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Post by No Offence Alan on Dec 14, 2021 18:11:14 GMT
Controversial maybe, but I feel there are quite a few ‘pointless’ councils out there (Oadby and Wigston being number one). Understand the issue of taking large suburbs out of a district leaving a sparse, population-poor rural area, but Broxtowe and Gedling as a whole should just be part of Nottingham. And the current situation for Nottingham itself is that it sometimes comes up top of ‘most deprived’ rankings because the boundaries are so tight and there are few affluent areas, but a disproportionate number of commuters come in and use council services/facilities every day. Rushcliffe is a difficult one as adding the whole district would be too rural and not fitting of ‘Nottingham’ and only taking W.Bridgford would leave very little left as said before it also would be too remote to join Newark/Sherwood, if anything those rural parts are closer to Loughborough. In the North, one could argue for Hucknall joining Nottingham but that’s a big chunk of Ashfield too, but there perhaps what’s left of Ashfield could join Mansfield to become… Mashfield? This is one of the issues with treating existing districts as sacrosanct, so it's difficult to split them up even when necessary. Personally, I'd take a slightly more expansive approach and disregard county boundaries where they don't match up to real interactions - so bits of Rushcliffe that are closest to Loughborough may as well be administered from there (or to take the Warwickshire example, Banbury is the local centre for much of South Oxfordshire, whereas Warwick & Leamington is firmly within the orbit of Coventry.) Traditional county boundaries are important for cricket, but that's about it.Yes, thankfully, we no longer conscript young men into county-based regiments to be slaughtered in Flanders. |
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Post by iainbhx on Dec 14, 2021 19:23:26 GMT
Not really. It's on the wrong side of the Cotswolds. Most of the villages in south Warwickshire look to Stratford. But Stratford is pretty tiny, so for major shops most people will go to Banbury - certainly in the eastern half of the district, where it's an easy drive down the M40. Stratford is about 30,000 people in the town these days, Banbury is about 50,000. If Stratford is pretty tiny, Banbury isn't that much bigger. |
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Khunanup
Lib Dem
Portsmouth Liberal Democrats
Posts: 12,055
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Post by Khunanup on Dec 15, 2021 1:28:59 GMT
I can tell you from the large amounts of family members I have living in the area that they do indeed go to Banbury. Leamington is a bigger urban centre, but Banbury is still a draw. That said, checking TTWA maps suggests this may be changing - for older age groups Banbury is either its own TTWA or in the same one as Stratford and Warwick, but for younger age groups Banbury is more closely associated with Oxford. Probably understandable - Banbury is a (relatively) cheap place to live compared with Oxford, but the latter has a larger job market, particularly for higher end work. Looking at the various TTWA maps, Banbury is part of Oxford's commuter belt for graduates but not for those without degrees, which would back that up. Though to return to the matter at hand, if anywhere should go into an expanded Banbury-based district, it should be the far west of Northants. Brackley, Middleton Cheney, and Woodford Halse have stronger links with Banbury than they do with Northampton. For example, they're almost always grouped with Banbury for travel to work, and Brackley's main bus links are with Banbury (2 buses per hour) rather than Northampton (2 buses per day). Banbury Jobcentre covers west Northamptonshire for exactly that reason. Towcester's is Milton Keynes... |
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Post by 🏴☠️ Neath West 🏴☠️ on May 8, 2022 19:05:32 GMT
I would dearly love to see a Heart of Glamorgan authority like this:  |
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mattb
Lib Dem
Posts: 998
Member is Online
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Post by mattb on May 8, 2022 19:34:55 GMT
I would dearly love to see a Heart of Glamorgan authority like this: Why? |
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Post by 🏴☠️ Neath West 🏴☠️ on May 8, 2022 19:37:15 GMT
I would dearly love to see a Heart of Glamorgan authority like this: Why? Because it would make everything around it so much better. |
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johng
Labour
Posts: 4,850 
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Post by johng on May 8, 2022 19:39:29 GMT
I would dearly love to see a Heart of Glamorgan authority like this: (Pic snip) Merthyr and Port Talbot in one authority?  Definitely not.
Much better would be to merge the current authorities.
Swansea and NPT = Swansea Bay
Merthyr and RCT = RCMT (with Cardiff nibbling away at the south in places like Nantgarw and Taff's Well).
Glamorgan should be something like this: RCMT, Cardiff, Bridgend and the Vale, and Swansea Bay. Four highly viable councils with over 285k people/ 200k electors each.
A three authority alternative is possible, but far from ideal. First merge Cardiff and Vale. Then have Bridgend split in two with Porthcawl going to Swansea Bay and Bridgend and Maesteg to RCMT.
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Post by islington on May 9, 2022 8:38:34 GMT
If implemented as mapped above, you could call them E Glamorgan, W Glamorgan and S Glamorgan.
Would you not put Penarth and Dinas Powys into Cardiff?
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Post by Pete Whitehead on May 9, 2022 10:44:34 GMT
Given the illogical boundary between Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster (particularly around Knighstbridge but also in parts of the North) and that K&C is very small in terms of population and electorate, I would suggest a relaignment of the boundaries so that it runs along Notting Hill Gate and the North of Hyde Park so you would have a Paddington borough including most of the former St Marylebone and Kensington North of Notting Hill Gate and a city of Westminster to include Chelsea and South Kensington. Better communities of interest as well. The boundary around Maylebone is negotiable (local plebiscite perhaps). I've used the old ward boundaries here to show the correct division in the area of Hyde Park.  |
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Post by islington on May 9, 2022 10:51:43 GMT
Why not just merge K&C into Westminster?
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Post by Pete Whitehead on May 9, 2022 11:04:48 GMT
Why not just merge K&C into Westminster? I feel that the more socially and economically marginalised communities in the North of the area deserve to have their own local authority |
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The Bishop
Labour
Down With Factionalism!
Posts: 39,067
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Post by The Bishop on May 9, 2022 11:49:43 GMT
Chelsea joining with H&F (as it now does in parliamentary terms) and Kensington with Westminster seems the obvious thing to me.
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Post by East Anglian Lefty on May 10, 2022 9:11:44 GMT
I think there's a pretty decent case for merging all three West London boroughs into one. It'd be a large authority, but only about 25% bigger than Croydon and comparable in size to many met boros.
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