Boundary commission submission
Tomorrow is the last day for the submission of responses on the Boundary Commission for England's proposals for new constituency boundaries for the North West.
This was my submission
"I support the Boundary Commission proposals for a new Carlisle constituency, but for the rest of the county I support instead the Conservative Party proposals.
The Carlisle City Council area is an obvious community of interests. I support the Commission proposal to make the Carlisle constituency as close as possible to the local authority area. This is far more sensible than a rival proposal to put part of North Allerdale into a Carlisle constituency while associating significant areas of Carlisle City with Penrith.
The North East part of Allerdale has economic, social and historical links with Penrith which are comparable with those they have with Carlisle: these areas were part of an earlier Penrith and the Borders seat when represented by the late Viscount Whitelaw.
Having been a parliamentary candidate in the current Copeland seat in 2010, I and my team called on most of the houses in the Keswick and Derwent Valley area during the campaign.
As the constituency had just changed to include this area, the subject of boundaries came up frequently on the doorstep. The almost unanimous view of the residents who raised the issue with me was that they did not feel they had much in common either with the Workington area (with which they had been associated on the previous boundaries) or Whitehaven/Copeland (with which they are associated on the present ones). They would prefer to be in a constituency centred on Penrith, as under the Conservative counterproposal for Cumbria.
The proposed “Copeland and Windermere” seat would be almost unmanageable because the physical obstacles separating the component parts of such a seat are immense. As most speakers at the public hearing in Carlisle pointed out, these obstacles include the highest mountain in England and the deepest and longest lakes. Whitehaven and Bowness have different newspapers, different TV channels, different local authorities, wildly different economic interests, and no direct routes between them which are not high mountain passes.
A West Cumbria seat based around Whitehaven and Workington would make far more sense in terms of commonality of interest.
If such a seat were adopted, electoral numbers would make it necessary for the North East parts of Allerdale Borough, and the Southern part of Copeland, to be in other constituencies. I have already explained why I believe that North East Allerdale would fit better with Penrith than any of the alternatives. South Copeland would fit better with Barrow than any realistic alternative, and that the best place for the dividing line is at Sellafield.
If Copeland council wards from Beckermet and north were included in the West Cumbrian constituency while Gosforth ward and south were part of the Barrow constituency, this would mean that the Sellafield site, which is by far the dominant employer on the west coast of Cumbria, would have two MPs, one representing the Sellafield travel to work area and routes to the North, and the other that to the South. This would be workable and fair."
This was my submission
"I support the Boundary Commission proposals for a new Carlisle constituency, but for the rest of the county I support instead the Conservative Party proposals.
The Carlisle City Council area is an obvious community of interests. I support the Commission proposal to make the Carlisle constituency as close as possible to the local authority area. This is far more sensible than a rival proposal to put part of North Allerdale into a Carlisle constituency while associating significant areas of Carlisle City with Penrith.
The North East part of Allerdale has economic, social and historical links with Penrith which are comparable with those they have with Carlisle: these areas were part of an earlier Penrith and the Borders seat when represented by the late Viscount Whitelaw.
Having been a parliamentary candidate in the current Copeland seat in 2010, I and my team called on most of the houses in the Keswick and Derwent Valley area during the campaign.
As the constituency had just changed to include this area, the subject of boundaries came up frequently on the doorstep. The almost unanimous view of the residents who raised the issue with me was that they did not feel they had much in common either with the Workington area (with which they had been associated on the previous boundaries) or Whitehaven/Copeland (with which they are associated on the present ones). They would prefer to be in a constituency centred on Penrith, as under the Conservative counterproposal for Cumbria.
The proposed “Copeland and Windermere” seat would be almost unmanageable because the physical obstacles separating the component parts of such a seat are immense. As most speakers at the public hearing in Carlisle pointed out, these obstacles include the highest mountain in England and the deepest and longest lakes. Whitehaven and Bowness have different newspapers, different TV channels, different local authorities, wildly different economic interests, and no direct routes between them which are not high mountain passes.
A West Cumbria seat based around Whitehaven and Workington would make far more sense in terms of commonality of interest.
If such a seat were adopted, electoral numbers would make it necessary for the North East parts of Allerdale Borough, and the Southern part of Copeland, to be in other constituencies. I have already explained why I believe that North East Allerdale would fit better with Penrith than any of the alternatives. South Copeland would fit better with Barrow than any realistic alternative, and that the best place for the dividing line is at Sellafield.
If Copeland council wards from Beckermet and north were included in the West Cumbrian constituency while Gosforth ward and south were part of the Barrow constituency, this would mean that the Sellafield site, which is by far the dominant employer on the west coast of Cumbria, would have two MPs, one representing the Sellafield travel to work area and routes to the North, and the other that to the South. This would be workable and fair."
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