2023 Review - West Midlands

[Sibboleth]

Jun 28, 2023 13:17:09 GMT greatkingrat said:

Jun 28, 2023 13:11:12 GMT ClevelandYorks said:

Psychotic

If they really felt the need to acknowledge the Solihull bit, then it should have been Birmingham Hodge Hill and Castle Bromwich.

You could even go with Birmingham Castle Bromwich.

[YL]

Here is what the BCE themselves say about the Solihull names:

1242. We recognise the continuing concerns of the residents of Castle Bromwich and Smith’s Wood wards about lack of ties to Birmingham. While we have not seen an alternative set of boundaries for this area that would produce a better pattern of constituencies overall, we agree that recognising Solihull wards in the constituency name would be appropriate to reflect the distinct identity of these wards, and consistent with our general approach in other constituencies that cross a local authority boundary. We therefore recommend a Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North constituency. Similarly, we have reviewed again the request to rename the two constituencies wholly within the Solihull council area. As the main issue of concern in these proposals has been the division of the town centre of Solihull, while we have not seen a better alternative set of boundaries, it would be appropriate to recognise the existence of that central area in both constituencies in their names. We therefore recommend two constituencies of: Solihull West and Shirley; and Meriden and Solihull East (the ordering of the names in the latter reflecting the predominantly rural nature of the constituency).

So there's a bit of "we recognise that people don't like the boundaries we're proposing here, but we can't think of anything better, so we'll acknowledge their concerns by changing the names" going on here. I don't think it's surprising that the BCE take that approach sometimes.

It's news to me that Castle Bromwich and Smith's Wood have a "lack of ties to Birmingham". The concern I have is more with the splitting of the Chelmsley Wood area.

[edgbaston]

Jun 30, 2023 7:03:49 GMT YL said:

Here is what the BCE themselves say about the Solihull names:

1242. We recognise the continuing concerns of the residents of Castle Bromwich and Smith’s Wood wards about lack of ties to Birmingham. While we have not seen an alternative set of boundaries for this area that would produce a better pattern of constituencies overall, we agree that recognising Solihull wards in the constituency name would be appropriate to reflect the distinct identity of these wards, and consistent with our general approach in other constituencies that cross a local authority boundary. We therefore recommend a Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North constituency. Similarly, we have reviewed again the request to rename the two constituencies wholly within the Solihull council area. As the main issue of concern in these proposals has been the division of the town centre of Solihull, while we have not seen a better alternative set of boundaries, it would be appropriate to recognise the existence of that central area in both constituencies in their names. We therefore recommend two constituencies of: Solihull West and Shirley; and Meriden and Solihull East (the ordering of the names in the latter reflecting the predominantly rural nature of the constituency).

So there's a bit of "we recognise that people don't like the boundaries we're proposing here, but we can't think of anything better, so we'll acknowledge their concerns by changing the names" going on here. I don't think it's surprising that the BCE take that approach sometimes.

It's news to me that Castle Bromwich and Smith's Wood have a "lack of ties to Birmingham". The concern I have is more with the splitting of the Chelmsley Wood area.

It’s just pure pure lies, they are part of Birmingham and everybody knows it - including the damn people that wrote in to the commission. What damage they have done here.

[YL]

Obviously it is way too late, but in Solihull would it have been better to:
- keep Castle Bromwich and Smith's Wood in Meriden, which then doesn't need to take Silhill or Elmdon;
- retain Silhill in Solihull (still taking Blythe);
- transfer Lyndon ward to Birmingham Yardley, and split Elmdon ward between Yardley and Solihull, using the obvious NW/SE split through the Land Rover factory and the park?

I think it's possible to rearrange Birmingham around that: Alum Rock to Hodge Hill and Small Heath to Ladywood would work, for example.

[John Chanin]

Jul 2, 2023 8:12:40 GMT YL said:

Obviously it is way too late, but in Solihull would it have been better to:
- keep Castle Bromwich and Smith's Wood in Meriden, which then doesn't need to take Silhill or Elmdon;
- retain Silhill in Solihull (still taking Blythe);
- transfer Lyndon ward to Birmingham Yardley, and split Elmdon ward between Yardley and Solihull, using the obvious NW/SE split through the Land Rover factory and the park?

I think it's possible to rearrange Birmingham around that: Alum Rock to Hodge Hill and Small Heath to Ladywood would work, for example.

There's lots of ways to work it, and with only the one sensible ward split in North Birmingham as well.  Lyndon and (most of) Elmdon obviously does less damage.  So does Shirley South and East for that matter.  The thing is that none of the parties in Birmingham were interested, so the horrible proposals by the Boundary Commission basically went through on the nod.  Obviously I should have made a 20 page submission on the subject, but never got round to it. Not probably that they would have taken any notice.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

West Midlands is reduced from 59 to 57 constituencies.

10 constituencies are unchanged: Bromsgrove, Burton and Uttoxeter (name changed from Burton), Cannock Chase, Coventry North West, North Warwickshire and Bedworth (name changed from North Warwickshire), Nuneaton, Sutton Coldfield, West Worcestershire, Worcester, and Wyre Forest.

Three current constituencies are not the base for any new constituency:
* Dudley South (50.1% to Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, 33.7% to Stourbridge, 16.2% to Dudley)
* Stone (30.5% to Stoke-on-Trent South, 26.9% to Stafford, 23.8% to Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge, 14.0% to Staffordshire Moorlands, 4.8% to Newcastle-under-Lyme)
* Walsall South (53.3% to Walsall and Bloxwich, 28.5% to Wolverhampton South West, 18.2% to Aldridge-Brownhills)

South Staffordshire is the base constituency for two new seats. It makes up 58.0% of Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, and 45.6% of Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge.

The Index of Change in all altered constituencies is:

Constituency	Index of Change
Rugby CC	0.8
Telford BC	2.1
Hereford and South Herefordshire CC	2.2
North Herefordshire CC	2.2
Stratford-on-Avon CC	2.3
Birmingham Northfield BC	3.0
Lichfield CC	3.5
Tamworth CC	3.8
Newcastle-under-Lyme CC	5.1
Droitwich and Evesham CC	5.6
Birmingham Selly Oak BC	5.8
Redditch CC	6.7
North Shropshire CC	7.8
Shrewsbury CC	9.1
South Shropshire CC	10.8
The Wrekin CC	11.2
Warwick and Leamington CC	12.3
Smethwick BC	13.6
Birmingham Edgbaston BC	13.6
Stoke-on-Trent North BC	15.5
Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley BC	15.8
Dudley BC	15.9
Kenilworth and Southam CC	16.9
Birmingham Erdington BC	18.4
Staffordshire Moorlands CC	19.9
Aldridge-Brownhills BC	20.7
Wolverhampton West BC	27.6
Birmingham Yardley BC	32.0
Coventry East BC	34.5
Coventry South BC	37.6
Birmingham Perry Barr BC	37.9
Solihull West and Shirley BC	38.6
Stoke-on-Trent Central BC	42.6
Wolverhampton North East BC	44.4
Stafford CC	55.2
Halesowen BC	55.7
Meriden and Solihull East CC	56.8
Stoke-on-Trent South CC	57.6
Stourbridge BC	58.0
Birmingham Ladywood BC	64.6
Tipton and Wednesbury BC	70.2
West Bromwich BC	73.2
Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North BC	73.6
Wolverhampton South East BC	77.6
Kingswinford and South Staffordshire CC	84.5
Walsall and Bloxwich BC	97.8
Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge CC	108.5