A row is brewing over the name of the new Senedd constituency being created in time for the 2026 elections.

Sixteen new constituencies across Wales are being created by 2026 when the Welsh Parliament will be extended by a further 36 politicians.

In December the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru, which has created the new boundaries by pairing the 32 existing Westminster constituencies, announced most would have only Welsh language names. Only four will have bilingual names where words such as east or west are included in the name.

Conservative councillor for Raglan, Penny Jones, asked if Monmouthshire council would support a bilingual name for the new constituency which will see Monmouthshire paired with Torfaen, and named Mynwy Torfaen.

Councillor Angela Sandles, the Labour cabinet member responsible for equalities, has aid while the council has suggested an amendment to the name, it is to add an additional Welsh word.

The Caldicot councillor said: “In our submission we requested a change to Sir Fynwy / Torfaen to better reflect the county rather than the locality, Monmouth.”

‘Sir’ is the Welsh for county, while the Welsh name for Monmouth is Trefynwy which combines ‘tref’ for town with the name of the river, Gwy (Wye).

Cllr Jones said she was opposed to a Welsh only name and had originally asked “how can the residents of Monmouthshire be assured that this administration is working on their behalf to maintain the identity of Monmouthshire and all that that embodies?”

She then said the council’s democratic services committee wasn’t given the opportunity to discuss the commission’s consultation and said “the name change seems to have slipped under the radar.”

Cllr Jones had asked for the council to “give feedback” making it clear councillors hadn’t been directly aware of the name change and asked the council support maintaining bilingual names.

She said: “Many residents are angry at the imposition of constituency name changes that are not bilingual and it must not be forgotten despite the Welsh Government target of one million Welsh speakers by 2050 that would only mean one in three would do so and it is not the first language of Monmouthshire.”

Cllr Sandles said councillors and others had the opportunity to respond to the commission’s consultation and also reminded councillors the 2026 boundaries are set to be further reviewed ahead of the following Senedd election in 2030.

She said that may have “more significant changes” for Monmouthshire which at present remains as a whole county in one constituency, rather than being split between two as was the case with old Westminster seats that were redrawn before the last general election.

Cllr Sandles said it also needed to be established whether the Monmouthshire referred to was the county established by Henry VIII, that was in place for more than 400 years, or the current boundaries based on 1996 local government reorganisation.

A new proportional system is being used to elect six Senedd Members electing each new constituency.

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