Agenda item

(Director of Governance) To consider the attached report.

The Select Committee received a report from S Hill, Assistant Director, Governance regarding the Parliamentary Boundary Review which was being carried out in England. He advised that the Boundary Commission for England (BCE) had been tasked to carry out a review of constituencies and report to Parliament in September 2018. The brief from Parliament was to reduce the number of constituencies and therefore MPs in England from 650 to 600. The aim for the new constituencies in England was to ensure that every new constituency had approximately the same number of electors, with no fewer that 71,031 and no higher than 78,507.

On 17 October 2017 the BCE had published their revised proposals and all of the representations received during the secondary consultation. The final consultation on the revised proposals would end on the 11 December 2017, this was the final consultation before the BCE report to Parliament in September 2018. The changes would not take effect until the next General Election in 2022.

Essex

In the County of Essex the BCE proposed changes across the County, in particular to the constituencies in South Essex. The BCE had made revisions to seven of the seventeen constituencies in the County and an additional change of name to one further constituency. The existing constituencies of Chelmsford, Epping Forest and Thurrock remain unchanged as in the initial proposal.

Epping Forest

Epping Forest remained unchanged.

Harlow and Brentwood and Ongar

In order to meet the new equitable elector numbers, the seats of Harlow and Brentwood and Ongar had been suggested to change and the new constituency would include the Epping Forest wards of Hastingwood, Matching and Sheering Village, Moreton and Fyfield, North Weald Bassett, Roydon, Lower Sheering and Lower Nazeing.

Members were asked to consider if they would:

(i)         support the proposals for no change to the Epping Forest Constituency;

(ii)        wish to submit any other observations on the proposals affecting residents; and

(iii)       authorise officers to submit comments to the BCE before the deadline. The BCE have specifically asked that where proposals were supported that those representations were made to the BCE.

Councillor Stallan stated that these changes were very confusing to residents as in 1997 North Weald Bassett (NWB) was a part of the Epping Forest parliamentary constituency, then in 2010 the parliamentary boundary changed and NWB then  became a part of Brentwood and Ongar, now it would seem there are proposals for another boundary change and North Weald Bassett would be a part of the parliamentary constituency of Harlow even though the district was in Epping Forest.

            RESOLVED:

(1)        That the Assistant Director, Governance be authorised to submit the following comments to the Boundary Commission for England, supporting the no change proposals relating to the Epping Forest Parliamentary Constituency:

“That the proposals seek to transfer an area which currently sits in the Ongar and Brentwood constituency to the Harlow constituency. This area includes North Weald Bassett. Residents of this area were subject to change during the last boundary review when they moved from Epping Forest to Brentwood and Ongar. This time they are being linked to Harlow, and whilst they understand the reasons why the commission have made this change in relation to the latest proposals, members of the Select Committee are of the view that this area does not have the connection to Harlow and that the town looks to Epping as its associated community and administrative centre; and

That members of the Select Committee noted the enlargement of the Harlow constituency and changes to the boundaries generally in this administrative district and have asked for it to be noted and conveyed to the BCE that they hope these proposals were not the precursor to changes to the Districts administrative boundaries at any point in the future.”