Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 17th March 2017 Recommendations for Council regarding the review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries At its meeting on the 17th March 2017 Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee received a report from the Leader of the Council setting out representations received by the Boundary Commission for England (The Commission) in response to its review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries. The committee looked at 3 areas: Representations in response to the proposed boundary for the Hyndburn Parliamentary Constituency as set out by the Commission; Representations put forward in relation to the Commission’s proposed name of the Hyndburn Parliamentary Constituency; and The representation put forward by Ribble Valley Borough Council which has significant implications for the Hyndburn Parliamentary Constituency proposals. Representations in response to the proposed boundary In considering the representations put forward about the proposed boundary for the Hyndburn Parliamentary Constituency the committee agreed that there were valid arguments for replacing the Coal Clough with Deerplay Ward with the Rosegrove with Lowerhouse Ward. The Coal Clough with Deerplay ward has no natural community links or affinity with any parts of Hyndburn and it has poor transport links to Hyndburn. These factors are highly likely to have a perceived or actual impact on the quality and effectiveness of their parliamentary representation. The Rosegrove with Lowerhouse Ward shares community links with the wards of Hapton with Park and Gawthorpe that already form part of the Commission’s proposals for the Hyndburn Parliamentary Constituency. The socio-economic profiles of each of these Padiham wards are not dissimilar to the Huncoat and Altham Wards and other Hyndburn wards. There are also excellent transport links through to Hyndburn. The impact on elector numbers caused by replacing the Coal Clough with Deerplay Ward the Rosegrove with Lowerhouse Ward would also be beneficial. The impact for the proposed parliamentary constituencies of Hyndburn and Burnley would be to move the total number of electors toward the centre of the commission’s stated range. This would help in mitigating the impact of any population changes in each of the areas in future years. Page 1 of 3 For the above reasons the Committee recommend that Council supports the representations that propose that the Commission should replace the Coal Clough with Deerplay Ward with the Rosegrove with Lowerhouse Ward. Representations put forward in relation to the Commission’s proposed name The name proposed by the Commission for the parliamentary constituency is Accrington County Constituency. The majority of representations that support the Commission’s boundary proposals either support the proposed name or remain silent on it. 2 representations suggest referring to the proposed constituency as Hyndburn with Padiham or Hyndburn and Padiham. The committee felt that whilst naming the constituency Accrington would resonate well with the people of Accrington it would not embrace the residents of the other townships within the constituency. Whilst Accrington is better known nationally because of Accrington Stanley, the Accrington Pals and its contributions to textile manufacturing during the industrial revolution the committee felt Hyndburn as an area had developed a strong identity helped in part by the fact it is the current name of the parliamentary constituency. Businesses, schools and other organisations have adopted Hyndburn in their name. To change the parliamentary constituency name will be detrimental for the identity of the area and for organisations with Hyndburn in their name. Following a Council resolution (17th November 2016) the Leader of the Council submitted a representation informing the Commission that the Council did not support the proposed constituency being called Accrington County Constituency and requested it be called Hyndburn County Constituency. The Committee agreed that this remained their preferred option. The representation put forward by Ribble Valley Borough Council Under the Commission’s initial proposals the Ribble Valley parliamentary constituency would disappear as a result of it being divided across 2 new parliamentary constituencies (Clitheroe and Colne CC and North Lancashire CC). Ribble Valley Borough Council (RVBC) submitted a representation to the Commission proposing that a large part of the Hyndburn parliamentary constituency be merged with most of their existing parliamentary constituency. RVBC’s proposal is to take the wards of Netherton, Overton, Rishton, Church, St. Oswald’s, St. Andrew’s, Immanuel and Baxenden. They are proposing that the constituency be named Ribble Valley and Hyndburn West. There are many stark differences between Hyndburn and Ribble Valley and the residents that live there and because of these differences Overview and Scrutiny Committee discussed the RVBC representation at length. Page 2 of 3 Ribble Valley is one of the least deprived areas as determined by the 2015 Indices of Deprivation in the country and it ranks higher than any other Lancashire district. Hyndburn is in the 10% most deprived areas in the country. For the indicators for health, employment, income, crime and living environment out of the eight Hyndburn wards considered part of the Ribble Valley Constituency proposal 2 are within the 10% most deprived and 6 out of the 8 within the 40% most deprived ward areas across the country. In contrast the Ribble Valley wards are within the least deprived areas across the country. Mosaic is a research tool designed to help understand the demographics, lifestyles, preferences and behaviours of the UK adult population. Mosaic analysis describes the dominant group in Hyndburn as transient renters in comparison with country living description in the Ribble Valley. Hyndburn has a localised labour market, with 51% having journeys to work of less than 5km (compared to 40% nationally). This may be related to some cultural attitudes, whereby residents with low wages, poor skills and low aspirations will only travel limited distances for employment opportunities. Strongest commuting flows are to and from Blackburn. The source of employee jobs in Ribble Valley is very heavily influenced by BAe. It has a much higher proportion of manufacturing jobs than the majority of authorities, mainly as a result of the aerospace industry. In contrast it has the lowest proportion of employment in the service sector in Lancashire. The structure of the local economy leads to Ribble Valley having a high density of jobs compared to its working age population. Average earnings in Hyndburn are low when measured by both place of work and residence, whilst the personal incomes results reveal a very low median total income figure for Hyndburn. Average earnings in Ribble Valley in 2015, were the highest in Lancashire when measured by place of residence. Figures for life expectancy at birth reveal that Hyndburn district had very low averages in comparison to the national figures. Figures for life expectancy at birth reveal that Ribble Valley had averages that were above the national figures. Hyndburn is an authority in East Lancashire that covers 73 square kilometres, has 16 wards, and the number of people per km² is around three times the England and Wales average. Ribble Valley in geographic terms is the largest in Lancashire covering 583 square kilometres and has 24 wards. The rural nature of the area however means that the number of people per km² that is the lowest in the county and only a third of England and Wales average. Overview and Scrutiny Committee are highly concerned that the stark differences that exist between the areas RVBC’s proposal suggests merging would result in weakened representation at national level for those Hyndburn residents that would come under the proposed constituency if it were to be adopted. The committee recommend that Council respond to the Commission and inform them that this Council does not support RVBC’s. Page 3 of 3 .