Lower Loughor is an electoral ward in the City and County of Swansea

Swansea

Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. The ward covers the western part of the town of Loughor

Loughor

Loughor is a town in the City and County of Swansea, Wales, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. It lies on the estuary of the River Loughor. The town has a community council called Llwchwr....

 in the parliamentary constituency of Gower

Gower (UK Parliament constituency)

Gower is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament , using the first-past-the-post voting system....

.

It is bounded by the wards of Gowerton

Gowerton (electoral ward)

Gowerton is the name of an electoral ward, a community in the county of Swansea, Wales, UK. It is named after Gowerton village which falls within the ward....

 to the west; the Loughor estuary to the north and Upper Loughor

Upper Loughor

Upper Loughor is an electoral ward in the City and County of Swansea, Wales. The ward covers the eastern part of the town of Loughor in the parliamentary constituency of Gower....

 to the east.

Lower Loughour consists of an area of salt marsh

Salt marsh

A salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salt water or brackish water, it is dominated by dense stands of halophytic plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh...

 south of the A484 road

A484 road

The A484 road is an A road in Wales connecting Swansea with Cardigan.The road begins at Cadle in Swansea and heads westwards as a southern bypass to Loughor. It continues over the Loughor bridge into Bynea, Carmarthenshire. It continues through the centre of Llanelli and traverses near the south...

and a suburban settlement north of the A484. The settlement of Lower Loughor can be traced back to Swansea's early coal mining industry with mines, and an iron foundry dating back to the 1730s. By 1869, the St. David's tinplate works was well established across the river and the village of Loughor had grown significantly by 1876. The construction of a permanent bridge across the River Loughor in 1923, linking Swansea with Llanelli, encouraged further expansion of Loughor.

Some worker houses from the 19th Century still remain in the area close to the estuary. A substantial Post War Local Authority housing estate was developed in the 1930s. Further local authority housing was developed in the 1970s and in the early 2000s more housing has been built. About 28% of the properties in the area are detached houses with about 36% of the housing stock being semi-detached.

In the 2008 local council elections, the electorate turnout was 36.89%. The results were:

Candidate	Party	Votes	Status
Julie Christine Richards	Lab	284	Lab hold
Clive Ernest Watters	Ind	141
Andrew Froude Fritche	Cons	120
James Michael Dunckley	Plaid	110