|
Post by Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells on Sept 20, 2019 0:38:34 GMT
Maybe it's too tightly in parts and too loosely in others. In political terms, Caversham looks a lot more like South Oxfordshire than the rest of Reading. From a quick look at the map, I'd draw Reading's bounday along the stream that runs through Sulham, along the M4, along the River Loddon. I don't like council areas bursting across river boundaries into adjoining counties, but in this case I think the northern pimple is about right. That's about right,except the Sul Brook is a bit too far, a line on the west hugging the urban development round Calcot, Tilehurst and Purley would be just right. I would have as the best easy solution the boundaries of Reading East and West as the boundaries of Reading Borough minus Pangbourne ward because that really is rural Berkshire and maybe Theale ward as,from having worked and served a First Aider for 4 years in and around the ward, I feel that Theale has its own identity and is firmly a big Berkshire country village like Pangbourne and Aldermaston.And that some of Richard Benyon's land might be under a Labour-controlled council
|
|
|
Post by Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells on Sept 20, 2019 0:52:19 GMT
Looking at the map reminds me that Reading's one of those places that's too tightly drawn. I have an aunt who went to Reading University, and she was surprised to discover it wasn't actually in Reading, she lived in the Reading suburb of Early and was surprised that it wasn't in Reading. Half of Reading isn't in Reading.
Maybe it's too tightly in parts and too loosely in others. In political terms, Caversham looks a lot more like South Oxfordshire than the rest of Reading. Noooooooooo, don't you dare strand us poor North of the River Labour members in South Oxfordshire . We already have the most fragmented, infrequent Reading Buses service in the whole of the Borough and we're on our last legs. To be serious,however, Caversham ward (my home ward) now has 3 Labour councillors and that contains one big private school and a well-used Waitrose . We are building strength in Peppard ward and we nearly won Thames ward which has two unfavourable areas for Labour in it: mansions in Caversham Heights and solidly white,lower-middle class suburbs around Henley Road shopping parade. Our ex-Tory MP Rob Wilson used to be a councillor for that ward.
|
|
|
Post by bjornhattan on Sept 20, 2019 1:04:03 GMT
Maybe it's too tightly in parts and too loosely in others. In political terms, Caversham looks a lot more like South Oxfordshire than the rest of Reading. Noooooooooo, don't you dare strand us poor North of the River Labour members in South Oxfordshire . We already have the most fragmented, infrequent Reading Buses service in the whole of the Borough and we're on our last legs. To be serious,however, Caversham ward (my home ward) now has 3 Labour councillors and that contains one big private school and a well-used Waitrose . We are building strength in Peppard ward and we nearly won Thames ward which has two unfavourable areas for Labour in it: mansions in Caversham Heights and solidly white,lower-middle class suburbs around Henley Road shopping parade. Our ex-Tory MP Rob Wilson used to be a councillor for that ward. You might not have many Reading Buses, but I've been on the Oxford to Reading route through Caversham plenty of times, and it seems fairly popular. But in all seriousness, it would certainly say something about the changing political landscape of this country if Caversham became mostly red while you continued to slowly slip backwards in the Southcote/Norcot/Kentwood area.
|
|
|
Post by Adam in Stroud on Sept 20, 2019 7:13:12 GMT
From a quick look at the map, I'd draw Reading's bounday along the stream that runs through Sulham, along the M4, along the River Loddon. I don't like council areas bursting across river boundaries into adjoining counties, but in this case I think the northern pimple is about right. That's about right,except the Sul Brook is a bit too far, a line on the west hugging the urban development round Calcot, Tilehurst and Purley would be just right. I would have as the best easy solution the boundaries of Reading East and West as the boundaries of Reading Borough minus Pangbourne ward because that really is rural Berkshire and maybe Theale ward as,from having worked and served a First Aider for 4 years in and around the ward, I feel that Theale has its own identity and is firmly a big Berkshire country village like Pangbourne and Aldermaston.And that some of Richard Benyon's land might be under a Labour-controlled council The Sul Brook (and come to that the Pang) remind me that the names of small rivers in England are weirdly alien - I believe it's the place-name element that's most commonly pre-Anglo-Saxon
|
|
|
Post by owainsutton on Sept 20, 2019 7:39:51 GMT
According to the Mayor of Trafford's Twitter, there will be a boundary review in Trafford for the 2022 election. Broadheath ward looks to be rather oversized; I suspect the inner city wards will be too big on the 5 year forecast electorates as well. Yes, Broadheath is oversized and Bucklow St Martin is under, although large developments are being proposed in the latter. Developments in Gorse Hill, near the ship canal, probably do make that too big on forecasts, but barring some huge development getting approved on Pomona island I can't see that the others will be forecast to grow massively. Of course, the ongoing saga of the GM Spatial Framework means forecasts have the potential to be way off, leaving us with new boundaries no better than the existing ones!
|
|
The Bishop
Labour
Down With Factionalism!
Posts: 36,525
Member is Online
|
Post by The Bishop on Sept 20, 2019 9:19:13 GMT
That's about right,except the Sul Brook is a bit too far, a line on the west hugging the urban development round Calcot, Tilehurst and Purley would be just right. I would have as the best easy solution the boundaries of Reading East and West as the boundaries of Reading Borough minus Pangbourne ward because that really is rural Berkshire and maybe Theale ward as,from having worked and served a First Aider for 4 years in and around the ward, I feel that Theale has its own identity and is firmly a big Berkshire country village like Pangbourne and Aldermaston.And that some of Richard Benyon's land might be under a Labour-controlled council The Sul Brook (and come to that the Pang) remind me that the names of small rivers in England are weirdly alien - I believe it's the place-name element that's most commonly pre-Anglo-Saxon And in not a few cases, pre-Celtic.
|
|
Eastwood
Non-Aligned
Politically restricted post
Posts: 2,086
|
Post by Eastwood on Sept 21, 2019 21:46:41 GMT
Has anyone else except me noticed why Foggy will be upset by the proposed wards in Na h-Eileanan Siar?
|
|
|
Post by Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells on Sept 21, 2019 22:15:52 GMT
That's about right,except the Sul Brook is a bit too far, a line on the west hugging the urban development round Calcot, Tilehurst and Purley would be just right. I would have as the best easy solution the boundaries of Reading East and West as the boundaries of Reading Borough minus Pangbourne ward because that really is rural Berkshire and maybe Theale ward as,from having worked and served a First Aider for 4 years in and around the ward, I feel that Theale has its own identity and is firmly a big Berkshire country village like Pangbourne and Aldermaston.And that some of Richard Benyon's land might be under a Labour-controlled council The Sul Brook (and come to that the Pang) remind me that the names of small rivers in England are weirdly alien - I believe it's the place-name element that's most commonly pre-Anglo-Saxon A fun fact is that there is a nuclear waste pipeline(known as the Aldermaston pipeline I think roughly paralleling the Sul Brook and it shares its outfall onto the Thames. It mainly carries relatively benign waste like tritium but the occasional uranium or plutonium waste is sent down there, which doesn't sound particularly nice . The more worrying practice is that AWE Aldermaston(where the pipeline originates) used to pour buckets and buckets of tritium-contaminated waste down into the drains,which is connected to the Aldermaston Brook,which then ends up in the Kennet,which provides Reading's drinking water. I'm quite glad I live north of the River in Caversham,which has a different water source I think. Anyway,it's not very well disguised if it is where I think it is,because,although I know that there are many oil pipelines criss-crossing the area, there is a pipeline closely following the suggested mapped formation of the pipeline on the ground marked as an oil pipeline with "do not dig" signs at road crossings following a line through intersections of roads on Englefield Road out of Theale very near where the new school is being built and the road leading out of Sulham towards Tilehurst(the sign on the road is by the bottom of the hill leading from Sulham woods car park if you wanted to plot the route on Google Maps.
|
|
|
Post by Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells on Sept 21, 2019 22:37:46 GMT
Noooooooooo, don't you dare strand us poor North of the River Labour members in South Oxfordshire . We already have the most fragmented, infrequent Reading Buses service in the whole of the Borough and we're on our last legs. To be serious,however, Caversham ward (my home ward) now has 3 Labour councillors and that contains one big private school and a well-used Waitrose . We are building strength in Peppard ward and we nearly won Thames ward which has two unfavourable areas for Labour in it: mansions in Caversham Heights and solidly white,lower-middle class suburbs around Henley Road shopping parade. Our ex-Tory MP Rob Wilson used to be a councillor for that ward. You might not have many Reading Buses, but I've been on the Oxford to Reading route through Caversham plenty of times, and it seems fairly popular. But in all seriousness, it would certainly say something about the changing political landscape of this country if Caversham became mostly red while you continued to slowly slip backwards in the Southcote/Norcot/Kentwood area. The demand is there for bus services along that corridor, although a lot of it is further out from Reading/Caversham to places like Woodcote and Wallingford and of course Oxford rather than the Heights or Central Caversham. But no,Reading Buses, in their latest "revision" of Caversham bus services,have cut the 22 that serves a lot of the same route in Caversham Heights and the 25 ,which serves a large swathe of Emmer Green,Caversham Hill,Caversham Park Village and the large and rapidly growing village of Sonning Common in South Oxon just north of the border down to every 2 hours in Sunday. Caversham will change as it demographically changes, but it is part of a political demographic change nationally. It isn't coincidental that Southcote,Norcot and Kentwood are all primarily very working-class areas and Caversham is probably 60-70 percent middle-class,when Labour nationally is attracting a lot more middle-class voters and losing some groups of working-class people and it's not surprising that this is being played out locally.
|
|
|
Post by bjornhattan on Sept 21, 2019 23:16:16 GMT
You might not have many Reading Buses, but I've been on the Oxford to Reading route through Caversham plenty of times, and it seems fairly popular. But in all seriousness, it would certainly say something about the changing political landscape of this country if Caversham became mostly red while you continued to slowly slip backwards in the Southcote/Norcot/Kentwood area. The demand is there for bus services along that corridor, although a lot of it is further out from Reading/Caversham to places like Woodcote and Wallingford and of course Oxford rather than the Heights or Central Caversham. But no,Reading Buses, in their latest "revision" of Caversham bus services,have cut the 22 that serves a lot of the same route in Caversham Heights and the 25 ,which serves a large swathe of Emmer Green,Caversham Hill,Caversham Park Village and the large and rapidly growing village of Sonning Common in South Oxon just north of the border down to every 2 hours in Sunday. Caversham will change as it demographically changes, but it is part of a political demographic change nationally. It isn't coincidental that Southcote,Norcot and Kentwood are all primarily very working-class areas and Caversham is probably 60-70 percent middle-class,when Labour nationally is attracting a lot more middle-class voters and losing some groups of working-class people and it's not surprising that this is being played out locally. Crikey, I knew the services were pretty limited up there but I didn't realise it was quite that bad. I did once read (possibly on here) a conspiracy theory that Caversham's buses were deliberately made a garish shade of pink because of council people wanting to punish their Conservative leaning voters, but I doubt it's actually true. But yeah, a handful of half hourly or worse services is probably even worse than the service to Wokingham town (let alone the Woodley area), and they're not even in the borough. And it'll probably get worse with Reading Buses' gobbling up more and more other operators, maybe they'll show their true colours and rename to Berkshire Buses soon. I suppose there is the demographic change element, but it can't explain all of it. After all, Oxford's equivalent areas to Southcote or Kentwood aren't really going away from Labour (but then again Oxford has even fewer people who are working class and pro-Leave). Meanwhile Oxford's equivalents to Caversham are safe Lib Dem (and has been for decades).
|
|
piperdave
SNP
Dalkeith; Midlothian/North & Musselburgh
Posts: 909
|
Post by piperdave on Sept 22, 2019 18:13:57 GMT
Has anyone else except me noticed why Foggy will be upset by the proposed wards in Na h-Eileanan Siar? I'm going with unnecessary use of more than four colours.
|
|
|
Post by Pete Whitehead on Sept 22, 2019 19:07:11 GMT
I'm going to guess that one or more wards violates the county boundary between Inverness-shire and Ross-shire
|
|
Eastwood
Non-Aligned
Politically restricted post
Posts: 2,086
|
Post by Eastwood on Sept 22, 2019 20:14:49 GMT
I'm going to guess that one or more wards violates the county boundary between Inverness-shire and Ross-shire Pete wins the prize. More importantly for the locals it also means the LGBCS have got the boundary between Harris and Lewis wrong. The 5 properties that make up Bowglass are incorrectly put into the Lewis Lochs ward rather than the Harris ward. Not as if there’s an excuse as the pre 2007 ward boundaries had the correct Lewis / Harris boundary on them. Just seems to be sloppiness. Of course it’s impossible to completely match the historic county boundaries round here as uniquely the island of Seaforth was located in both Inverness and Ross shire. Local government ward wise the Ross-shire / Lewis side has had Seaforth Island for the last 50 years though so at least that bits consistently staying in Lewis.
|
|
|
Post by andrewteale on Sept 23, 2019 8:01:51 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Sept 23, 2019 8:13:20 GMT
|
|
|
Post by greenhert on Sept 24, 2019 11:32:29 GMT
|
|
|
Post by evergreenadam on Oct 1, 2019 19:10:49 GMT
Westminster City Council draft recommendations published today by LGBCE. Based on current administration’s proposals, 18 three member wards. Any predictions on how these would vote?
Barnet - further consultation on eight wards has been announced.
|
|
|
Post by 🏴☠️ Neath West 🏴☠️ on Oct 2, 2019 7:16:05 GMT
Westminster City Council draft recommendations published today by LGBCE. Those look really weird. Surprising amount of crossing the former Paddington boundaries.
|
|
|
Post by redvers on Oct 23, 2019 12:48:12 GMT
Don't think it's been mentioned yet, but there will be a review of Bracknell Forest. 42 councillors currently over 18 wards. (38 Conservative, 3 Labour, 1 Lib Dem.) Right now, we're at the stage of haggling over councillor numbers - from what I gather, the LGBCE's initial inclination is to reduce down to 36, though that's being contested by the council.
|
|
|
Post by andrewteale on Oct 24, 2019 20:13:01 GMT
|
|