Boundary Commissioners take a trip to Queen's Park...

The final proposals of the Boundary Commissioners for the forthcoming boundary review have been published and – as they impact upon Brighton and Hove they have only one difference from the most recent proposals. Regency ward is still to be joined to Hove, with Moulescoomb and Bevendean joining Pavilion from Kemptown (which still gets stretched out along the coast). There is however, one new proposal for changes which is to take four of the polling districts in Queen’s Park ward (EW to EZ) into Pavilion Constituency, leaving the remaining five (ER to EV) in Kemptown (and Seahaven) Constituency. The details in terms of wards allocated to constituencies is online here – and as maps here.

The justification for this novel proposal (which has not been the subject of prior consultation but is now before Parliament) is as follows;

“by splitting the Queen’s Park ward in Brighton and Hove, not only can we avoid breaking local ties in Newhaven in dividing it between two constituencies, we can give all of Brighton and Hove’s three constituencies direct access to the seafront, and also improve our proposals across the sub-region… …Splitting the Queen’s Park ward also allows us to keep the existing Bexhill and Battle constituency unchanged and avoids crossing the East Sussex and Kent boundary in two places, thereby retaining the Ticehurst and Etchingham ward in the Bexhill and Battle constituency.”

So, should these proposals get through Parliament, Party members at their Queen’s Park ward AGM, having to elect delegates to two different GCs, will be able to reflect upon the celebrations in Newhaven, and Ticehurst and Etchingham…

However, as the Government have delayed the timetable for voting on these proposals, we don’t know if or when they will ever be implemented.