Cornwall

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Mebyon Kernow - the Party for Mebyon Kernow - the Name: Party for Cornwall

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Representation to the Local Government Boundary Commission for (LGBCE) from Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall As an organisation, we have reviewed the scheme for divisional patterns agreed by at its meeting on 13th February 2017. It is our view that the staff and members of the unitary authority have produced a very credible proposal, which attempts to respect community identities as much as possible within the constraints of achieving 87 divisions with similar electorates. However, we do have a couple of comments that we hope the LGBCE will take into account in its deliberations. 1. / We note that 86 divisions out of 87 schemes lies within the LGBCE’s preferred limits of plus or minus 10% of the electorate average. The one seat outside the 10% ( and Grampound) has an electorate of 4,533, while a neighbouring seat (including Tregony, St Goran and the Roseland) has an electorate of 4,850. Both cover large rural areas, but we consider that the community links of the two seats could be improved, if the grouping of parishes was modified. It is our view that Grampound Parish would be better linked with Tregony and the Roseland, while it would be a more comfortable fit for St Goran to be linked with the parishes of St Mewan and . This would mean that the St Mewan, St Ewe and St Goran seat would have an electorate of 4,909, while the Tregony, Grampound and the Roseland seat would total 4474. We acknowledge this edges slightly further away from electoral equality, but believe that this makes much more sense from a community perspective. For example, St Ewe and St Goran both have close links to the Lost Gardens of Heligan and it would be better for both parishes to be in the same division. In addition, we would argue that it is not inappropriate for “The Roseland” area to have a lower electorate as the length of the division would be approaching 20km along its length. South East Cornwall We have also noted how Cornwall Council did consider submitting an additional scheme for 88 councillors, but chose not to do this. It is our view that a scheme of 88 members would be preferable, with an additional member located in the South East of Cornwall where the community geography means a number of seats presently have higher-than-average electorates. The Council did attempt to address this, but it had knock-on consequences, namely the shift of St Pinnock to the west and the addition of part of parish to the seat containing Roche and Bugle. It would be good if these changes could be reversed. It is our view that the suggested scheme presented to the Cornwall Council meeting for 88 divisions (including 17 in South East Cornwall) – but not carried forward – nonetheless represents the best overall proposal. It would achieve better electoral equality in the South East and improve community links with regard to the St Pinnock and Roche / Bugle areas. Please review and consider the evidence contained within the paperwork for the council meeting on the 13th, and support this preferred scheme for 88.

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