Weekly Round Up with Victoria

27 March 2026

Hi Everyone,

As Monitoring Officer and Head of Legal and Democratic services, I wanted to update you on the work underway ahead of the upcoming Senedd Elections and explain how this shapes our activity across the organisation.

As a Council, we play a vital role in upholding local democracy and ensuring that all elections within our constituency are delivered in a free, fair and well-managed way.

Our Democratic Services Team continues to do fantastic, often unseen work to make this happen and I want to recognise and thank them.

Most recently, this included Operational Manager James Langridge-Thomas and Electoral Registration Public Awareness Officer Linda Savory giving up their Saturday to attend a scout camp and help young people register to vote. This is an example of the Council’s work in raising awareness of democracy, and many may not know that the Service regularly work with Schools to host School Senedd events, alongside visiting Community Groups across the Vale.

This was an excellent example of collaborative working across teams. Well done both.

Thank you also to Rhys Turner, Democratic and Scrutiny Services Officer for quickly producing the supporting presentation material.

Looking ahead to May, the Senedd Election will operate differently to previous years, with the introduction of a party-list voting system, a form or proportional representation. Voters will select a party, not an individual candidate representing a party, and each party can put forward up to eight names on their list. Seats are then allocated based on the percentage of votes each party receives. The ballot paper will also include independent candidates that electors can vote for.

The number of Senedd Members will increase from 60 to 96, with each serving a four-year term and the number of constituencies will reduce from 40 to 16.

The Vale and Bridgend Parliamentary Constituency areas together make up Pen-Y-Bont Bro Morgannwg, from which six candidates will be elected to the Senedd.

Unlike other recent elections, the vote count and declaration, delivered by Returning Officer Rob Thomas, will take place at Barry Leisure centre instead of Barry Memorial Hall, on Friday the May 8, the day after polling stations close.

Our Election Project Team, led by Electoral Services Manager Rachel Starr, has been meeting regularly for several months to ensure robust planning for both polling day and the count. This is a significant logistical operation, involving ballot papers cast across both the Vale and Bridgend, and will require 108 Counting Assistants processing the ballots, 18 Team Leaders and three Senior Supervisors.

Earlier this week, I delivered a presentation to the Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) and Heads of Service on the rules relating to politically restricted posts and the responsibilities of Chief Officers during election period. As of today, we have formally entered the pre-election period, which carries important implications for all staff.

The session was delivered with the Senedd election in mind but also provided an opportunity to look ahead to the Local Government elections in May 2027.

During this period, the Council must remain politically neutral and avoid any activity that could be perceived as influencing public opinion.

This means we must not:

• Publish or share content on politically controversial issues.
• Reference, photograph, film or promote politicians or candidates in any Council communications.
• Arrange media opportunities, events or photocalls involving candidates.
• Provide council images or video to political groups unless guaranteed it will not be used for campaigning.
• Support party political visits using Council resources.

However, it remains entirely appropriate to:

• Continue normal Council business, including statutory functions like planning, social care, education, housing and other functions.
• Issue factual, neutral information e.g. how residents can vote or register.
• Correct inaccuracies with factual statements.
• Continue established non-political campaigns (e.g. for recycling and foster care) where stopping them would waste public money.

For social media, it is important:

• Not to engage with, share or comment on political content.
• Avoid posting anything that may be viewed as controversial.
• Remove political comments posted by others on Council managed channels.
• Only run campaign activity that was planned before the pre-election period and is non-political.
• Ensure any third-party profiles managed by staff comply, or hand control to non-Council partners.

On staff activity more generally:

• Politically restricted post-holders must not take part in campaigning.
• Other staff may campaign only in their own time and never using Council resources.
• Councillors may speak to media independently but not using Council facilities.

Please also avoid opening ceremonies or PR events involving politicians and ensure notice boards include only essential election information.

If anyone is unsure about any aspect of this guidance, please don’t hesitate to contact me, Rob Thomas as Returning Officer, or colleagues in the Communications or Electoral Services Team.

Thanks to all for your hard work this week. It is always inspiring to see the breadth of excellent work happening across the Council.

For those not in work, I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Best regards,

Vicky