Kevin Wilson

Milton Keynes Labour Party

Representative of a community group/organisation

12/03/2013 14:51

"General Comments

Milton Keynes Labour Party, which consists of over 600 Members across Milton Keynes have considered your draft recommendations very carefully and wish to provide some comments and observations.

Our original proposals echoed those being made by Milton Keynes Council, and in many ways we wish to stick to the views submitted earlier.

However we now need to respond to your specific recommendations, After careful consideration we have decided that most of your proposals are reasonable and we would not wish to challenge them, However we wish to make specific observations on two broad areas, which affects a total of 9 wards, albeit some of them only marginally so.

Annexed to these comments are the specific proposals we wish to make where these are different than the recommendations.

We have suggested amendments affecting Central MK, and the and , with some consequential changes to South, Broughton and Monkston. Our proposals would abolish the seat of Campbell Park and Old Woughton and create an additional seat called Conniburrow or should you wish Central MK North. This maintains the principal of nineteen three member wards and each proposal results in a 2018 electorate within 10% of the quota of 10,030 seats.

Proposed Ward of Campbell Park and Old Woughton

We have considered the rationale for this proposed Ward and find it sadly lacking. It has become known locally as the ‘sausage ward’ and is neither coherent nor sensible. It would be impossible for a councillor to walk the ward and the ward covers very different communities with no common history, character or communality.

 It is a very long ward. Ashland and Simpson in the South simply have no relationship whatsoever with Pennyland and Bolbeck Park in the north. The former two are almost in (indeed are currently in the Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Ward whilst the latter two are on the edge of Newport Pagnell.  The Ward is comprised of a number of distinct areas that have no relationship with each other.

 For example Down Barn has strong connections with Neath Hill and Conninburrow but not with any areas in the proposed ward. For example Springfield has strong connections with Fishermead and the Woughton area, but none with the proposed ward.

We would invite you to consider an alternative set of proposals as shown in detail in the annexe.

In summary

 (Simpson Parish) would form part of the proposed Woughton Ward which would lose Fishermead. Ashland in particular is closely linked to the Woughton area. Its Health, Centres school, and meeting and community places are all in the Woughton area, but Simpson too has close connections. Its local shop and post office are in the Woughton area at Tinkers Bridge, and Simpson School has a shared catchment area with Tinkers Bridge.

 The Passmore Parish Ward is significantly split from the rest of Old Woughton. There si no direct road access without travelling through Woughton Parish, and it was always known as Tinkers Bridge North. Milton Keynes Council link the settlements of Passmore and Tinkers Bridge for statistical and other purposes. It is in effect a part of the Tinkers Bridge settlement. It is separated from the rest of Old Woughton by the Canal. It is proposed that the Parish Ward of Passmore also form a part of the Woughton Ward.

 We considered proposing that the whole of the Parish of Old Woughton should form part of the Woughton Ward, and in many ways this historical arranement remains a sensible option.

 However we note the views in particular of residents of Woughton on the Green and propose instead that the 3 Parish Wards of Woughton on the Green South, Woughton on the Green North and Woughton Park should instead by added to the Monkston Ward, effectively and essentially their current ward.

 You received submissions suggesting that Old Woughton’s defined catchment school area is at Oakgrove. This is not the case for Passmore which is in the defined area for the MK Academy on the Woughton area. The other 3 Parish Wards in Old Woughton have a shared defined catchment area between Oakgrove School and the Milton Keynes Academy

 Fishermead on the other hand, is an integral part of Campbell Park Parish area and along with Fishermead and Springfield form a coherent unit. We propose that these three estates along with CMK East and West form the South Ward.

 Woolstones on the other hand is the other side of the Canal and does look in the opposite direction. Its school catchment area is Oakgrove, whilst Fishermead, Oldbrook and Springfield are part of the catchment area for the MK Academy. We propose that Woolstone be transferred to the Broughton Ward, with ahich it has close ties

Conniburrow ward.

 The estates to the North of Central Milton Keynes have much in common with each other, but not with the estates to the south of Central Milton Keynes. We propose that the estates of Bradwell Common, Conniburrow and Downs Barn along with Downhead Park, Willen Park North and Willen Park South as well as Campbell Park Grid square form a ward known as Conniburrow.

This has two other advantages:

 Firstly it enables the Parish Ward consisting of Downhead Park, Willen Park North and Willen Park South not to be split as your recommendations allowed

 Secondly, it would allow the V10 to be used as the western boundary at Willen Park.

Newport Pagnell South ward.

 Bolbeck Park and Pennyland are in the Parish, as is Giffard Park. We propose linking these areas together as part of the Newport Pagnell South Ward. This would provide for a better balance of the Newport Pagnell South Ward between Newport Pagnell Parish and Great Linford Parish.

General Comments regarding the seats above

 These proposals work in terms of electoral numbers and provide a much more coherent set of proposals.

 The proposals we make recognise Parish Boundaries better than the draft recommendations

 The proposals better reflect natural strong boundaries (Canal and Grid Roads)

 The proposals accept that Estates to the North of Central MK do not link well with estates to the South. Whilst the City Centre is a common bond, it is also a major barrier between the estates north and south of the City Centre, where the bulk of electors live.

 The proposals better reflect community ties, including school, health and retail linkages

 One of the proposed Wards Woughton would be towards the bottom end of the ‘acceptable 10% variation, but is still within and it is worth pointing out that the Woughton Ward historically has had low levels of electoral registration and its population, adult population and potential electorate is actually much higher. It is also an area that generates a huge amount of casework for the Local Councillors representing the area.

 The Woughton ward is one of the poorest areas in the country. Child poverty is 42% , 50% are reliant on benefits and this compares to the poorest urban areas nationally

 You will see that the proposals above effectively ‘abolish the proposed ward of Campbell Park and Old Woughton and replace it with a new proposed ward of Conniburrow, thus maintaining the principle of 19 three member wards.

 Finally, whilst Great Linford Parish Council area has to be split between different wards due to its size, these proposals, provide for a better mix and recognition of Great Linford Parish. Conniburrow is brought into a Parish comprised mainly of other estates in Great Linford, Willen Park South similarly. In the original proposals Great Linford Parish was proposed to be split into 5 different wards this is reduced to 3 with these proposals

Elsewhere in Milton Keynes

We considered proposals for the rest of Milton Keynes but with the exception of Bletchley we are content with the recommendations you have made elsewhere. Whilst not always perfect, we appreciate that the constraints mean that this cannot always be achieved.

Bletchley

 However we do have a serious concern regarding the three proposed wards of Bletchley.

 We accept the ‘outer envelope’ for these 3 wards as you have proposed but the divisions within this outer parameter do cause us some serious concerns.

 In particular the proposal to split the well established and coherent Parish Ward of Central Bletchley in a completely arbitrary way, and without reference to single sensible boundary causes us much concern.

 We expect you are not aware, but this proposal takes a well balanced multi cultural community and splits it very much on ethnic grounds.

 The large Muslim (largely Bangladeshi Community) lives mainly in the west of Central Bletchley, whilst the significant Italian Community lives mainly in the east of Central Bletchley. To split this area into different Parish Wards is contrary to the spirit of government guidance on community cohesion.

We propose instead an alternative which avoids this major problem and which we believe also has more merit in other ways and provides for a recognisable Bletchley South and Bletchley North and Bletchley West Wards, though we are quite content with the proposed name for Bletchley Park, albeit with the different boundaries as proposed and shown in detail in the Annexe. The proposals we have annexed provide for better more coherent seats that link areas with community links far more successfully than the draft recommendations

"

Possible Amendments Changes shown in Bold

Campbell Park and Old Woughton Abolish Nil

Woughton Netherfield 1554 Loses Fishermead Beanhill 1310 Tinkers Bridge 506 Eaglestone 1512 Coffee Hall 1517 Leadenhall 654 Peartree Bridge 718 Simpson 497 Ashland 626 Passmore 186 9080

Monkston Monkston 2820 Monkston Park 1164 Kents Hill 1880 Walnut Tree/Walton Pk 3775 WOTG N 315 WOTG S 198 Woughton Park 169 10321

CMK CMK East 819 Loses Conniburrow CMK West 1320 and Bradwell Common Oldbrook 3682 Fishermead 2509 Springfield 1785 10115

Conniburrow (New Seat) Bradwell Common 2275 Connniburrow 1967 Downs Barn 1704 Campbell Park 983 Downhead Park 1183 Willen Park North 609 Willen Park South 616 9337

Broughton Woolstone 669 Loses Willen Park South Willen and Newlands 1118 Broughton 5050 MK Village 3709 10546

Newport Pagnell South Giffard/Blakelands 2278 Newport South 6961 Pennyland/Bolbeck PK 1408 10647

Bletchley Park Church Green 2032 Loses Central Bletchley Part Scots 1985 Castles Abbeys 2165 Fairways Furzton South 1976 Saints Fenny Stratford 2181 Poets Grany Court 207 Racecourses 10546

Bletchley South (was Bletchley East) Poets 1138 Loses Fenny Stratford Manor South 2061 Eaton North 1383 Eaton North East 489 Eaton South 1513 Newton Leys 1089 Manor North 828 Central Bletchley 2367 10868

Bletchley West Emerson South 1069 Loses Furzton South Castles 1428 Loses Abbeys Fairways 1675 Loses Scots Rivers 1971 Racecourse 1414 Saints 1297 Counties 1618 10472