District Council Ward Boundary Consultation

Response by Parish Council

To whom it concerns

This issue was on the agenda of the meeting of Harting Parish Council that took place on 15th September 2016, and it was agreed that the Council should support the inclusion of and Parish in the proposed Harting Ward for the 2019 election. The post 2019 Harting ward is at present proposed by the LGBCE to consist of the parishes of Harting, , and parishes. We support the inclusion of Parish for the following reasons: ‐

1) Ever since the Local Government Act 1972 created Council Harting Parish has been combined with Elsted and Treyford Parish. Consequently, the Communities of both parishes have benefitted from that symbiotic relationship, which has provided effective and convenient local government.

2) The two village schools serving both Harting, and Elsted and Treyford, were closed in the 1980s, and a new joint school opened to benefit the children of both parishes. Both parishes are consequently in the catchment area of that school.

3) Harting Parish and the parish of Elsted Treyford cum are a United Benefice, sharing the same rector. For reasons of identity and community cohesion it would be nonsensical to split the United Benefice in the way the LGBCE currently propose.

4) Elsted and Treyford residents not only use the community shop / post office located in village, but an appreciable number of them, along with Harting residents, are shareholders in it. The building is owned by the shareholders. It is vital that nothing impedes the use of such Community enterprises; the addition of Elsted and Treyford to ward would not help this enterprise.

5) Various Harting organisations benefit from both the membership and active involvement of Elsted and Treyford residents. Similar to the use of the village shop, whilst it might be difficult to foresee what the impact might be of transferring Elsted and Treyford Parish to a two member Midhurst ward, it cannot be of any benefit to the present close ties.

6) Although the inclusion of Elsted and Treyford parish into Harting ward would create a ward with a projected electorate slightly greater than the plus 10% variable that the LGBCE aim for, with the evidence provided by the examples of social identity and cohesion stated above Harting Parish Council request that the LGBCE waive that requirement and include Elsted and Treyford parish within the post‐2019 Harting Ward.

Trish Walker – clerk, Harting Parish Council