Parliamentary Boundaries

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This page looks at parliamentary boundary changes. From time to time, the 'Boundary Commission for England' (BCE) assesses the English parliamentary constituencies and makes recommendations to Parliament about re-drawing those boundaries such that the constituencies have approximately the same population in each, an average of just over 73,000. The resulting recommendations are not automatically accepted by Parliament. From the 2023 Review:

'The BCE wishes to stress very strongly that any person or organisation interested in the proposals for their area is encouraged to exercise their statutory right and make written or oral representations to the BCE, whether for or against the proposals.'

To this end, BCE asks the public to 'Help us draw the line to make Parliamentary constituencies more equal.'


2023 BCE Review
The new BCE 2023 Review map showing the proposed changes to be implemented (or not) in 2023 appears to be just the same as current (view as pdf), with an electorate of 71,377 distributed around various wards. There do not appear to be any modifications at all to our existing constituency, with only minor changes to nearby constituencies, and ours continues to be 'Penistone and Stocksbridge.' From the Ward Data (xlsx spreadsheet, from BCE) we can pick out the denser areas: Penistone West 10,142; Penistone East 9,706; Stocksbridge/Upper Don 14,759. The 2023 Review can be found at BCE.

Of course, Penistone will continue to be joined on to Stocksbridge, as before, with the parliamentary power base continuing to be in the Sheffield region for all practical purposes. The earlier proposals which had lumped us in with Holmfirth in West Yorkshire can, for now, be forgotten (see below for 2018) and we are back to normal.

The 2018 review had been supplemented by a requirement to reduce the number of UK constituencies from 650 to 600 but that review was not implemented. The current review will be put to Parliament in 2023 (BCE 2023 Review) and is no longer tasked with reducing the number of UK constituencies, which will remain at 650. This might have had something to do with not risking the loss of any 'Red Wall' seats which were gained from Labour. That theory had been speculated in the Times newspaper.

England will gain ten seats (543) at the expense of Wales losing eight (32) and Scotland losing two (57). The number of constituencies in the Yorkshire and the Humber region will remain at 54. To the nearest whole number, the UK electoral quota for the 2023 Review is 73,393 and every recommended constituency (except the five ‘protected’ constituencies) must have an electorate of between 69,724 and 77,062; the electorate numbers as of 2nd March 2020 for their calculations.

From the 8th June 2021 Press Release (link below):

Members of the public are encouraged to visit BCE Reviews to view maps showing the proposed new boundaries and provide feedback before the consultation closes on Monday 2nd August 2021. People can comment on anything from where the proposed new boundary lines are to the names of the constituencies. There will be a further two rounds of consultation in 2022. Following the conclusion of all three consultation periods, the Commission will look at all the evidence received and form its final recommendations.

From Guide to 2023 Review, page 3, Section 26 'Other Statutory Factors:'
Rule 5 in Schedule 2 provides for a number of other factors that the BCE may take into account in establishing a new map of constituencies for the 2023 Review, specifically:

From Guide to 2023 Review, Page 4:

Those who respond to the consultation are requested to say whether they approve of, or object to, the BCE’s proposals. In particular, objectors are advised to say what they propose in place of the BCE’s proposals. An objection accompanied by a viable counter-proposal is likely to carry more weight than a simple statement of objection. (etc.)

Sources:


2018 Parliamentary Constituency Proposals
The Boundary Commissioners of England ('BCE') had been asked to begin a review of parliamentary constituencies in order to re-balance constituencies to be within 5% of the same average number of people for each one. This was also to reduce the number of Members of Parliament from 650 to 600, to save Parliament about £12 million. Starting in 2016, its early reports were made public later in the year, September 2016. The final recommendations were publicised in September 2018. In our 'Yorkshire and Humber' region, with an electorate of 3,722,035, the target was to reduce the number of MPs from 54 down to 50.

If accepted by Parliament, the current BCE proposals would do away with the former 'Penistone and Stocksbridge' constituency. The Penistone district would be split almost down the middle, just east of Penistone town centre, with BMBC Penistone West Ward (including Penistone town centre) in the new 'Colne Valley and Penistone' constituency. BMBC Penistone East Ward would join Oxspring and Thurgoland with Stocksbridge and Dodworth in a new 'Barnsley West and Stocksbridge' constituency.

The town centre section would retain both of the former constituency names of 'Colne Valley' and 'Penistone' (although perhaps in the wrong order). This would ally us with Holmfirth, with which perhaps we have had some connection (and even rivalry) in the past, but also with districts beyond Holmfirth such as such as Golcar in the Kirklees Council area, districts which have never had any significant historic, road or natural connection with our town. In the distant past, Penistone and Holmfirth were competing for representation in the Commons.

'Why was a review carried out?' (From BCE 2018 Review):

'The Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 (as amended in 2011) required the four Boundary Commissions for the UK to carry out a review of constituencies and to submit final reports to Government in September 2018. Parliament specified that the 2018 Review must reduce the number of constituencies, and therefore MPs, in the UK, to 600. It asked us, as an independent and impartial body, to consider where the boundaries of the new constituencies in England should be, ensuring that every new constituency (except two for the Isle of Wight) has roughly the same number of electors: no fewer than 71,031 and no more than 78,507.'

According to newspaper and news reports in 2016, the re-balancing part could affect the Labour Party more than the Conservatives leading to fewer Labour seats. It was described by Labour as gerrymandering (i.e. regions being altered to give advantage to a party). The Liberals would have preferred the review to be cancelled but UKIP was popular and had been happy for it to go ahead.

Under the heading of 'Political Map is appalling for Barnsley' (Barnsley Chronicle 14th Sept. 2018), Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council leader Sir Steve Houghton said that he could "... hardly imagine how anyone could have done a worse job of re-drawing the borough's political map."

It would appear that Labour's worries about losing places could be justified. In the Yorkshire and Humber region, the new boundaries would result in the loss of three Labour seats for only one Conservative seat - and this is in a traditionally Labour-supporting (and Brexit-supporting) area.

Barnsley MP Dan Jarvis was just as unhappy about his 'Barnsley Central' constituency disappearing completely, with votes being split into the two new constituencies. In effect, Barnsley would not fully have its own constituency. Much of the West of the borough is already represented by a different MP, Angela Smith, as the current 'Penistone and Stocksbridge' boundary extends well into Dodworth, including such as the Horizon College.

In the article, Jarvis said: "We have had a Barnsley MP since the 1885 Reform Act, and two MPs who have represented just Barnsley since 1983. The proposed boundaries will dilute our town's representation in Parliament as they will result in five different MPs representing different parts of our borough, and none solely representing Barnsley. Regardless of which way you vote, we should all be concerned about proposals that will weaken Barnsley's standing on the national stage. I will not be supporting Boundary Review in its present form , and will vote against it."

A Guardian article set out Labour's fears and how boundary changes could affect certain prominent pro-leave Conservatives.

The 2018 Boundary Review Guide claimed that it had attempted to keep to council ward boundaries except for certain circumstances, but the recommendations had now put BMBC Penistone West in with Kirklees Council wards, stretching as far North as the M62 whilst BMBC Penistone East was joining districts under Sheffield City Council. Of course, administrative regions and parliamentary constituencies are quite different beasts but the methodology was supposed to keep them together where possible.

Methodology - 'Guide to the 2018 Review of Parliamentary Constituencies' Page 8, Section 31. (2018 Boundary Revue)

'The BCE seeks to avoid dividing wards between constituencies wherever possible. Wards are well-defined and well-understood units, which are generally indicative of areas which have a broad community of interest. Any division of these units between constituencies would be likely to break local ties, disrupt political party organisations, and cause difficulties for Electoral Registration and Returning Officers. The BCE’s view is therefore that wards should continue to be the default building block for constituencies.

However, the BCE recognises that in a few cases there may be exceptional and compelling circumstances – having regard to the specific factors identified in Rule 5 – that may make it appropriate to divide a ward. Strong evidence and justification will need to be provided in any constituency scheme that proposes to split a ward, and the number of such ward splits should be kept to an absolute minimum.


Examples of circumstances in which the BCE might propose splitting a ward could include: a) where all the possible 'whole ward' options in an area would significantly cut across local ties; or b) where splitting a single ward may prevent a significant 'domino effect' of otherwise unnecessary change to a chain of constituencies in order to meet the electorate totals requirement. Where the BCE does accept the need to split a ward, it will seek to do so along the boundaries of the polling districts that form part of that ward.'

Several local residents contributed their thoughts in the consultancy phase from September 2016 and particularly to make the point about retaining 'Penistone' in the new constituency title, given its long history. The name of 'Penistone' had either stood alone as a constituency or been part of another constituency whilst keeping its name in the title.

The New County Constituency
The Commission had taken notice of public responses in the Consultation and submitted the new constituency name of 'Colne Valley and Penistone' rather than the old 'Colne Valley.'

The tables below show how council wards are grouped into the two parliamentary constituencies. Both are described as 'County Constituencies' (as opposed to 'Borough Constituencies') in the Yorkshire and Humber Region.

New 'Colne Valley and Penistone'
Local Authority Region Authority Electorate
Penistone West Barnsley 9,162
Colne Valley Kirklees 13,093
Crossland Moor & Netherton Kirklees 12,481
Golcar Kirklees 13,141
Holme Valley North Kirklees 12,677
Holme Valley South Kirklees 14,345
Total Electorate   74,899

New 'Barnsley West and Stocksbridge'
Local Authority Region Authority Electorate
Central Barnsley Barnsley 7,231
Darton East Barnsley 8,032
Darton West Barnsley 7,875
Dodworth Barnsley 7,917
Kingstone Barnsley 6,792
Old Town Barnsley 7,815
Penistone East Barnsley 8,963
Worsbrough Barnsley 6,981
Stocksbridge & Upper Don Sheffield 14,329
Total Electorate   75,935

The 2018 BCE Review could only consider ward boundaries that were in place on 7th May 2015, that being the date of the most recent election. As of September 2018, the newly-published recommendations were awaiting approval from HM Government (which, from past experience might be for a year or more). Please note that, independent of the BCE, the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) is responsible for council ward boundaries. LGBCE's most recent boundary review gave its final recommendations in July 2003 (See BMBC Ward Map Recommendations).

National Boundary Change Effects

2018 Review (Pending Gov't Approval)
Region Old New Δ Con Lab Lib UKIP Grn
N Ireland 18 17 −1 0 0 0 0 0
Scotland 59 53 −6 −2 2 −2 0 0
North East 29 25 −4 −1 −3 0 0 0
North West 75 68 −7 0 −6 −1 0 0
Yorks & Humber 54 50 −4 −1 −3 0 0 0
Wales 40 29 −11 −3 −6 0 0 0
West Midlands 59 53 −6 −2 −4 0 0 0
East Midlands 46 44 −2 1 −3 0 0 0
Anglia 58 57 −1 −2 1 0 0 0
South West 55 53 −2 −3 1 0 0 0
London 73 68 −5 −2 −2 −1 0 0
South East 84 83 −1 1 −1 −1 0 0
Total MPs 650 600 −50 −14 −24 −5 0 0

Sources: BCE Final Recommendations and low-resolution pdf maps may be found at the 2018 Boundary Revue. Also 'Electoral Calculus - Boundaries 2018' and 'Electoral Calculus 2018 Yorks Summary.'


Previous to 2018
An earlier Boundary Review of 2013 had proposed new constituencies but was not implemented. That review was conducted on the basis of 1st December 2010 electoral registers. As the later 2018 Review had required a report in September 2018, it used the published electoral register data of 1st December 2015 as a basis which led to a different recommendation.

The new constituency proposed in 2013 had been 'Sheffield West and Penistone' and with Stocksbridge being in 'Stocksbridge and Hillsborough'. Angela Smith MP might have liked that proposal, as she had started her parliamentary career in the earlier 'Hillsborough' constituency.

Previous Constituencies for Penistone

See the a BCE website and Parliament - Constituency Boundaries.


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