Appendix B

Introduction

1. This appendix sets out how the proposed warding scheme addresses the second and third of the Boundary Commission’s three statutory criteria for local government electoral reviews: the need to secure equality of representation; the need to reflect the identities and interests of local communities; and the need to secure effective and convenient local government.

2. Hackney’s diverse mix of people from different backgrounds gives it the third greatest degree of ethnic diversity, and the fifth greatest degree of religious diversity amongst local authorities in England and Wales. Ethnic and religious groups are widely dispersed across the borough. The one exception to this is the Orthodox Jewish/Charedi community in the Stamford Hill area, which is noticeably more concentrated than other groups.

3. Nearly three in five Hackney residents say they feel they belong either fairly or very strongly to their local neighbourhood (57%). This compares well to the London average of 52%. Many people feel they ‘belong’ in many different ways – to a small local area or estate, to one of Hackney’s distinctive sub-localities (source: Hackney Cohesion Review, published July 2010).

4. Our approach has been to seek to strengthen this identification with local areas through their reflection in the proposed warding arrangements, including retaining existing wards where possible, while correcting some known anomalies, for example where a small part of a housing estate falls in a different ward to the majority of the estate.

5. The fundamental problem that we have had to address is the imbalance between the south west of the borough and the north. Every ward in the borough has seen, and will continue to see, growth in its electorate, but growth is faster in the current Hoxton, De Beauvoir and Dalston wards. We have approached this by starting with changes to these wards in ways that reflect local communities, and working from there northwards to create new wards that either continue to reflect, or improve the ways in which they reflect, local identities and interests.

6. We have therefore created two Hoxton wards, north and south, with Hoxton North taking in the southern part of the existing De Beauvoir ward, and then adding the north part of De Beauvoir to the south of Dalston. This creates a new Dalston and De Beauvoir ward around the area that is undergoing re-development following transport improvements at Dalston Junction. We have created a new Shacklewell ward from the north of the current Dalston ward and the south of Stoke Newington Central. We have retained Clissold and Stoke Newington Central wards, but pushed their boundaries further north.

7. In the north of the borough we have added parts of the current Lordship ward to both Clissold and Stoke Newington Central wards, and the remainder of Lordship to a new Stamford Hill West ward. We have created a new ward around the re-developed Woodberry Down estate and reservoirs, which leaves a smaller Brownswood ward. To the east of Stamford Hill is a new Stamford Hill East ward and below that a new Upper Clapton ward.

8. There are some minor changes proposed to the borders between Victoria and Wick, Chatham and King’s Park, and between Hackney Central and the new Shacklewell ward, but otherwise they cover broadly the same areas as they do now. Hackney Downs, Leabridge, Queensbridge and Haggerston wards are unchanged.

9. New wards

Woodberry Down This new ward brings together the large scale re-development of the Woodberry Down estate around the two reservoirs. Polling district CC contains the west reservoir and AB the east reservoir. Outline planning permission for the Woodberry Down development, agreed in 2008, gives an increase in units from 1900 to 4600. Most of the growth is in polling districts AA and CC. The re-development is intended to create a new community, with a mix of new private housing as well as additional social housing, and new community facilities. Currently the area is split between wards. 2800 units are due to be completed between October 2012 and the end of 2017. A further 1750 units are due to be completed between 2018 and 2030. The proposed boundary along Green Lanes keeps the link to the area around Manor House. “Manor House fits within the larger context of the regeneration of the Woodberry Down estate. Manor House is the ‘front- door’ to Woodberry Down. It is a well used transport interchange for Woodberry Down and an important local retail and service centre for the area.” (from the Manor House Area Action Plan pre-submission document). We propose that this is a two-member ward.

Brownswood By taking parts of the Woodberry Down estate from the current Brownswood ward, there is a natural boundary created by Green Lanes, making a smaller ward to the west of Green Lanes, and with Seven Sisters Road as the borough boundary to the north. The new ward contains the Kings Crescent Estate, the development of which will also bring significant additional housing. We propose that this is a two-member ward.

Stamford Hill West Stamford Hill is a distinct part of the borough that lies on both sides of, and takes its name from, the major road called Stamford Hill. This area is home to the Orthodox Jewish / Charedi community. We propose creating a two-member ward on the west side of Stamford Hill, continuing westwards above the green spaces of Abney Park Cemetery and Clissold Park and below the reservoirs of Woodberry Down.

Stamford Hill East Stamford Hill is a distinct part of the borough that lies on both sides of, and takes its name from, the major road called Stamford Hill. This area is home to the Orthodox Jewish / Charedi community. We propose creating a new ward to the east of Stamford Hill, but taking in a small area north of the major road Amhurst Road that lies to the west of Stamford Hill at the northernmost borough boundary.

Upper Clapton We propose creating a new ward from the southern parts of the current Cazenove and Springfield wards, which better reflects the area of the borough on either side of Upper Clapton Road known as Upper Clapton.

Clissold This ward now includes both sides of Stoke Newington Church Street and the whole of Clissold Park, which is a central focus for the local community and was previously in Lordship ward.

Stoke Newington Central This ward now includes both sides of Stoke Newington Church Street, which is the centre of the local community rather than a boundary road, to the east of Clissold Park.

Shacklewell This brings together the area north and south of Shacklewell Lane, known locally as Shacklewell, and one of the four original villages in the Parish of Hackney, but not currently represented as a ward.

Dalston and De Beauvoir This brings together the area around the town centre at Dalston Junction on both sides of Kingsland Road and Dalston Lane and Graham Road. This is the borough's main town centre and is undergoing major mixed-use re-development on the back of improvements to transport through the connection of Dalston Junction to the tube network.

Hoxton North We have moved all of the Arden estate and the west side of Hoxton Street into Hoxton North which re-unites the currently split Arden estate, and brings Hoxton North more into the heart of Hoxton while putting the Cranston and St John's Estates into Hoxton South, which are currently cut off from the rest of Hoxton North by Shoreditch Park. We have added the new development along the canal north of Eagle Wharf Road to Hoxton North to strengthen the community links along the Regent's Canal. The new ward would include all of Shoreditch Park.

Hoxton South The proposed boundary moves Cranston and St. John’s estates into Hoxton South as they are much more tied into the social and demographic life of Hoxton South, and Cranston will share the new Shoreditch Heat (Combined Heat and Power) Network with parts of Wenlock and Fairbank estates, which remain in Hoxton South. We have drawn the boundary to prevent Hoxton South's main local shopping street Murray Grove from being split in half. New North Road is a significant natural boundary at the middle and southern end not a spine road.

10. Wards subject to minor change

Hackney Central We propose moving the border slightly westwards between the current Hackney Central and the new Shacklewell ward, between polling districts KB and JB, so that it runs to the east of Cecilia Road between Downs Park Road south to Sandringham Road. This brings the whole of the Mountford Estate into the same ward, where previously a small section was in a different ward.

King’s Park We propose that King’s Park ward remains the same except for the addition of the streets to east of Homerton, moving from Chatham ward. The road to the east of the hospital, Brooksby’s Walk, works as a boundary rather than a spine road.

Chatham We propose that Chatham ward remains the same with the exception of moving the streets to the east of the Homerton Hospital to King’s Park. The road to the east of the hospital, Brooksby’s Walk, works as a boundary rather than a spine road.

Victoria We have re-drawn the boundary between Victoria and Wick, between polling districts PB and QB, so that instead of going through Meynell Crescent the boundary runs along Church Crescent, which moves addresses in Meynell Gardens and Church Crescent into Wick. This is to remove an odd split in the middle of a road to the north of Well Street Common.

Wick This ward gains the addresses removed from Victoria ward as set out above, but is otherwise the same as the existing ward.

11. Wards for which no changes are proposed to the existing ward boundaries Leabridge

Queensbridge

Hackney Downs

Haggerston

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