Susan van de Ven

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Bassingbourn, Litlington, Melbourn, Meldreth and Whaddon Learn more

Response: Boundary Commission proposal to move Melbourn/Bassingbourn/Mordens to ‘Northeast Herts’

by Susan van de Ven on 4 December, 2016

I have submitted this response to the Boundary Commission’s proposal to move the current Melbourn, Bassingbourn and the Mordens District Wards into a new ‘Northeast Herts’ parliamentary constituency.

*

The Hon Mrs Justice Patterson DBE
Deputy Chair
Boundary Commission for England
35 Great Smith Street
London SW1P 3BQ
By email to: information@boundarycommissionengland.gov.uk
By upload to: www.bce2018.org.uk

Dear Mrs Justice Patterson

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the consultation.

I write to you in my role as Cambridgeshire County Councillor for the Melbourn Division, and refer to proposals for new South Cambridgeshire and Northeast Hertfordshire constituency boundaries. The Commission proposes the transfer of the South Cambridgeshire District Wards of Bassingbourn, Melbourn and the Mordens to a new Northeast Hertfordshire constituency.

I recognise the overarching requirement to reduce the number of constituencies in the East of England and the attendant numerical challenges on reconfiguration. But any changes to individual wards should not be detrimental to the rights and wellbeing of affected populations.

Role of the MP in representing local interests:

The balance of population in the new Northeast Herts constituency would be overwhelmingly within the county of Hertfordshire and is not an equitable configuration. The three South Cambridgeshire wards would be adversely affected.

The attention of the new constituency’s MP, whose job it would be to represent local interests, would naturally be weighted toward coordination with Hertfordshire County and North Herts District Councils where matters of education, health, social services, transport, police, housing and strategic planning are concerned. This would diminish the effectiveness of problem solving and future planning for residents of the Melbourn, Bassingbourn and Mordens wards.

The extra cross-border networking load for the new MP will mean not only working with two different sets of local authorities, but also on the Cambridgeshire side a new Combined Authority and a wholly different decision-making arrangement due to the new role of a mayor.

For the South Cambridgeshire villages whose new district and county boundary lines will already not be contiguous, the third layer of split Parliamentary constituency boundaries would add a further element of inconsistency, further undermining effective democratic representation.

In the months since the Boundary Commission’s proposal was announced, I have listened extensively to the views of local residents, but have heard no one express support for the proposal.

Economic zones and strategic powers:

The interests of the affected South Cambridgeshire villages would not be met by joining with a constituency that extends to Baldock and Letchworth. It is not the case that the three South Cambridgeshire District wards look to Northeast Hertfordshire, but rather that Royston is an anomaly in Northeast Herts. I often hear Royston described by its own residents as an outpost in a London-facing county.

The Melbourn, Bassingbourn and the Mordens wards are Cambridge-facing wards. Their strategic relevance within a Cambridgeshire administrative area is strongly expressed by the Greater Cambridge City Deal, as delivery vehicle for strategic housing, skills and transport growth in an identified economic zone. The wards also fall within the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Enterprise Zone.

Transport links:

I draw the following observations from my role as chair of the Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Rail User Group and Community Rail Partnership, and the Cambridgeshire County Council Total Transport Steering Group, which is tasked with developing new solutions for local transport needs.

The Commission’s reference to natural transport links between the three South Cambs District Wards and Northeast Herts is not borne out by fact. An absence of coordination exists across Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire local authorities on bus services. This will be exacerbated as a result of new bus franchising rules governing the new Combined Authority of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough that are not transferable into a Hertfordshire network. Furthermore, Government Revenue Support Grant to Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire is not consistent and so different variables exist for supporting subsidized transport.

Train connections through Royston are generally for transfer to fast services to London or Cambridge.

In summary the Commission’s proposals to transfer the three South Cambridgeshire wards of Melbourn, Bassingbourn and the Mordens to a Northeast Herts-dominated constituency is not supported by a positive case for the affected population, and these wards should remain within the Cambridgeshire administrative boundary.

Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

Susan van de Ven
Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Melbourn Division

   Leave a comment

Leave a Reply

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>