Torbay Council Ward Boundary Review Submission to the Local

Torbay Council ward boundary review

Submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England

Torbay Constituency Conservative Association

TORBAY BOUNDARY REVIEW SUBMISSION BY THE TORBAY CONSERVATIVE ASSOCIATION Torbay Borough Council currently consists of 36 councillors representing 15 wards, all of 2 or 3 members. Of these wards, 11 lie within the constituency of Torbay and 4 within the constituency of Totnes. Current proposals from the review of Parliamentary constituency boundaries retains Torbay constituency as it currently exists so the split between the two constituencies will continue for the foreseeable future. Torbay Conservative Association acts in partnership with Totnes Conservative Association but acts as the lead Association in matters concerning Torbay Unitary Authority and is making the submission encompassing the full Torbay Council area. In providing this submission the Association has considered the structure of communities in Torbay and has addressed issues regarding the overall ward structure. The Association is aware that many councillors from all parties across the Bay have submitted minor changes to ward boundaries based upon their detailed personal knowledge and that the Council have incorporated many of those into its submission. We have made no attempt to replicate the minor amendments but accept the validity of this detailed knowledge and the changes that would result from that information.

THE THREE TOWNS IN TORBAY Torbay consists of three main towns, Torquay, Paignton and Brixham and it is reasonably easy to associate the few separate communities, such as Cockington, and Collaton St Mary as being associated most closely with one of these towns. Current wards can therefore easily be associated with one of the towns with the only exception being the Churston-with-Galmpton ward where the northern fringe of the ward abuts the Goodrington-with-Roselands ward in Paignton. We recognise that different parts of this ward have associations with both Brixham and Paignton but have chosen to follow the lead set by the community partnership which when given the choice between being included with the Paignton or Brixham Neighbourhood plan has chosen Brixham as the better fit. A significant anomaly however remains in this area of Torbay as the Hookhills area consisting of some 2700 electors in polling districts GB, GC and a small part of GA have chosen to be considered as part of the Goodrington, Roselands and Hookhills community partnership and is therefore forming part of the Paignton neighbourhood plan. Indeed other parts of the ward also have stronger links to Paignton than to Brixham and this is further discussed later in this submission.

We have considered at a high level using the current ward structure the population split between these three areas:

2016 electors 2023 electors 2023 Equivalent Proportion councillors TORQUAY WARDS St. Marychurch 8,486 8,689 Watcombe 4,982 4,982 Shiphay-with-the-WIllows 7,209 7,784 Cockington-with-Chelston 8,213 8,339 Tormohun 7,804 8,081 Ellacombe 4,980 5,004 Wellswood 6,383 6,482 TOTAL 48,057 49,361 47.735% 17.18

PAIGNTON WARDS Preston 8,058 8,173 Clifton-with-Maidenway 5,432 5,486 Roundham-with-Hyde 5,582 5,760 Goodrington-with-Roselands 5,675 5,675 Blatchcombe 8,009 9,557 TOTAL 32,756 34,651 33.510% 12.06

BRIXHAM WARDS St. Mary’s-with-Summercombe 5,688 5,741 Berry Head-with-Furzeham 7,455 7,811 Churston-with-Galmpton 5,646 5,842 TOTAL 18,789 19,394 18.755% 6.75

The top level analysis results in a current division of councillors as follows

Torquay wards 17 councillors representing an average of 2,904 electors each Paignton wards 12 councillors representing an average of 2,888 electors each Brixham wards 7 councillors representing an average of 2,771 electors each

We note however that the report discussed at Council and agreed as a Council submission has recommending moving roads to the south side of Long Road from the Blatchcombe ward to the Churston with Galmpton ward and we have considered this proposal. The eastern part of Long Road, next to the new White Rock housing estate, consists entirely of commercial developments including South Devon College, a hotel and industrial estates. It seems most unlikely therefore that the residents in the new housing development will develop any community links elsewhere in the Blatchcombe ward. The natural community link for these residents is with the Hookhills estate which lies immediately to the East of the new development and which contains the local primary school and thriving community centre. We have noted that the Council expect 500 electors from this new development by 2023.We believe that there is a compelling case for including the area containing this development in the Churston with Galmpton ward and have therefore adjusted the figures above to reflect this change We would suggest this area be added to polling district GC.

REVISED TOTALS FOR THE THREE TOWNS after the above adjustment

PAIGNTON WARDS Preston 8,058 8,173 Clifton-with-Maidenway 5,432 5,486 Roundham-with-Hyde 5,582 5,760 Goodrington-with-Roselands 5,675 5,675 Blatchcombe 8,009 9,057 TOTAL 32,756 34,151 33.026% 11.89

BRIXHAM WARDS St. Mary’s-with-Summercombe 5,688 5,741 Berry Head-with-Furzeham 7,455 7,811 Churston-with-Galmpton 5,646 6,342 TOTAL 18,789 19,894 19.238% 6.93

This results in a proposed revised division of councillors as follows

Torquay wards 17 councillors representing an average of 2,904 electors each Paignton wards 12 councillors representing an average of 2,846 electors each Brixham wards 7 councillors representing an average of 2,842 electors each

The number of electors per Councillor in the three towns appears broadly similar and well within the levels of forecasting error. The view of the Association is that the clear accepted boundary between Torquay and Paignton should be preserved and we have therefore proceeded to consider boundary changes within each of the 3 towns as separate tasks.

Discussions with ward branches, local Councillors and members have identified local community hubs outside of the main town centres throughout Torbay, generally centred on local shopping areas, churches, housing estates and community centres. Examples in Paignton include Goodrington, Roselands, Collaton St Mary, Great Parks, Foxhole and Preston and examples in Torquay include Livermead, Chelston, Shiphay, Hele, St Marychurch and Wellswood. However, whilst it is possible to identify community focus points, the continuous nature of housing between many of these areas makes it difficult to identify borders between specific communities and there is often little consensus as to where one community ends and another neighbouring one commences.

Therefore as a general principle we have tried to avoid changing the basic structure of wards when population numbers are already balanced. Community partnerships have developed throughout Torbay mainly constructed around ward boundaries and we have wished to avoid disruption to these when it can be avoided. Other than the situation in Hookhills discussed above, the main exception to the community partnerships having common boundaries with wards occurs in Torquay. There are three community partnerships covering different parts of the Tormohun ward with one of these incorporating part of the Watcombe ward and we believe it is important to take these divisions into account when reviewing and suggesting ward changes in Torquay.

More details on the community partnerships, including a brief description of the areas covered, can be found at: https://www.torbaycdt.org.uk/community-partnerships/ BRIXHAM WARDS Whilst the three Brixham wards contain a reasonable average number of electors between them only St Mary’s-with-Summercombe individually is correctly sized. Berry Head-with-Furzeham has 9% too few electors and Churston-with-Galmpton ( including the 500 transferred from Blatchcombe) has 10% too many. The two Brixham Town wards forming the area represented by The Brixham Town Council between them have some 6% too few electors compared with the average in Torbay and it is perceived in Torbay that this imbalance causes significant friction and the level of over- representation should not continue

This numerical imbalance could be resolved by moving around 700 electors from the Churston with Galmpton ward to Berry Head with Furzham ward or by moving around 2000 electors from Berry Head with Furzham into Churston and Galmpton, with a switch between which is the 2 member and which the 3 member ward. It is of interest to note that Churston and Furzeham were linked in a single ward prior to the last boundary review and the concept of these two areas uniting seems to have general support.

The proposal adopted by the Council in its submission is to reduce the Berry Head ward to being a 2 member ward and to increase the Churston with Galmpton ward to a 3 member ward. We have considered how these options would reflect on community links in the Brixham area

At present Brixham is the only part of Torbay to have a Town Council which presently covers the wards of Berry Head-with-Furzham and St Mary’s-with-Summercombe. The Churston-with-Galmpton ward is not included within the Town Council and it is anticipated that this will continue. It is clear that Churston would not wish to be included in Brixham Town Council but that Furzeham would not wish to be excluded either.

Residents in all 3 wards have worked together to produce a Brixham Neighbourhood plan although in fact only just over half of the Churston-with-Galmpton ward has been include within Brixham for this purpose, the remainder having chosen to be within the Goodrington, Roselands and Hookhills community partnership. This area has consequently has been included in the Paignton neighbourhood plan. Furthermore residents in polling district GA whilst remaining in the Churston Community Partnership have significantly more community connection with Hookhills where it will find its local shopping centre, schools, doctors surgery and community centre. It is perhaps worth noting that polling districts GA GB and GC, covering Hookhills and the northern part of Broadsands lie in the ecclesiastical parish of Goodrington and have Paignton postal addresses.

Most residents in polling district GA certainly consider themselves to live in part of Paignton, frequently contacted Councillors in the Goodrington-with-Roselands ward as they mistakenly assume that they are part of that ward not the more distant sounding Churston-with-Galmpton Ward.

Further confusion occurs within the Goodrington, Roselands and Hookhills community partnership as this covers parts of both Parliamentary Constituencies, a far from ideal configuration.

The Association has considered all these factors and consider many alternative arrangements including single member ward but it does not seem possible to come up with any solution that is able to recognise all these community aspects whilst remaining with a numerically balanced numbers. A good fit solution would appear to be the proposal to increase the Churston-with- Galmpton Ward to being a 3 member ward with the inclusion of Furzeham and decrease the Berry Head ward to being a 2 member ward. This solution howeverfails to address the division within the Churston with Galmpton ward which results in part of the ward wishing to be associated with Brixham and part with Paignton. As a step towards overcoming this we feel a name change would be highly advantageous to incorporate an area from the Paignton end of the ward and are suggesting the ward should be renamed as Churston-with-Broadsands.

In summary whilst recognising the anomalies the Association has not been able to identify a better solution and therefore supports the Council proposals for the 3 most Southerly wards

PAIGNTON WARDS Apart from the adjustment of 500 electors from the White rock development discussed above,the Associations proposals make no significant change to the ward structure in Paignton with all wards currently showing no significant variance from average size. Blatchcombe ward does show some 5% too many electors by 2023 but this only comes into play once projected housing growth has taken place. Indeed on current electoral figures the proposed Blatchcombe ward has too few electors. With the uncertainty on the rate of population growth it would not be unreasonable that we accept the oversized ward but the ward populations could be balanced by moving some 200 electors into the adjoining Clifton-with-Maidenway ward located to the east of Blatchcombe. There is no clear community based demarcation between the Blachcombe and Clifton-with-Maidenway wards along much of their boundary and we would propose that Hillside Road and Barton Avenue off Marldon Road would be suitable for such a change.

Community partnerships throughout Paignton are well developed and provide real focus for activity particularly around the Town Centre of Paignton and the largely unchanged ward structure will allow these to continue to serve the established communities across the area. We note that various small adjustments are adopted in the Council submission based upon detailed local knowledge and find no reason not to support these minor changes. As such the Association fully supports the proposals submitted by Torbay Council so far as Paignton wards are concerned.

TORQUAY WARDS COCKINGTON-WITH-CHELSTON Lying to the South West of Torquay, this ward has a boundary with Paignton with farmland and woodland creating a natural separation along most of its length. Cockington-with-Chelston is currently a 3 member ward. This ward has currently only 1% less than the average number of electors and this is forecast to grow to a 3% shortage by 2023. We see no reason to make any changes to this ward.

ST MARYCHURCH This ward lies along the most northerly part of the coastline in Torquay and incorporates both St Marychurch and Babbacombe. These two communities have for many centuries been seen as a distinct area separate from Torquay evidenced, for example, by the existence of a Babbacombe and St Marychurch Local History Society. Until St Marychurch was incorporated into Torquay in 1900 it had its own separate Town Hall and this area contains the largest collection of local shops outside of the three major towns. This ward currently has 2% more electors than the average number of electors and this is forecast to fall to a 1% surplus by 2023. We see no reason to make any changes to this ward allowing it to continue to retain its separate identity from the rest of Torquay.

OTHER WARDS IN TORQUAY All remaining wards in Torquay are showing variations from the average number of electors in excess of 5% both on current and 2023 projected numbers of electors and four of the five wards show a 2023 variation of over 10%. We therefore consider that there should be some alteration to all of these wards. For the sake of convenience we have considered the ward with by far the greatest variance in the number of electors, this being Shiphay-with-the-Willows first and have considered how best to adjust boundaries in line with communities moving in a southerly direction through the main part of Torquay.

SHIPHAY-WITH-THE-WILLOWS This ward has two distinct parts, Shiphay to the southwest of the main road (Riviera Way, A3022) coming into Torquay from the north, and The Willows to the northeast. The Willows part of the ward however includes housing on Barton Hill Road and roads to the west of Barton Hill Road which appear to be a third, even more disconnected, part of the ward and a small number of electors in Hele Road which are equally isolated. There is little of community substance to link the two main areas of the ward although there will be a lot of employment interchange between the areas as the General Hospital lies in Shiphay and the main out of town shopping centres lie in the Willows. Shiphay has seen significant housing growth since the last boundary review and this is forecast to continue. There is even less reason to link the Hele Road or Barton Hill residents with the current Shiphay ward.

Shiphay-with the Willows currently has 30% too many electors and this is forecast to rise to 35% by 2023. The association has considered the possibility of extending Shiphay to become a 3 member requiring the addition of around a thousand additional electors but the options available to accomplish this are far from attractive. Extending the ward to the East into the Watcombe ward or South East into the Tormohun ward would incorporate further areas which have no discernible community links to either the Willows or Shiphay and would create a ward lacking cohesion. Extending to the South into part of Cockington-with-Chelston would appear to be less disruptive from a community viewpoint but would break up a ward which currently functions well as a cohesive unit. It would also leave it with too many electors for a 2 member ward and too few for a 3 member ward with no attractive way of resolving that numerical imbalance without further disruption to existing communities. The Association has considered the possibility of reducing the number of electors to leave Shiphay as a 2 member ward and concludes that the only viable option to do that is to move all electors in the TA polling station into the adjoining wards. This includes the electors in and off Barton Hill Road and electors in part of the area known as The Willows. Whilst it may seem that this divides the Willows, enquiries have indicated that the two sections of the Willows, accessed from separate roundabouts off Browns Bridge Road over half a mile apart, do not see themselves as a single community with the smaller area in polling district TA looking more towards Barton for local shopping and schools. The loss of polling district TA from the Shiphay with The Willows ward would reduce the number of electors by 1901 according to 2023 projections and would result in Shiphay being within 2% of the target number of electors. This is the only attractive option to resolving the numerical imbalance in Shiphay and is precisely in line with the Council submission.

WATCOMBE The ward of Watcombe incorporating parts of Barton, Watcombe, Combe Pafford and part of Hele currently has 10% too few electors and this is forecast to grow to 13% by 2023. The addition of most electors from polling station TA in Shiphay with the Willows ward as detailed above certainly would have the beneficial impact of moving electors from the Barton Hill Road area into the community which they would feel part of, and electors from the remainder of the TA polling district would be included in a community physically much closer to their homes. The addition of 1848 electors to Watcombe would however result in moving it from having 13% too few electors to having 19% too many electors. The ward of Watcombe however currently includes an area in Lower Barton which forms a community partnership with the most northerly section of the Tormohun ward. This area is polling district WD which at present is somewhat isolated from the rest of the Watcombe ward. This community partnership, known as Hele’s Angels, is one of the most active partnerships with a very strong community identity and it would be seen as a real benefit to unite this community within a single ward. To complete that objective we would recommend that the residents of Barton Hill Road south of Barton School, South Parks Road and Danvers Road, currently in polling district TA in the Shiphay-with-the-Willows ward be moved into the WD polling district in line with the Hele’s Angels partnership boundary to unite that community. It is estimated that the removal of WD and the roads south of Barton School would reduce elector numbers by approximately 1000 and would result in Watcombe having around 5880 electors less than 3% above the target number.

It should be noted here that the Associations proposals are not fully in line with the approved Council submission which appears not to have reflected the inclusion of Barton Hill Road (south of Barton school) South Parks Road and Danvers Road. We consider that the exclusion of these from the proposed Watcombe ward is an important community based refinement.

TORMOHUN, ELLACOMBE and WELLSWOOD (3 wards jointly considered)

The three wards of Tormohun, Ellacombe and Wellswood have been considered together as significant changes are suggested here to realign with the separate communities within the area.

Tormohun ward currently stretches down the valley leading to Torquay Harbour some 3km from north to south though it is never more than 1km wide from east to west. The ward covers areas that include the busy harbour side with its night time economy through the main shopping streets through the community of Torre through residential suburbs north of the town and into out of town trading estates and shopping centres. The association feels that there is little evidence of their being a sense of community, highlighted by its division into three different community partnerships (no other ward has more than one partnership although boundaries sometimes do not fully coincide). Tormohun currently is a 3 member ward and is forecast to have 6% too few electors compared with average by 2023.

The Association proposes that the Tormohun ward be divided such that the northern part consists of the full Hele’s Angels partnership area together with most of the area covered by the Torre and Upton community partnership (elector numbers do not appear make it possible to get full alignment of the partnerships) This would create a 2 member ward consisting of polling district WD from the Watcombe ward, a small number of electors from polling district TA in the Shiphay with Willows ward and polling districts LC, LD and LE from Tormohun ward. Such a ward would comprise a little less than 6000 electors and this would be some 4% above average. The ward created at the northern part of the current Tormohun ward would need to be named to reflect the communities it serves. Our suggestion would be to name this as Hele with Upton ward.

The remaining parts of Tormohun ward LA and LB consists of what most would regard as Torquay Town Centre but would comprise of 3286 electors on 2023 projections, too few for even a two member ward. Ellacombe currently projects having 13% too few electors by 2023 and Wellswood currently projects having 13% too many electors. We have considered options to make Ellacombe a 3 member ward incorporating the LA and LB polling districts but have rejected that because it fails to create the identity of having a town centre ward. Significant parts of the Ellacombe ward, however are very much a part of the town centre with town centre offices, Torquay’s town centre market, a town centre car park and shops in Market Street all located in the Ellacombe ward. Residents in much of the lower part of the Ellacombe ward live within a few minutes’ walk of the town centre and it is the view of the Association that a strong focussed Town Centre ward is best formed from the polling districts LA and LB and districts DA and appropriate parts of DC and DB from the Ellacombe ward. A ward with an appropriate number of electors would be created including some 2500 electors currently in Ellacombe ward. We would suggest that this ward retains the historical name of Tormohun as it remains focussed on the town centre and the historical centre of Torre.

Wellswood is a largely residential area with a local shopping centre lying to the east of Torquay town centre. Its number of electors is currently 13% above the average in Torbay, immediately alongside Wellswood lies Ellacombe from where in our proposal some 2500 electors have helped form the new town centre ward. It is proposed that the remaining Ellacombe electors together with Wellswood electors form a new 3 member ward possibly called The Warberries. Such a ward would bring together all of the community east of the Town Centre into a single ward. By our calculation such a ward would be of an appropriate number of electors.

We have reviewed the proposals contained in the Council submission and we believe this to be a reasonable way, but not the only way, to create ward boundaries within the 3 new Torbay wards. We are prepared to accept the Council submitted proposals subject to the amendment to add the 3 roads as discussed above that are contained in the Hele’s Angels partnership to the Hele with Upton ward

SUMMARY OF PROPOSED WARDS IN TORBAY

BRIXHAM St. Mary’s-with-Summercombe 2 member ward Largely unchanged Brixham Town 2 member ward Most of Berry Head-with-Furzeham ward Churston-with-Broadsands 3 member ward Expanded to include Furzeham

PAIGNTON Blatchcombe 3 member ward Largely unchanged Goodrington-with-Roselands 2 member ward Largely unchanged Roundham-with-Hyde 2 member ward Largely unchanged Clifton-with-Maidenway 2 member ward Largely unchanged Preston 3 member ward Largely unchanged

TORQUAY Cockington-with-Chelston 3 member ward Largely unchanged Shiphay-with-the-Willows 2 member ward Loses part of Willows and Barton Watcombe 2 member ward Gains part of Willows but loses part of Hele St. Marychurch 3 member ward Largely unchanged Hele with Upton 2 member ward Northern part of Tormohun with Hele Tormohun 2 member ward Southern Tormohun plus part of Ellacombe The Warberries 3 member ward Wellswood plus part of Ellacombe