Proposed: Beverley and Holderness Constituency to be retained
| October 16, 2012 | Filled under Beverley, Consultation, Debate, Holderness, Politics, South West Holderness |
Beverley and Holderness Constituency No. 4 on this map – Retained
THE PROPOSAL to include South West Holderness Ward in a new enlarged East Hull constituency has been dropped by the Boundary Commission for England (BCE).
In the BCE’s revised proposals, it now recommends retaining the existing Beverley and Holderness constituency unchanged. In making its revised proposals the BCE says it is mindful of the local ties that would be broken by some of its earlier proposals:
“A particular example raised many times by contributors to the review, in many different places, was the lack of affinity an elector felt for an urban area, as they lived in a rural setting. The converse situation was also raised frequently by urban constituents, who identified with their town but not the adjacent rural hinterland that they saw as a very separate community.” BCE, Yorkshire and Humberside revised proposals.
Graham Stuart MP has welcomed the amended proposals which he says provide “continuity for the region and do not seek to ‘slice up’ the constituency as previously planned.”
One of the driving factors behind boundary change proposals in the local area is the fact that Hull cannot sustain its existing three constituencies with lower than average electorate numbers. This primarily is what had prompted the proposed incorporation of the ward of South West Holderness into the Hull East constituency.
Following the consultation on the initial proposals, the BCE has now concluded that the evidence favours looking to the west of Hull (notably the Cottingham and Haltemprice areas) in order to find the additional electorate.
Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice is the proposed new constituency that would incorporate wards from the existing constituency of Hull West and Hessle as well as wards of East Yorkshire serving Cottingham.
The details of the revised proposals are available on the BCE website. The consultation on the proposals is now open and you can have your say on them until Monday 10th December 2012.
Visit: BCE – Revised Yorkshire and Humber proposals
Given the Tories cant get the reduction in MPs through parliament (because they blocked Lords Reform) the next election will be fought on existing boundaries and constituencies anyway.
I know the Commission will keep reviewing boundaries as the government has changed their remit in a move to “equalise” constituency size, but that was blatant gerrymandering as they were told to use the old electoral roll, rather than the 2011 Census, meaning millons of missing citizens being excluded from consideration of the size of electorates.
If the constituency sizes were based on POPULATION rather than those who were on the last Electoral Roll, I would have no problem with “equal” consituencies. But squeezing the number of urban seats ( to help the Tories at the expense of Liberal and Labour) gives rise to daft proposals like lumping rural areas in with urban ones…
The mess the coalition have made of reforming voting, the lords and constituencies mean this will have to be revisited by the next government, of what ever persuasion.
But at the moment this is yet another omnishambles ,
I’m absolutely delighted to hear that the Boundary Commission have taken account of what we told them. I had the impression, last September when I went to speak at the public open meeting in the City Hall, that they were just going through the motions as far as their formal consultation is concerned. However, the decision appears to have been made using common sense principles, and we should give them credit for listening to us..
How could any MP, of whatever political persuasion, have ever found time to deal with the many and varied problems faced by people in this primarily rural area, bearing in mind the immense workload of running an urban seat, such as Hull East.
Well done to all those who backed the campaign to keep South West Holderness with Beverley, and the rest of Holderness.
Yes! The Boundary Commission have taken note of local views and seen sense.