Boundary Commission for England proposes moving Hodnet into Newport and Wellington’s constituency
On 8 November Shropshire Council announced a final opportunity for residents to influence proposals for revised constituency boundaries to be presented to the Speaker of the House of Commons in July next year.
This may be the first you have heard about it, but as residents in the Hodnet ward will be significantly affected, it is time to sit up and take notice of what is being proposed! There is a short and final opportunity to comment on the proposal, which is to move Hodnet and Cheswardine from the North Shropshire constituency and place them into the Wrekin one, with Newport and Wellington.
Members of the public have until Monday 5 December to comment on this proposal.
The existing and proposed boundaries are shown on this map, which has been adapted from one on the Boundary Commission for England’s [BCE] website. You can access it by typing in your postcode on this page. Alternatively, a more detailed PDF map is available from the BCE website.
A guide to the 2023 Review of Parliamentary constituencies is also provided on the BCE website.
A record of comments made in previous stages of the consultation is also available – again you will need to enter your postcode or select “North Shropshire” in the “Existing Constituency” to filter the comments once they have loaded. Amongst them is one submitted by Hodnet Parish Council:
Hodnet Parish Council wishes to object to leaving the North Shropshire constituency and becoming part of Newport and Wellington. This will cut off the parish from its local hub. The village has ties with the local North Shropshire market towns, such as Whitchurch, Wem and Market Drayton. The local schools, shops, recreation & clubs accessed by the parish are from the North Shropshire towns. We don’t have local connections with Newport, Wellington and Telford so this proposal will affect our parish greatly.
It is hard to disagree with the Parish Council’s sentiments. However, other drawbacks to this proposals should also be considered. One is that the MP will need to work with two sets of Local Authority members and staff, and almost certainly two different systems. Further, there is no central community location in the section of Shropshire the MP will represent for them to hold surgeries and the like. Whilst thinking about such things it also means that local residents will have to travel to Newport or Wellington, both very different communities to Market Drayton, to participate in political events such as hustings.
It is unclear at this stage how much impact a large number of submissions from a local community will have on the BCE proposals. However, if this is the first you have heard about them, and like the Parish Council and other respondents (including this author) you think they show a lack of understanding of community dynamics, then please consider making the effort to respond – doing so can take less than five minutes. You can do this on the BCE ‘Have your say here’ section.
Remember that the opportunity to comment ends on Monday 5 December.