Leicester City Labour Group City of Leicester New Ward Boundary Narrative
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Patrick Kitterick For the attention of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England Please find attached the following files in relation to Leicester City Labour Party’s submission regarding the LGBCE’s review of boundaries for Leicester City Council. -PDF Map of the New City of Leicester Ward Boundaries as proposed by Leicester City Labour Party. -PDF Table of the numbers for each ward and variances for the New City of Leicester Ward Boundaries as proposed by Leicester City Labour Party. -Narrative on Proposed New Wards -Data files supplied by Leicester City Council which I believe are compatible with LGBCE systems which give the detailed data surrounding our proposals. If this is, in any way, incompatible with the supplied maps and narrative please contact me to resolve any confusion.. The overall approach of Leicester City Labour Party has been to produce a detailed, validated, city wide proposal for Leicester. We have used the River Soar as a primary definer of boundaries in the city, we have also made greater use of the railway lines in the city as a definer of boundaries and finally we have used major roads as a point to either divide wards or build wards depending on whether they divide communities or have communities grow around them. For the necessity of providing balanced numbers we have had to use minor roads as the final definer of boundaries. Overall we have reduced the number of wards from 22 to 20 and we have kept wards co-terminus with current parliamentary boundaries, as they too provide strong community and natural boundaries. Combined with balancing numbers this has led to Leicester West Constituency losing 2 councillors and East and South gaining a councillor each from previous arrangements. The work to produce this has been carried out by a large number of members of Leicester City Labour Party from across the city. The one resource from the city council we have called upon is Ian Robertson of the City Council’s Planning Department, who operates the software which validates the numbers and maps and data we have provided to you. I must re-state Ian has acted only to independently validate our proposals and produce subsequent maps and data and I would like to thank him for his help in this matter. Overall I believe these proposals satisfy the Boundary Commission’s requirements with the largest variance in elector numbers being 7.2% and 15 of the 20 Wards having a variance of less than 5%. The boundaries of the wards are clear and represent real communities in Leicester. I commend these proposals to the Commission. Yours faithfully Patrick Kitterick Chair – Leicester City Labour Group City of Leicester New Ward Boundary Narrative 1 Abbey Ward 1.a Equality of representation Under this configuration, Abbey ward would have an electorate of 12,686, which would be represented by three Councillors. This equates to a comparable citywide electoral variation of – 2.77%, which starkly contrasts to Abbey’s current ward variance of – 21% and is well within the Local Government Boundary Commission’s tolerance of 10%. 1.b Community interests, identities and identifiable boundaries Abbey Ward would continue to be made up of six distinct but related neighbourhoods – Mowmacre, Stocking Farm, Abbey Rise, the Stadium Estate with its associated housing clusters around Abbey Park and Frog Island. Under this configuration, none of these neighbourhoods would be split by a ward boundary and they would remain connected by Abbey Lane, which forms the heart of the ward. Mowmacre in the northern part of the ward is a clearly defined community, predominantly made up of current and former Leicester City Council housing. Residential tenures tend to be long in duration meaning that there are strong community ties between neighbours. There are a number of shared community services such as the Mowmacre Children’s Centre, Tudor Neighbourhood Centre, a very active Mowmacre Tenants Association and Mowmacre Primary School. Local residents self identify as living in Mowmacre and there is a strong sense that this area is separate from Beaumont Leys. Stocking Farm lies directly to the south of Mowmacre and the two neighbourhoods share a lot in common, including housing type and socioeconomic mix. The Stocking Farm Youth, Community & Healthy Living Centre as well as the neighbouring row of shops on Marwood Road are at the heart of Stocking Farm. Children from both Mowmacre Hill and Stocking Farm attend Woodstock Primary School. Local residents self identify as living in Stocking Farm and again, there is a strong local sense that this area is separate from Beaumont Leys. Abbey Rise connects Stocking Farm with Abbey Lane. It is made up of a mixture of social and private housing. Children from both Stocking Farm and Abbey Rise attend Wolsey House Primary School. To the south of Abbey Rise lies the Stadium Estate, with Parker Drive at its heart. Stadium is predominantly made up of owner occupiers. It is less socially homogenous then other parts of the ward but has a significant, established Asian community. Local residents self identify as living on the Stadium estate. The addition of Avebury Avenue and its associated streets to Abbey Ward is a natural fit with the Stadium estate as it is a similar housing type and residents in both areas use the Avebury Meadows Children’s Centre and Alderman Richard Hallam School. The area around Frog Island is a less densely populated neighbourhood with some terraced housing of mixed ownership and a significant number of commercial and industrial properties. The newly proposed configuration of Abbey Ward has very coherent boundaries, which are largely consistent with those that currently exist. Indeed, no change is recommended to the northern or eastern boundaries with only minor adjustments recommended to the south western boundary so that it accommodates Avebury Avenue and its associated streets. This enables better equality of representation whilst maintaining coterminosity with the parameters of the aforementioned neighbourhoods. Furthermore, Anstey Lane provides a much stronger south western border than is presently the case. 1.c Promoting effective and convenient local Government There are three key benefits to proposing minimal changes to Abbey Ward in terms of effectiveness of local Government: First, Abbey is demonstrably of an appropriate size so as to be easily manageable in terms of representation. Secondly, the Ward has significant levels of deprivation and social disadvantage with all the associated poor outcomes in terms housing, health, education, employment and personal income. There is a very high level of Council and Social Housing and these factors combined put a huge demand on local Councillors in terms of casework. Having three councillors represent this ward assists with the distribution of work and provides resilience in the event of illness and/or other council commitments such as scrutiny positions or civic roles. Third, by broadly maintaining the status quo, local residents will already be familiar with their ward boundaries. 2 Aylestone Village & Eyres Monsell Ward 2.a Equality of representation Under this configuration, Aylestone Village & Eyres Monsell Ward would have an electorate of 12,108, which would be represented by three Councillors. This represents a comparable citywide electoral variation of 7.2%, and is well within the Local Government Boundary Commission’s tolerance of 10%. 2.b Community interests, identities and identifiable boundaries The ward is based around three clear areas, the village of Aylestone, the area known as Gilmorton, and the Eyres Monsell estate. To the west is the boundary is the River Soar, to the south the city/county boundary and to the west a line following Saffron Lane, and up behind Wigston Lane and Aylestone Drive cutting across west at Duncan Road. The newly proposed configuration brings three clear areas together into one ward without the confusion of having part of the Saffron Estate in a ward called Eyres Monsell with all three areas often looking towards the Aylestone Village Centre. 2.c Promoting effective and convenient local Government There are three key benefits to the proposed changes to Aylestone Village and Eyres Monsell Ward in terms of effectiveness of local Government: First, Aylestone & Eyres Monsell is demonstrably of an appropriate size so as to be easily manageable in terms of representation. Second, the ward covers 3 clear areas in the south of the City. Third, people in the area strongly identify with living in Aylestone, Eyres Monsell and Gilmorton and the ward will have a strong sense of identity whilst fulfilling the optimum size of ward. 3 Beaumont Leys Ward 3.a Equality of representation Under this configuration, Beaumont Leys ward would have an electorate of 12,191, which would be represented by three Councillors. This equates to a comparable citywide electoral variation of – 6.56%, which starkly contrasts to Beaumont Ley’s current ward variance of – 15% and is well within the Local Government Boundary Commission’s tolerance of 10%. Furthermore, whilst the review is based on the current electorate, we anticipate significant increases in the size of Beaumont Ley’s electorate as developments such as Ashton Green take place. 3.b Community interests, identities and identifiable boundaries Beaumont Leys ward would continue to be predominantly made up of the large Beaumont Leys estate. With Strasbourg Drive at its core, it stretches from Beaumont Leys Secondary School in the south to Beaumont Lodge Primary School in the north. This is a clearly defined community, predominantly made up of current and former Leicester City Council and housing association properties. Residential tenures tend to be long in duration meaning that there are strong community ties between neighbours. There are a number of shared community services such as Beaumont Leys Police Station, Beaumont Leys Library, Leicester Leys Leisure Centre, Beaumont Lodge Community Centre, Barley Croft Community Centre and Home Farm Neighbourhood Centre.