October 2011

APPENDIX A ELECTORAL REVIEW OF SLOUGH SLOUGH LABOUR GROUP’S AMENDMENT TO SLOUGH BOROUGH COUNCIL’S SUBMISSION ON WARDING ARRANGEMENTS OCTOBER 2011 Included in the table below is the original Slough Borough Council cross party ‘compromise’ agreement ratified by Council on Thursday 29th September, with proposed Labour Group amendments marked in red. Throughout the council’s preparation of the boundary submission, a number of proposals from officers and political groups were worked into a substantive original proposal. This was then amended by several compromises resulting in the submission voted through Council. Despite this, no other groups supported the compromise in the Council despite indications from their working group members that they would. Some have since written letters indicating that they did in fact support the cross party submission while not voting for it in the meeting. As a result of the loss of support for the cross party submission at Council the Labour Group is hereby submitting this alternative proposal which in our opinion ‘tidies up’ a number of boundaries and has the added advantage of bringing the sizes of these wards closer to the 2017 target. By applying more logical boundaries which tie together natural communities on the ground, it is our view that this submission represents a clearer application of the LGBCE’s criteria and our own desire to create cohesive electoral wards. In the working party and from comments made by members in Council, there is general agreement from members of all political groups around the working groups’ proposals for 8 wards of the town (Farnham, Baylis & Stoke, Elliman, Wexham Lea, Cippenham Green, Cippenham Meadowns, Chalvey, Central*), and this Labour Group submission makes no changes to these. This proposal makes a single change between the Britwell & Northborough and Haymill wards, moving the distinct area of housing at Lynch Hill Lane into Haymill (as like the rest of Haymill, the Haymill Valley is a strong feature here). This change is primarily to leave room for more housing development in the Britwell & Northborough ward as the council is part way through a regeneration which will provide 200 additional properties on the northern part of Kennedy Park which are not included within the housing/population projections but which are intended to be supplied and completed by 2017. The focus of the Labour Group amendment is the four wards in the east of the town, as changes were made to the working group proposals to try and secure the Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups’ support that have left the proposed Langley South ward with a predicted electorate size which is at the upper end of the tolerance, and have produced a boundary for the Colnbrook and Langley East ward which is very impractical and illogical north of the M4. The group of roads around Langley Broom in the current Kedermister ward which the working group’s compromise proposal moves to Upton creates an ‘axe head’ which feels like an uncomfortable fix, bordering on a ‘gerrymander’. The working party’s submitted boundary for Upton intrudes uncomfortably under Langley St Mary’s into Langley South, and this has been amended in the Labour Group submission. *The Labour Group amendment, moves Bloom Park into Central ward as it is adjacent to the Goodman Park estate and the main access into Bloom Park is from there. The railway line is also a strong physical boundary to the south of Bloom Park, however this change affects no residents/electors, and this is simply about creating a tidier boundary on the map. Ward Name Number of Forecast % Electoral Evidence and Rationale that the proposals meet the three statutory Councillors electorate Variance in criteria 2017 2017 Haymill & 3 6913 +1.5 The Northborough estate is a distinct area of Haymill, located at its Lynch Hill extreme west, and having a greater association with Britwell than the community west of the Haymill valley (‘the Millie’). The proposed boundary change moves this estate from Haymill to Britwell. A small estate of new flats and houses - in a defined area of Bath Road and a new road called Eaton Avenue, both west of the slip road to the M4 at Junction 7 – join the ward from Cippenham Green. In design style and location these properties have more in common with the Haymill flats north of Bath Road than they do with the Cippenham settlement to the east. The M4 slip road is such a physical divide that these properties are effectively ‘detached’ from Cippenham. This change also ‘unites’ Huntercombe Lane North with the small section of Huntercombe Lane South to the south of the A4 Bath Road. A group of roads isolated from the rest of Britwell by the Lynch Hill Valley also join the ward. This change ‘unites’ Haymill Road and Whittaker Road, and takes in properties whose focus is more towards Burnham Lane and Burnham than to Britwell. All the properties south of long Furlong Drive included in this change are also not within the Britwell Parish area, making them further distinct from much of the rest of Britwell. In addition, the amendment on the attached map draws in the whole of Lynch Hill Lane and Dovehouse Crescent into the Haymill ward. Lynch Hill is a distinct area facing the Lynch Hill/Haymill Valley, and with a distinct identity that is not the Britwell Estate, separated as it is by a green expanse. Dovehouse Crescent is a road of large detached chalet style houses who, like the rest of Haymill, look towards Burnham and are focussed around the Lynch Hill/Haymill Valley. Placing these electors in the Haymill/Lynch Hill ward also leaves expansion room in the Britwell and Northborough ward given that approximately 200 new properties are to be built there in the coming years as part of the Britwell Regeneration Project. The previously submitted agreed council submission would mean that the Britwell and Northborough ward would rapidly become too large whereas this amendment should ensure that both the Haymill & Lynch Hill ward and Britwell & Northborough ward remain close to the town’s electoral average for a more extended period. Britwell and 3 6620 -2.8 On its current boundaries, Britwell ward is ‘too small’ by several Northborough hundred electors. The proposed new boundaries almost completely keep intact the original 1950s London County Council-built estate, leaving the vast bulk of the Britwell ward unchanged. One clearly-defined housing estate, the Northborough estate, is added in its entirety. This estate abuts Kennedy Park and Northborough residents use many of Britwell’s shops and facilities as their closest amenities. The Park is also the site of a planned new shopping parade in a regeneration scheme designed to link Britwell and Northborough. The Northborough Housing is also separate in style and design, and to a degree, geography, from the rest of Haymill ward – and this boundary change simply consolidates the Northborough estate’s existing associations with Britwell. The Lynch Hill Valley isolates a small group of roads in the extreme west of Britwell from the rest of the ‘Britwell estate’. Most of these roads sit outside the Parish Council area as well. These residents look as much towards Burnham for their shopping facilities and amenities (like much of the existing Haymill ward) as they do Britwell. Dovehouse Crescent and all the properties facing on to Lynch Hill Lane are moved into the Haymill & Lynch Hill Ward, to keep Lynch Hill Lane itself ‘unified’ and to recognise the synergies between this area and the rest of the Haymill & Lynch Hill ward. Newport Road and Stratford Close whose main entrance is from Long Furlong Drive, after the Lynch Hill Valley are also moved into the Haymill & Lynch Hill Ward. This boundary does not follow that of the Parish, which has no obvious boundary as it currently divides roads in this area. The proposed new boundary also unites Haymill Road and Whittaker Road, which are roads arbitrarily ‘split’ across the two wards on the existing boundary for purely numeric reasons. Farnham 3 6788 -0.4 The residential properties in Farnham ward remain virtually No proposed unchanged on the new boundaries as the ward has the right sized change population. One minor ‘tweak’ moves/restores 20 properties in Oatlands Drive into Baylis and Stoke ward, to ‘unite’ this road, by using the back gardens of Oatlands Drive properties as the proposed boundary, rather than the road frontage. These properties were placed in Farnham ward in 2004, as a consequence of a change designed to ‘unite’ Belfast Avenue into Farnham. But the entrance to Oatlands Drive effectively ‘marks’ the boundary between Farnham ward and Baylis & Stoke, so it is more logical that the boundary runs along their rear gardens than the frontage. Farnham ward is extended to include the arterial routes of the trading estate into the ward in full; creating tidier boundaries with the Britwell & Northborough and Haymill wards, but no residential properties are involved in this change. Baylis and 3 6686 -1.9 Baylis and Stoke has approximately 1,000 electors ‘too many’ on the Stoke current boundaries. No proposed The proposed change keeps Baylis and Stoke ward largely intact, change simply detaching a group of roads that are geographically separated from the rest of the ward by Baylis Park, and which ‘front on’ to Stoke Poges Lane, as far as the junction with Elliman Avenue. The proposal joins them with the properties on the other side of Elliman Avenue in the proposed new ‘Elliman’ ward, as Stoke Poges Lane is a stronger focus for this group of roads than the rest of Baylis and Stoke to the North and west. Baylis Landmarks like the Park itself, and Baylis House, all remain in Baylis and Stoke ward Elliman 3 6861 +0.7 All of the wards in central Slough have populations substantially No proposed above the size of Slough’s remaining wards (Chalvey, Central, change Wexham, Baylis & Stoke).

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