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Post by finsobruce on Feb 14, 2023 20:01:43 GMT
This morning, approximately at the corner of Churchill Way and Exchange Street, Macclesfield, I saw this, and naturally assumed that everybody here would want to see it. Neither power nor abundance is lacking.
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Post by Wisconsin on Feb 15, 2023 0:38:04 GMT
I hope a new plaque is erected in 2040 to celebrate the second plaque.
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Post by East Anglian Lefty on Feb 15, 2023 9:33:24 GMT
That must have been an incredibly tightly drawn borough boundary. There's housing on both sides of it that looks 19th century, so I'm surprised that the municipal borough's boundaries weren't extended long before.
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YL
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Post by YL on Feb 15, 2023 12:18:22 GMT
That must have been an incredibly tightly drawn borough boundary. There's housing on both sides of it that looks 19th century, so I'm surprised that the municipal borough's boundaries weren't extended long before. I think the sign isn't in its original location. This 1930s map (NLS) shows no boundary in that area, and this 1888 map (Vision of Britain) already shows a larger borough boundary. There is a boundary running along Roe Street in some older maps, but I think it's just a ward boundary, as shown on this one.
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Post by wysall on Feb 18, 2023 14:27:56 GMT
The councils proposals were in some cases outright mad, so the Conservatives seem to have won by default (though there is a lot of good in their proposals nonetheless). In particular, the councils defence of 3 wards being beyond the 10% variance (“these are long established, geographically contained communities and any splitting of those communities would be wholly artificial”) is pretty disprovable by a quick glance at the repeated artificial splitting of geographically contained communities they themselves propose. Positives/Negatives: The Monkseaton/Whitley Bay Area remains a mess, but the proposed boundaries are an improvement on the status quo. The proposed Tynemouth ward is a vast improvement on the status quo, losing the east of North Shields. The splitting of Marden is unfortunate, but on balance necessary. The Conservatives will be very happy if these ward boundaries are adopted. The new ‘Preston with Preston Grange’ ward is also very good, and also coincidentally very good for the Conservatives. The abomination that is Riverside (so awful even the BCE wanted it split for Parliamentary purposes) is abolished, with Howdon being added to Howdon ward, the Meadow Well area being added to Chirton and the rest of Meadow Well ward, and central North Shields being included in a ward with, God forbid, the rest of central North Shields. Northumberland ward has been recognised as what it is, Wallsend North. Benton ward includes even less of Forest Hall so is renamed ‘Benton and Forest Hall’, as you do. Holystone should be renamed ‘North Tyneside Central’ and be done with it. ‘Annitsford, Burradon and Backworth’ is not as awful as it sounds, but it’s clear which end of the borough the commission started at. Not sure whether to read anything into the commission having a subsection entitled ‘Northern North Tyneside’ stretching from Wideopen to northern Whitley Bay, which is not a geographic division of North Tyneside I, or anybody else in the world, had ever previously considered or hopefully ever will again. TLDR: All in all a surprisingly good set of proposals, and in many cases an improvement on the current ward boundaries, albeit the North West of the borough remains a mess that I hope will be partially fixed in the revised proposals. I don’t know if wysall has any thoughts? I held off until after the branch meeting (during which we were helpfully—and seriously!—informed that Chirton ward should vote Conservative) to offer my thoughts but the discussion was largely limited to the Coast anyway: oh well. In my comments I will limit myself to the boundaries of the proposed Tynemouth constituency. Even within Tynemouth constituency those comments will be focused on the Whitley Bay and Monkseaton area where I live. Honestly I have half a mind to draft my own proposals. Even with my youth in some places it's not like it's possible to do any worse. The part of Monkseaton North moved to St Mary's can really go with either St Mary's or Monkseaton. Notionally it's not bad for Labour since it has voted for us recently but not certain how that would go in a real election, especially so with recent defections. Cullercoats & Whitley Bay South and Whitley Bay North should vote Labour over the Conservatives (who have a bizarre habit of shortening Whitley Bay to 'Whitley') even in a bad year for us. Monkseaton Drive, of course, is such a sacrosanct boundary that St Mary's crossed it until 2004: not exactly the River Tyne we're talking about here. I don't really agree with splitting Whitley Bay but I'd need to take a look at some solutions myself. In Monkseaton the Boundary Commission, taking the advice of the North Tyneside Conservatives uncritically (whose confidence in calling it an 'inconsequential decision' I can appreciate if nothing else), has completely fucked up on how you should use the A191 as a boundary. The area south of the ice rink should go with Monkseaton, not Cullercoats and Whitley Bay South; meanwhile they're splitting the Hillheads estate to put part of that in with Cullercoats and Whitley Bay South. The council, I might add, got this completely right. The Metro line should not be the boundary except between Sainsburys and Monkseaton Metro station: putting Valley Gardens in with Whitley Bay is nonsensical. While it can form a community in its own right, it does so as one connected to Monkseaton and not to Whitley Bay. This perhaps unsurprisingly is also on the advice of the North Tyneside Conservatives. Tynemouth and Preston with Preston Grange wards should be pretty safe for the Conservatives. With St Mary's that would give them 9 councillors... oh wait. I'm actually confused as to why the Conservatives didn't make their position even safer by combining Preston and the Meadow Well, what with Olly Scargill's belief in the working-class realignment that's on the verge of turning Jesmond blue.
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Post by greenhert on Feb 28, 2023 21:59:44 GMT
New boundaries coming up for Oxfordshire & Surrey-significant change needed in Oxfordshire in particular as the LGBCE recommends that Oxfordshire CC increase its size by 6. www.lgbce.org.uk/media
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Post by East Anglian Lefty on Mar 7, 2023 21:15:47 GMT
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YL
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Post by YL on May 2, 2023 19:43:44 GMT
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YL
Non-Aligned
Either Labour leaning or Lib Dem leaning but not sure which
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Post by YL on May 2, 2023 19:53:56 GMT
From the Shropshire report, paragraph 64:
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Post by westmercian on May 2, 2023 20:31:22 GMT
From the Shropshire report, paragraph 64: Swap for English Maelor!
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jamie
Top Poster
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Post by jamie on May 2, 2023 20:40:30 GMT
1. WTF has gone on in Prudhoe? 2. Something has happened to Widdrington Station. 3. Seaton Delaval and New Hartley, yeah, uh, ok, I guess.
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Post by westmercian on May 2, 2023 20:41:51 GMT
I see the absurdity of Tern continues. And one day, in one review in the distant future, someone might realise that Column ward no longer contains Lord Hill's Column...
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mattb
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Post by mattb on May 2, 2023 21:05:29 GMT
1. WTF has gone on in Prudhoe? 2. Something has happened to Widdrington Station. 3. Seaton Delaval and New Hartley, yeah, uh, ok, I guess. Actually New Delaval & New Hartley - not sure why they've lost Newsham from the name, but still.
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Post by gwynthegriff on May 2, 2023 21:07:52 GMT
I see the absurdity of Tern continues. And one day, in one review in the distant future, someone might realise that Column ward no longer contains Lord Hill's Column... The St Barnabas Ward in Crewe does not include St Barnabas Church (or its manse/ presbytery) to the considerable annoyance of the priest. To rub salt in the wound the church hall (which is not in the ward either) serves as a polling station for the St Barnabas Ward. The priest has to walk halfway to the town centre to vote. I happened to be in the polling station the first time this happened. Not a happy man.
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jamie
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Post by jamie on May 2, 2023 21:31:27 GMT
3. Seaton Delaval and New Hartley, yeah, uh, ok, I guess. Actually New Delaval & New Hartley - not sure why they've lost Newsham from the name, but still. Oh no, I saw the ward name alright. It’s the boundaries that triggered me.
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Post by John Chanin on May 3, 2023 6:36:47 GMT
Now here's an interesting statement from the Shropshire review
Particularly in urban areas we do not consider that polling districts, which exist for the sole purpose of administering elections, will necessarily offer a good reflection of community identity.
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Post by evergreenadam on May 3, 2023 14:38:37 GMT
Now here's an interesting statement from the Shropshire review Particularly in urban areas we do not consider that polling districts, which exist for the sole purpose of administering elections, will necessarily offer a good reflection of community identity. That’s fair enough, they are an artificial construct to avoid allocating more than 2,500 electors to an individual polling station. In urban areas you often get a double polling station in the same polling place with a maximum of 5,000 electors in the polling district.
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Post by John Chanin on May 3, 2023 15:12:46 GMT
Now here's an interesting statement from the Shropshire review Particularly in urban areas we do not consider that polling districts, which exist for the sole purpose of administering elections, will necessarily offer a good reflection of community identity.That’s fair enough, they are an artificial construct to avoid allocating more than 2,500 electors to an individual polling station. In urban areas you often get a double polling station in the same polling place with a maximum of 5,000 electors in the polling district. I was perhaps too oblique. The point is that the BCE for parliamentary constituencies has been using polling districts to split wards.
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ilerda
Conservative
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Post by ilerda on May 3, 2023 16:04:34 GMT
I would also argue that in lots of places parishes don't necessarily offer a good reflection of community identity.
Indeed many electoral wards, parliamentary constituencies and local government areas don't necessarily offer a good reflection of community identity.
But you have to start somewhere...
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YL
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Post by YL on May 3, 2023 17:24:35 GMT
The LGBCE is not wrong here, but the big advantage of using polling districts, both from the BCE's point of view and that of those of us who might want to put forward our own proposals, is that they are how the electorate data are organised and so the figures are easily available. And the difficulties of using them are going to come up much less frequently when splitting wards for new constituencies than they are when drawing new wards.
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