Which Welsh council has the highest Tariff 1 flag?

Torfaen (Cwmbran) at £4.90 for the first mile, checked against that council table. Bridgend is next at £4.60 for the first half-mile. Always read the yards with the flag.

Is Swansea the cheapest in Wales?

On the full 22-council compare table, Swansea’s Tariff 1 flag is the lowest at £2.50. That is not a private-hire quote, and flag yards still differ by council.

Why can’t I rank by flag alone?

Some flags buy a mile. Some buy a few hundred yards. A higher flag can still be a shorter start. Use the town page for the full table and a worked mile.

Which Welsh councils have the highest Tariff 1

People ask for the “most expensive taxi town in Wales.” The honest answer starts with which number you mean. A Tariff 1 flag is the start of the meter. The yards inside that flag are not the same in every council.

Featured towns, ranked by Tariff 1 flag

Know Wales compares featured towns on /taxi-fares/compare. Against the tables we hold (mostly checked 19 August 2026; Cardiff 24 August 2026):

1. Cwmbran (Torfaen) — £4.90 for the first mile. 2. Bridgend — £4.60 for the first half-mile. 3. Llanelli (Carmarthenshire) — £4.50 for the first mile. 4. Tenby (Pembrokeshire) — £4.00 for the first mile. 5. Cardiff — £3.50 for the first 250 yards. 6. Newport — £3.50 for the first 100 yards. 7. Neath — £3.40 for the first 1,232 yards. 8. Barry — £3.10 for the first half-mile. 9. Wrexham — £2.80 for the first half-mile. 10. Swansea — £2.50 for the first ⅛ mile (220 yards).

Cwmbran tops this flag list. Swansea sits at the bottom of it. That is not a private-hire league, and it is not every one of the 22 Welsh councils — only the featured set on the compare page.

Why the flag alone misleads

Cardiff and Newport share a £3.50 flag. Newport’s flag covers only 100 yards. Cardiff’s covers 250. After the flag, each table’s increment is different. A “cheap” flag with a short distance can catch up on a two-mile run.

Cwmbran’s £4.90 already buys a full mile. Bridgend’s £4.60 buys half a mile, then the mile rate continues. Ranking flags without yards is how a chart lies.

For a worked daytime example, open the town page: Cwmbran, Cardiff, Swansea. Each page names the council source and the checked date.

Night and extras sit outside this chart

Tariff 1 is the daytime (or standard) band. Friday night is often Tariff 2 or 3 — see Friday night taxi vs the weekday table. Soiling and a fifth passenger are extras — see meter extras. A Christmas window can be a flat add-on or a whole festive tariff.

How to use the compare page

Use /taxi-fares/compare to scan flags. Then open the town you are actually hiring in. The meter follows the council that licensed that hackney, not the town that looked cheapest on a chart. Cross a county line and the table can change — see why fares change across county lines.

If a council raises the flag next month, the compare page and this note both need a fresh check date. Until then, treat the numbers above as the featured snapshot, not a forever ranking.

What this ranking is for

News desks use it when someone claims “Wales has one taxi price.” It does not. Tourism partners use it when a visitor asks why a Tenby flag looks higher than a Swansea one. Money sites use it next to a worked mile on that town page.

It is not a shopping list for the cheapest rank in the country. You hire the car that is licensed for the place you are in. You read that table. You pay that meter — plus any printed extras — or you book private hire and agree the quote first.