Talk:West Wales

West Wales Image
I have removed the map because it inaccurately portrays the region including Swansea but excluding Ceredigion. Please do not reinsert it, rather try to find a more accurate image. Thank you Welshleprechaun (talk) 17:20, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

As someone who lived for many years on Gower Road in Swansea I know from first hand experience that most of the local population regard themselves as both in South Wales and in West Wales. This is not a problem since these areas are only vaguely defined but walking round Swansea market there is a very clear sense of much greater cultural, economic and social links with Wales west of Swansea, in Llanelli and Carmarthenshire, than there is with Cardiff and the Vale. Your exclusion of a useful map says more about your POV than about how the poeple of Swansea feel.  Velela  Velela Talk 17:24, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Again, please do not reinstate image. It's a biased version based on one interpretation of the boundaries, ie. including Swansea whereas if Swansea is mentioned in national media, it's nearly always Swansea, South Wales. I haven't inserted an image based on my point of view so please don't do the same. Welshleprechaun (talk) 10:21, 11 July 2009 (UTC)


 * South Wales and West Wales aren't mutually exclusive concepts; you could say places such as Swansea and Pembrokeshire (and even Neath Port Talbot) are in both regions. For example, Swansea and Neath Port Talbot (but not Ceredigion) are covered by the West Wales Chamber of Commerce and were covered by the former West Wales TEC. Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Ceredigion are all served by the Mid and West Wales Fire Brigade. The EU NUTS2 region "West Wales and the Valleys" region includes more westerly parts of North Wales. Other concepts of West Wales include only Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire - for example, here's an estate agent in the area. In EU geographical terminology, this more limited area is actually called "South West Wales". In conclusion, there is no universal definition of West Wales! Pondle (talk) 11:13, 11 July 2009 (UTC)


 * The map shows boundaries - that is, including Swansea but not Ceredigion - used by the Learning and Skills Observatory for Wales (an agency of the Welsh Assembly Government) - where the area shown is described as South West Wales (sic). Other definitions, such as this one, show "West Wales" as including Ceredigion but excluding Swansea.  There are many definitions of "West Wales", and no single official definition.  It is a region with no clear boundaries, and one which can overlap with other regions, such as "South Wales".  The best solution would either be for the article to show no map at all; or, if any map is used, that it be clearly captioned as showing only one (referenced) definition of the area. Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:32, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Administration
Please note that South West Wales is different to South Wales and West Wales and can't really be put on par with them. It can be said that Swansea is in South West Wales rather than South East Wales but it's in South Wales rather than West Wales. Welshleprechaun (talk) 01:05, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Swansea and Neath Port Talbot were part of the former "West Wales TEC" area. They are also covered by the Mid and West Wales Fire Brigade.Pondle (talk) 18:15, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

That may be but such organisations do not define the administration of the area! Welshleprechaun (talk) 18:47, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm not claiming that they do. But they do reveal that the definition of 'west Wales' is rather loose, as several public agencies include or once included Swansea and NPT in a west Wales region. If you want to clarify the administrative geography of West Wales look at the link I provided to the maps in the annex of the Wales Spatial Plan.Pondle (talk) 19:16, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Small tidies?
The paragraph explaining that the boundaries of West Wales are inexact has been deleted (under the edit summary ' small tidies '). 'The northern boundary of West Wales is equally vague. Many organisations have used the River Dovey as the boundary with everything north of the river being part of North Wales with Aberystwyth and Machynlleth at the western edge of Mid Wales. Since these areas have no political, economic, cartographic or ethnic significance but are simply used as shorthand in describing events and places in Wales, it is likely that exact boundaries are relatively unimportant.' Why? Daicaregos (talk) 12:51, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Image again
I see that the request for arbitration has been turned down. I have removed the image, since it is clearly inaccurate and misleading. I am prepared to protect the page to prevent its re-insertion if necessary. Now, let's all go and look for a more helpful image. Deb (talk) 11:45, 14 July 2009 (UTC)