I.

Introduction

Neath Port Talbot (Welsh, Castell-nedd Port Talbot), county borough and unitary authority, southern Wales, bounded on the north by the counties of Carmarthenshire and Powys, on the east by the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taff, on the south-east and south by the county borough of Bridgend, on the south by Swansea Bay, and on the west by the county of Swansea. The county borough came into existence on April 1, 1996, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1994, which changed the structure of local administration in Wales from a two-tier system of county and district councils to a single-tier system of unitary authorities. It comprises the majority of the former county of West Glamorgan, as well as all of the districts of Neath and Port Talbot in the east, centre, and south, and about half of the district of Lliw Valley in the north-west. Before 1974, when West Glamorgan was created under the local government reorganization implemented in that year, the territory covered by the county borough was part of the county of Glamorgan. Neath Port Talbot has an area of 442 sq km (171 sq mi).