Have Your Say On Radical Shake-up Of Wandsworth's Parliamentary Constituencies


At two special public hearings being held at the Town Hall

A radical shake-up of Parliamentary constituencies in Wandsworth is being proposed by the Boundary Commission.

The proposed changes would see the borough's three existing constituencies being altered and extended to create four new ones, with voters being transferred from parts of neighbouring Lambeth and Merton.

The new constituencies would be called Battersea & Vauxhall, Clapham Common, Putney and Streatham & Tooting.

Now the public is being invited to have its say on the proposals. Two special public hearings are being held at Wandsworth town hall where residents will have an opportunity to register their views on the proposed changes.

The first hearing is on Monday, October 31st between 11am and 8pm. A second will be held the following day, Tuesday, November 1st from 9am to 5pm.

The Boundary Commission has drawn up the proposals following Parliament's decision to reduce the number of MPs that sit in the House of Commons from 650 to 600.

London's tally of MPS will drop from 73 to 68 and all constituencies will have broadly the same number of electors - roughly 76,000. At the moment the London average is 67,000.

The changes would see the new Battersea & Vauxhall constituency being formed by the Latchmere, Queenstown, St Mary's Park and Shaftesbury wards from the existing Battersea constituency and the Clapham Town, Oval, Prince's and Stockwell wards from the existing Vauxhall seat.

The new Clapham Common seat would contain five Wandsworth wards - two from the existing Battersea constituency, Balham and Northcote, and three from the existing Tooting constituenc, Earlsfield, Nightingale and Wandsworth Common. It would also contain three Lambeth wards from the existing Streatham seat, Clapham Common, Streatham Hill and Thornton.

The new Putney constituency would incorporate its existing six wards of East Putney, Roehampton and Putney Heath, Southfields, Thamesfield, West Hill and West Putney plus Fairfield ward from the existing Battersea constituency and Wimbledon Park ward from the current Wimbledon seat.
 
The newly formed Streatham and Tooting constituency seat will incorporate voters from three existing Parliamentary seats.

Four Wandsworth wards from the existing Tooting seat, namely Bedford, Furzedown, Graveney and Tooting would be joined by four from Lambeth. Two are currently part of the Streatham constituency, St Leonard's and Streatham Wells, with two more joining from the existing seat of Dulwich and West Norwood, Gipsy Hill and Knight's Hill.

The changes only relate to Parliamentary constituencies and who people vote for in general elections. Residents will not be transferring from one local authority area to another.

Both political parties represented on Wandsworth Council have broadly accepted the commission's proposals but both agree that for geographical reasons and to properly reflect the make-up of its communities the new Clapham Common constituency should be renamed 'Wandsworth & Clapham Commons' while the Streatham & Tooting seat would be better named 'Tooting & Streatham'.

To find out more about the proposals, view maps of the suggested new constituencies and to read the report outlining the council's response to the proposals visit www.wandsworth.gov.uk/boundariesreview.

Members of the public who would like to speak at either of the forthcoming town hall hearings must register to do so beforehand using the Boundary Commission's website at
http://consultation.boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/public-hearings/london-wandsworth/ Comments and feedback can also be submitted via this website.

The public consultation continues until Monday, December 5.


October 20, 2011