Valleys are a lesson in local party organisation

Apr 22 2008 by Martin Shipton, Western Mail

WHEN Plaid Cymru took both the Rhondda National Assembly seat and control of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council (RCT) in 1999, we were told the party had finally made the historic breakthrough it had been longing for in the Valleys.

While not underestimating the achievement in winning one of Labour’s safest seats in Wales, those with a longer political memory than the last election realised they had heard the same message before.

In the 1970s Plaid briefly won control of Merthyr and Rhymney Valley councils, and in the 1990s it ran Taff Ely. But winning the Rhondda Assembly seat in 1999 – as well as those at Islwyn and Llanelli – suggested a major change in the Welsh political landscape was under way.

Whatever may happen in next week’s council elections, it seems highly unlikely that Plaid will repeat in RCT its triumph of 1999. In many parts of the county borough, there is precious little evidence that Plaid is in contention at all. At a time when Gordon Brown’s Government at Westminster is on the ropes, it is at the very least surprising that Labour’s control of RCT isn’t apparently under threat.

Instead we have a situation where in many wards Plaid has failed to field a full complement of candidates, even in places where they had councillors until four years ago.

One reason why Labour may have secured its position locally is that a lot of party resources have been poured into the area, aimed at getting away from the previous perception that the party was taking its support for granted. Chris Bryant and Leighton Andrews, respectively Rhondda’s MP and AM, may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they are shrewd operators who have wisely decided to fight what have become their safe seats as if they were marginals.

It would not be safe, however, to draw any wider conclusions about Plaid’s level of support across the country. The party is optimistic about its chances of winning Caerphilly, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, as well as holding off a challenge from the newly formed Llais Gwynedd, in the only authority that remains under its control. However much Mr Bryant and his colleagues would like to wish Plaid away, the party is a force to be reckoned with and not to be underestimated.

The lesson to draw from Plaid’s apparent decline in RCT is that without a strong team of local volunteers who are prepared to work for the party week in, week out, it has little chance of success.

In areas where it does have a finely-tuned organisation, however, it is able to build on its support and seize significant victories of the kind we saw in Llanelli and Aberconwy last year.