The Boundary Commission for England has published its initial review of the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies in England for the 2020 general election.
While South Cambridgeshire as a parliamentary constituencies remains – the proposal five years ago when the Commission last reported was to create a new 'St Neots and West Cambridgeshire' constituency has been abandoned – there are some changes.
The 'big surprise' is Bassingbourn, Melbourn and The Mordens are being moved into North Hertfordshire (where Sir Oliver Heald, Conservative, is the MP). We gain Gransden and The Offords ward (part of Huntingdonshire District Council) as well as Fulbourn and Linton from South East Cambs, but we will lose Queen Edith's Ward into the City of Cambridge.
The proposed list of wards for South Cambridgeshire (with the number of electors):
Bar Hill (3,638)
Barton (1,887)
Bourn (7,462)
Caldecote (1,829)
Comberton (1,761)
Cottenham (5,954)
Duxford (2,089)
Fowlmere and Foxton (1,870)
Fulbourn (3,608)
Gamlingay (3,850)
Girton (3,232)
Gransden and The Offords (3,593)
Hardwick (1,995)
Harston and Hauxton (1,863)
Haslingfield and The Eversdens (2,141)
Linton (3,632)
Longstanton (2,336)
Meldreth (2,056)
Orwell and Barrington (1,892)
Papworth and Elsworth (4,091)
Sawston (5,272)
Swavesey (1,827)
The Abingtons (1,764)
The Shelfords and Stapleford (5,577)
Whittlesford (2,069)
The Commission has provided these notes on its thinking – based on equalising the number of voters in each constituency:
We propose to add the District of Huntingdonshire ward of Gransden and The Offords from the Huntingdonshire constituency (electorate 81,303) to our South Cambridgeshire constituency, in order to keep the Huntingdonshire constituency within 5% of the electoral quota.
Consequently, to keep South Cambridgeshire within 5% of the electoral quota we propose to transfer three wards from it (The Mordens, Bassingbourn, and Melbourn) into our proposed North East Hertfordshire constituency. We propose this cross-county boundary constituency because the constituencies in Cambridgeshire have such large electorates that it is not possible to propose seven constituencies contained wholly within the county’s boundaries. In addition, we note that there are good transport links between Royston in the existing North East Hertfordshire constituency and the villages in the three Cambridgeshire wards in question. We also note that Royston is the closest market town for these villages.
In order to increase the electorate of the existing Cambridge City constituency to within 5% of the electoral quota we propose the inclusion of the Milton ward (from South East Cambridgeshire) and the Queen Edith’s ward (from South Cambridgeshire)..
We propose to transfer two South Cambridgeshire wards (Fulbourn and Linton), from the South East Cambridgeshire constituency, to our proposed South Cambridgeshire constituency, in order to keep both within 5% of the electoral quota.
You can download it's proposals for the East of England with this link – and if you wish to comment on them, there's a form on its website. It is also holding a series of public meetings – the most relevant to us will be in Guildhall, Market Hill, Cambridge on 10th and 11th November 2016 (see page 19 of its PDF report).
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Contact the Boundary Commission for England
Boundary Commission for England
35 Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BQPhone
020 7276 1102
information@boundarycommissionengland.gov.ukWebsite
http://boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/