.

The previous elections to this one were in May 1971. The 1972 election would be the final all-Cardiff election to this council before the dissolution of the unitary authority and the creation of the new second-tier district authority of Cardiff City Council in 1974.

The election saw the Labour Party taking a significant number of seats, to cut the Conservative Party majority.

Cardiff County Borough Council had been created in 1889. Cardiff became a city in 1905. Elections to the local authority were held annually, though not all council seats were included in each contest, because each of the three councillors in each ward stood down for election in rotation. The councillors elected in 1972 would only serve for less two years, before the dissolution of the Council in April 1974.

There were a total of 76 seats on the council, including 19 aldermen.^[1]

Nineteen seats in 19 electoral wards were up for election in May 1972. The Labour Party won an additional ten seats on the council, mainly from the ruling Conservative Party, cutting the Tory majority to 12.^[2] One of the gains was in the Whitchurch ward, which until last year had been a Tory stronghold.^[2]

Contests for one ward councillor seat took place in each of the nineteen wards at this election.^[3]

Adamsdown ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Iorwerth Jones *	1,316
	Conservative	Christopher Paterson	391
	Independent	Thelma Mackie	57
Majority			925
	Labour hold		Swing

Canton ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George E. Bayliss	1,396
	Conservative	William Albert J. Adams *	1,316
Majority			80
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Cathays ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Derek Allinson	1,988
	Conservative	David John Evans *	1,587
	Plaid Cymru	Gareth Ap Sion	430
	People's Candidate	Morris W. Bradshaw	165
Majority			401
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Central ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John D. Leonard *	1,535
	Conservative	Bernard H. Rees	932
Majority			603
	Labour hold		Swing

Ely ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Thomas Clifford Lee	2,674
	Conservative	John F. G. Phillips *	775
	Plaid Cymru	Charles Stephen Cravos	524
Majority			1,899
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Gabalfa ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Michael Jn. Parry	2,290
	Conservative	Gwilym Haydn Jones *	1,405
Majority			885
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Grangetown ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	(Mrs) E. M. Matthewson	1,543
	Conservative	Lawrence Charles Johnson *	876
Majority			667
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Llandaff ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Keith Flynn *	2,041
	Labour	Carys Meinir Evans	727
	Plaid Cymru	Gwen Humphreys	614
Majority			1,314
	Conservative hold		Swing

Llanishen ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jeffrey P. Sainsbury *	2,579
	Labour	Leslie Bernard Goodrum	2,131
	Liberal	Olive Mary Langdon	924
Majority			448
	Conservative hold		Swing

Penylan ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Stefan Terlezki	4,087
	Labour	Violet Jones	2,007
Majority			2,080
	Conservative hold		Swing

Plasmawr ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Fred George Tyrrell	2,385
	Plaid Cymru	(Dr) Dafydd Hughes*	1,584
	Conservative	Doreen Muriel Norman	859
Majority			801
	Labour gain from Plaid Cymru		Swing

Plasnewydd ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Geoffrey Donald Edmunds *	1,489
	Labour	Patrick Joseph Troy	1,361
	Plaid Cymru	Philip Brian Richards	431
	Liberal	Henry Charles Edwards	358
Majority			128
	Conservative hold		Swing

Rhiwbina ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William John A. Bain *	2,145
	Plaid Cymru	H. Lloyd Davies	964
	Liberal	Howard John O'Brien	803
	Labour	Mervyn G. Powell-Davies	785
Majority			1,191
	Conservative hold		Swing

Riverside ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alec Johnson *	1,219
	Labour	John A. Hennessey	1,013
	Plaid Cymru	Roy A. Lee	315
	Liberal	Richard M. James	131
Majority			206
	Conservative hold		Swing

Roath ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gerald Michael Brinks *	2,093
	Labour	Fred Hodges	802
	Plaid Cymru	Paul Anthony Cravos	379
Majority			1,291
	Conservative hold		Swing

Rumney ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Randall Phillips	3,122
	Conservative	David Howard Burnett	1,071
	Independent	(Dr) Bryan Sandford-Hill *	514
Majority			2,051
	Labour gain from Independent		Swing

South ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Frederick John Smith	2,011
	Conservative	David Stanley Cooper *	779
Majority			1,232
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Splott ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Dermot R. Ormond	2,239
	Conservative	Cyril Frederick Hutchings *	1,128
	Communist	Stella Garrett Jones	94
Majority			1,111
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Whitchurch ward 1972

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Philip Norton	2,569
	Conservative	John Meurig Davies *	2,399
Majority			170
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

* = 'retiring' ward councillor for re-election

• 1973 Cardiff City Council election