Tensions emerge over renaming Welsh Assembly the Senedd

bbc

A law renaming the assembly the Senedd will include an English explanation of the word's meaning, the institution's presiding officer has said.

BBC Wales understands some AMs were unhappy with Elin Jones's plan to give the institution a Welsh-only name.

Ms Jones, who is in charge of assembly day-to-day business, said most AMs backed Senedd name, meaning parliament.

Welsh language campaigners accused her of "opening the door on giving the institution a de facto bilingual name".

However the Conservatives said a "fully bilingual name" was what they wanted, and the assembly should become "Senedd Cymru/ Welsh Parliament".

A bill to rename the institution and cut the voting age to 16 in assembly elections is expected in the next couple of weeks.

Last November Ms Jones told AMs she had decided the assembly would be given the "monolingual name 'Senedd' and that members will be referred to as 'Aelodau'r Senedd/Members of the Senedd'".

Some assembly members, including most Conservatives, were opposed to the decision, BBC Wales has been told. One said the plan had been "watered down".

An assembly source said there had been a "compromise".

In an interview with BBC's Sunday Politics Wales programme, Ms Jones said the name Senedd "seems to me to have the greatest support" among AMs.

"Of course, we are a Welsh parliament, we are a Senedd now, and we do need to call ourselves that," she said.

"Formally this institution will be called the Senedd, if the members agree to that legislation.

"The legislation itself will describe the Senedd as the Welsh parliament.

"Members, people in Wales, people outside of Wales who don't speak Welsh will of course be able to use the terms Senedd and hopefully that will become more familiar to more people.

"But of course it needs to be described as the Welsh parliament because that is of more immediate understanding to those people who don't speak Welsh.

"But over time the formal name will establish itself."