Issue - meetings

To consider the Boundary Commission for England’s proposals for revised Parliamentary Constituency boundaries and to agree a response to the proposals for recommendation to the Constitution Committee.

The Sub-Committee had been appointed by the Constitution Committee to consider in detail the Boundary Commission’s proposed review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries.

The Boundary Commission for England (BCE) had launched a 12-week consultation on its initial proposals for new Parliamentary constituency boundaries in England. The review of constituency boundaries was being carried out after Parliament had decided that there should be a reduction in the number of constituencies across the UK, and that there should be similar numbers of electors in each constituency. The number of constituencies in England was being reduced from 533 to 502.

The Boundary Commission had to report formally to the Government by 1^st October 2013 and make recommendations on changes which it believed to be appropriate: in respect of the distribution, size, shape, name or designation of constituencies. These recommendations would then be converted into draft legislation, which would be implemented in time for the next Parliamentary Election after the date on which the legislation was passed.

The legislation provided that the electorate figures to be used for the 2013 review were the figures published on or before 1^st December 2010. Local government boundaries to be taken into account were defined as those which were in force as at 6^th May 2010. 

Legislation requires there to be 600 constituencies for the whole of the UK, of which 68 had been allocated to the North West. In the Boundary Commission’s initial proposals the Wirral had been added to Cheshire to form a Cheshire and Wirral Sub -Region. Electors from Poynton had been included in the Greater Manchester Sub-Region, in a constituency for Poynton and Hazel Grove.   

The legislation stipulated that every constituency must have an electorate range of between 72,810 and 80,473 electors.

Local authority wards were seen as the basic building blocks for designing constituencies. They were regarded as well-defined and well-understood units which were generally indicative of areas which had a broad community of interest.  Any divisions of these units between constituencies was seen as being likely to break local ties, disrupt political party organisations and cause difficulties for Electoral Registration and Returning Officers. In the absence of compelling and exceptional circumstances, the Boundary Commission’s view was that it would not be appropriate to divide wards where it was possible to construct constituencies that met the statutory electorate range without doing so. As Cheshire East Council had recently undergone a Boundary Review in 2011, eight out of the 52 new wards were split between two constituencies by the initial proposals for the North West, namely:

Leighton

Wilmslow West and Chorley

Wilmslow East

Poynton West and Adlington

Poynton East and Pott Shrigley

Gawsworth

Brereton Rural

Prestbury and Tytherington  

At the request of the Constitution Committee, a briefing had been arranged for all members of the Council on 19^th October 2011, following which all members were invited by email to submit their comments to the Sub-Committee for consideration in formulating the draft response.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4