Forum topic: Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries - proposed changes

Under the proposed parliamentary boundary changes, which will probably take effect before the 2020 General Election Enfield Southgate parliamentary constituency is to disappear

Palmers Green ward will become part of Edmonton

Winchmore Hill, Southgate Green and Southgate will become part of a new Finchley and Southgate constituency.

Enfield North becomes Enfield and will include Grange ward. Whilst Cockfosters will become part of Chipping Barnet and Mill Hill, Bowes ward joins Hornsey and Wood Green.

As the much of the western part of the area most of as regard as being encompassed by Palmers Green, falls within the Winchmore Hill and Southgate Green Wards, Palmers Green will become divided between two parliamentary constituencies.

http://www.bce2018.org.uk/node/6485

http://bce-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/consultation-documents/1473420028_London%20Initial%20proposals%20report.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJG2X7BQ35X2H7LAA&Expires=1473760863&Signature=rxZpe1vXcGjQvqLg7mHSQhe0%2FZM%3D

If these changes go ahead as proposed, they will not only divide Palmers Green between two parliamentary constituencies, which is undesirable, but more seriously they will also mean that some North London MPs will have constituencies that straddle borough boundaries, meaning that their MPs will have to deal with more than one borough council.

David Burrowes is trying to change the proposals regarding the current Enfield Southgate constituency. However, it's not just here that these new divisions would be introduced - this situation would occur throughout the country.

MPs with more than one local authority to deal with will either have an extra workload or will tend to neglect constituents in one of their boroughs. Councils too will have to have dealings with more MPs than at present. Not a recipe for getting things done properly!

I don't see the logic behind reducing the number of MPs by 50. The population is growing throughout the country, it's easier for constituents to use email to contact/pester their representatives and leaving the EU is going to throw up huge amounts of new issues that will need proper consideration. Furthermore, the reduction would reduce the ratio of backbenchers to frontbenchers, and we need vigilant backbenchers to question what their party leaders are doing - frontbenchers are understandablly reluctant to do so for fear of demotion.

So I would favour retaining the current number of constituencies. it's perfectly legitimate to review their boundaries so that they reflect the changing distribution of the population, but keeping the current number would make it possible to keep variations in the population of each constituency within sensible limits without combining areas from different local authorities.

These points are made rather better than by me in this article: https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/josiah-mortimer/cutting-number-of-mps-could-cut-democratic-scrutiny-too

This is an absolute nonsense. Is it set in stone yet?

Andrew Nix