Sam Rowlands | |
|---|---|
 Rowlands in 2021 | |
| Member of the Senedd for North Wales | |
| Assumed office 8 May 2021 | |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | Natasha Rowlands |
| Children | 3 |
| Committees | Local Government and Housing Committee |
Sam Rowlands is a Welsh Conservative politician serving as Member of the Senedd (MS) for the North Wales electoral region since 2021, [1] and Shadow Minister for Local Government. [2] He also formerly served as Leader of Conwy County Borough Council from 2019 to 2021.
Rowlands worked for HSBC from 2009 to 2019 as a credit risk manager. [3]
Rowlands is married, and has three daughters. [3]
Rowlands began his career as a member of Conwy County Borough Council [4] and Abergele Town Council, [5] being first elected in the 2008 Welsh Local Government Elections. [6] He represented the Pentre Mawr electoral ward. He served as the mayor of Abergele from 2015 to 2016. [7] Rowlands also stood in the Vale of Clwyd in the 2016 Welsh Assembly Election. [8] He was not elected.
After the 2017 Conwy County Borough Council elections, Rowlands formed part of the minority Conservative-Independent administration run by Gareth Jones, [9] serving as the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources between June 2017 and June 2019. In June 2019, Rowlands was removed from this role by Jones, after holding talks to take control of the council. [10] [11] Rowlands then tabled a no-confidence motion in Jones' leadership, and took control of the council, [11] [12] which he led until 2021, when he resigned as leader upon being elected as Member of the Senedd for the North Wales electoral region. [13] [14] He served the remainder of his term as a Councillor, leaving the role at the 2022 elections, which he did not contest. [13]
Following his election to the Senedd, Rowlands re-established the Cross Party Group on Tourism, championing the role of the sector in the North Wales economy. [15] Rowlands led a campaign working with Conwy County Borough Council to re-establish the Conwy County Borough School's Football Association in 2021. [16] Rowlands has spoken on the importance of sport to keep people fit and healthy as well as a driver for economic development in the Welsh Parliament. In 2022 he also became the Chairman of Welsh Parliament Cross Party Group on the Outdoor Activity Sector.
During July 2022 Rowlands's proposed Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill was drawn in the Welsh Parliament's ballot of proposed member's bills. [17] On 26 October 2022 the Welsh Parliament voted to allow time and resources to be committed to developing this legislation further, with Conservative, Plaid Cymru and Liberal Democrat MSs supporting the decision and the Labour Party attempting to block the bill from being developed. [18]
Conwy County Borough is a county borough in the north of Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south and Denbighshire to the east. The largest settlement is Colwyn Bay, and Conwy is the administrative centre.
Clwyd is a preserved county of Wales, situated in the north-east corner of the country; it is named after the River Clwyd, which runs through the area. To the north lies the Irish Sea, with the English ceremonial counties of Cheshire to the east and Shropshire to the south-east. Powys and Gwynedd lie to the south and west respectively. Clwyd also shares a maritime boundary with Merseyside along the River Dee. Between 1974 and 1996, a slightly different area had a county council, with local government functions shared with six district councils. In 1996, Clwyd was abolished, and the new principal areas of Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham County Borough were created; under this reorganisation, "Clwyd" became a preserved county, with the name being retained for certain ceremonial functions.
North Wales is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia National Park and the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley, known for its mountains, waterfalls and trails, wholly within the region. Its population is concentrated in the north-east and northern coastal areas, with significant Welsh-speaking populations in its western and rural areas. North Wales is imprecisely defined, lacking any exact definition or administrative structure. It is commonly defined administratively as its six most northern principal areas, but other definitions exist, with Montgomeryshire historically considered to be part of the region.
Dafydd Elis Elis-Thomas, Baron Elis-Thomas,, is a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from 1984 to 1991 and represented the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency in the Senedd from 1999 to 2021.
Laura Anne Jones is a Conservative politician who has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for the South Wales East electoral region since July 2020, having previously held the same seat as an Assembly Member (AM) in the National Assembly for Wales between 2003 and 2007. Jones also served as a county councillor for the Wyesham ward in Monmouthshire County Council from 2017 to 2022.
South Wales East is an electoral region of the Senedd, consisting of eight constituencies. The region elects 12 members, eight directly elected constituency members and four additional members. The electoral region was first used in 1999, when the National Assembly for Wales was created.
There are four types of elections in Wales: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to the devolved Senedd, local elections to community councils and the 22 principal areas, and the Police and Crime Commissioner elections. In addition there are by-elections for each aforementioned election. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday. Three of these four types of elections are held after fixed periods; the exception is UK general elections, the timing of which is at the discretion of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Senedd elections may be postponed to avoid elections to the UK parliament and Senedd coinciding with each other.
Conwy County Borough Council is the local authority for Conwy County Borough, one of the principal areas of Wales.
Gareth Jones OBE is a Welsh politician. He was a member of the National Assembly for Wales for the Conwy from 1999 until 2003 when he lost by 72 votes. He sought a successful re-election to the newly created Aberconwy constituency in 2007 before retiring in 2011. He was also Leader of Conwy County Borough Council, from 2017 to 2019, and a Llandudno town councillor representing the Craig-y-Don ward. He was formerly a member of Plaid Cymru, but left in 2017 after attempting to form a council administration in Conwy containing Welsh Conservatives, which the national party would not allow. He ran an independent administration of the council until 2019, when the Conservatives took control of the council.
Darren David Millar is a Welsh Conservative politician who has served as the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Clwyd West since 2007.
The Welsh Conservatives is the branch of the United Kingdom Conservative Party that operates in Wales. At Westminster elections, it is the second-most popular political party in Wales, having obtained the second-largest share of the vote at every general election since 1931. In Senedd elections, the Conservatives are currently the second-most supported party but have at times been third. They hold 14 of the 40 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament, and 16 of the 60 seats in the Senedd.
Janet Elizabeth Finch-Saunders is a Welsh Conservative Party politician. She is the Member of the Senedd for the Aberconwy constituency.
Llŷr Huws Gruffydd, is a Welsh Plaid Cymru politician, serving as a Member of the Senedd (MS) for the North Wales region since 2011. He acted as interim leader of Plaid Cymru from 16 May to 16 June 2023.
The 2021 Senedd election took place on Thursday 6 May 2021 to elect 60 members to the Senedd. It was the sixth devolved general election since the Senedd was established in 1999. The election was held alongside the Scottish Parliament election, English local elections, London Assembly and mayoral election and the Hartlepool by-election.
Gele is the name of one of the electoral wards in the town and community of Abergele, Conwy County Borough, Wales. It covers the southern part of the town and a more rural area to the southeast including the settlement of St George. It takes its name from the River Gele which runs through the western part of the ward.
In the Senedd, the Leader of the Opposition is the leader of the Official Opposition, the largest political party that is not in the Welsh Government. The Leader of the Opposition leads and appoints members of the Shadow Cabinet and as such is sometimes styled as the Shadow First Minister of Wales.
Gareth Lloyd Davies is a Welsh Conservative politician who has been Member of the Senedd (MS) for Vale of Clwyd since 2021. He is the first Conservative to win this seat since its establishment in 1999.
Tom Giffard is a Welsh Conservative politician who has served as Member of the Senedd (MS) for the region of South Wales West since 2021.
Joel James is a Welsh Conservative politician who has served as a Member of the Senedd (MS) for the region of South Wales Central since the 2021 Senedd election.
Clwyd North is a future constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, it will first be contested at the next general election.
Current members of the Senedd | |||||
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| Labour (30) | |||||
| Conservatives (16) |
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| Plaid Cymru (12) |
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| Liberal Democrats (1) |
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| Independent (1) |
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