BWCA Responds to Boundary Commission Proposals

Key Boundary Commission Recommendations for the Bournemouth West Constituency:

Winton East ward to the Bournemouth East constituency

Branksome West ward from the Poole constituency

Newtown ward from the Poole constituency

Comments:

Reluctantly accept the transfer of Winton East in the interests of balancing neighbouring constituencies and the new electorate numbers.

Agree to the transfer of Branksome West as it reconnects with the previously transferred Branksome East in the last boundary review and recreates the former Bourne Valley Ward.

Object to the transfer of Newtown. As a Ward it does not have a common boundary to the Borough of Bournemouth, at its western edge it is less than half a mile from the Poole Civic Centre and some 2 and a half miles to the nearest Bournemouth Borough boundary The Ward does not have, nor ever has had, a connection or association with Bournemouth.

The previous boundary changes which transferred Branksome East and Alderney Wards to Bournemouth West did create an identity problem which was not addressed at the time. The inclusion of further Wards within the Borough of Poole to the Bournemouth West constituency only compounds that problem.

Key Bournemouth West Conservative Association Recommendations:

 1)     That Newtown Ward remains within the Poole Constituency.

That the Merley & Bearwood Ward, currently in the new Blandford & Wimborne constituency be transferred to Bournemouth West. The eastern part of this Ward has a long common boundary with the Borough of Bournemouth, parts of the Ward, despite being in the Borough of Poole, have a Bournemouth postal address and previously the Ward was part of the Bournemouth West constituency from 1983 to 1997. There are also special geographical considerations, including in particular the size shape and accessibility. In the Commission’s recommendations, this Ward is divided from the rest of the new Blandford & Wimborne constituency by the River Stour. As Bearwood is virtually a suburb of Bournemouth and therefore more appropriately based in a Bournemouth constituency, it is therefore proposed that the River Stour be used as a more natural boundary in the West.

 2)     That the Merley & Bearwood ward be included in the Bournemouth West constituency

That as almost one third of the electorate of the revised Bournemouth West constituency will reside in the Borough of Poole, it is important to create not only a sense of identity for these Poole residents, but to provide a cohesion to the new area as a whole, it is proposed that as the Bourne river (in reality a stream) enters the constituency on the western boundary of the Alderney Ward and travels through four wards all within

Bournemouth West to the sea, that the constituency should be called:

 BOURNEMOUTH WEST & BOURNE VALLEY.

 3)     The name be changed to Bournemouth West & Bourne Valley

Impact upon Neighbouring Constituencies:

Minimal with Bournemouth East unchanged from the Boundary Commission recommendations, Poole and Blandford & Wimborne slightly larger than the recommendations at 78.104 and 78.145 respectively with the new Bournemouth West & Bourne Valley having an electorate of 79.057.