Cornwall Personal Details: Name: Stephen Reynolds E-mail: Postcode: Organisation Name: SHED (Save Heamoor from Excess Development) Comment text: Attached is a proposal for ward boundaries for the current West Penwith Community Network Area. It has been prepared by SHED (Save Heamoor from Excess Development), a community group with hundreds of registered supporters. For all enquiries please contact Stephen Reynolds, . Uploaded Documents: Download (https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk/download document? file=draft%2F1518373237 SHED+West+Penwith+Boundary+Proposal+05022018.pdf) (Save Heamoor from Excess Development) Contact: Stephen Reynolds – 5th February 2018 PROPOSAL FOR CORNWALL COUNCIL ELECTORAL DIVISION BOUNDARIES: WEST PENWITH CNA 1. BACKGROUND The initial proposals for the West Penwith CNA as issued by Cornwall Council failed to meet two of the three criteria set by the Boundary Commission: - wards that reflect the interests and identities of local communities; - wards that provide for effective and convenient local government. For example, one proposed ward included the large villages of Heamoor and Gulval, along with the Treneere estate (one of the 1% most deprived neighbourhoods in England) and a large rural hinterland stretching as far north as the Hayle Estuary. Including such disparate communities in the same ward would be wholly inconsistent with the Boundary Commission’s principles. As a local community group in Heamoor village (initially set up to campaign against development proposals), SHED prepared an alternative proposal that reflects the essentially rural nature of our community, and ensures we continue to be represented by a councillor who understands our needs. As part of this process we arranged a meeting with Gulval Village Community Association (GVCA) at which we agreed on a common proposal. That is the proposal contained in this document. SHED also presented this proposal to Madron Parish Council (on 4th January 2018), who voted to support it. We also distributed the proposal to every Cornwall councillor and Parish Council within the West Penwith CNA, and have incorporated any feedback we received to the extent possible. We also obtained unanimous approval from our own supporters at a public meeting attended by around 100 people on 11th January 2018. Finally, our proposal is entirely consistent with the separate proposal submitted by Councillors McKenna and Dwelly (who represent two of the three current Penzance town wards) that the new boundaries should include two wards specifically for Penzance, to reflect the specific needs and characteristics of the urban area. Like ours, their proposal acknowledges that the urban and rural areas of West Penwith have different needs, and that the villages in particular must retain their proud and separate identities. 2. OUR PROPOSAL FOR RURAL WEST PENWITH The four proposed rural divisions offer a highly coherent definition and split of the West Penwith area that largely respects existing civil parish boundaries. a) Penwith South-West covers the southern part of the Lands End peninsula, containing all the coastal parishes from Newlyn and Mousehole west to St Levan. It also includes the Tolcarne district of Newlyn, currently part of the Penzance Promenade division, ensuring the whole of Newlyn is represented by a single councillor in line with Cornwall Council policy on maintaining the separate identities of the communities around Penzance. We have provisionally estimated the electorate involved at 200. b) Penwith North-West is centred on St Just but also includes the coastal parishes of Morvah and Sennen, and extends inland to take in Sancreed parish. It covers a large geographical area, but this is inevitable given the low density of population, especially in the northern parishes of Morvah, Zennor and Towednack. c) Penwith Central includes a broad sweep of coast and moorland to the north, as well as agricultural land on the lower slopes of the Penwith moors and the larger villages of Madron, Heamoor, Gulval and Ludgvan Churchtown. SHED is particularly supportive of this proposal because it would reunite Heamoor with the “mother church” village of Madron, with which we have strong historical ties and a close affinity. d) Penwith East includes the coastal communities of Long Rock, Marazion and Perranuthnoe along Mounts Bay, along with the rural hinterland characterised by rich agricultural land and a number of larger villages including Goldsithney, Rosudgeon, St Hilary and Crowlas. Polling district ILN3 (Lelant Downs) would be transferred from the West Penwith CNA to the Hayle & St Ives CNA in order to create a more rational boundary1. The Penwith East and Central divisions as proposed would involve splitting Ludgvan parish between two electoral divisions. We have (as before) assumed a 50/50 split between Ludgvan Churchtown/ Lower Quarter (allocated to Central) and Crowlas (allocated to East), in the absence of a more precise breakdown of electorate figures. Splitting Ludgvan parish in this way is not ideal, but given the constraints of the West Penwith CNA boundary and the relatively high density of population in the eastern part of the CNA, it is impossible to retain 100% integrity of parish boundaries and reduce the number of councillors from 9 to 6. 1 If this proves unworkable, the 197 electors in ILN3 could be incorporated into Penwith Central without materially changing the relative size of divisions, though the resulting division would be rather large and unwieldy in terms of the geographical area covered. 2 3. PENZANCE TOWN DIVISIONS As mentioned above, we support Councillors Tim Dwelly and Jim McKenna in proposing two divisions specifically for Penzance, to reflect the distinct needs and characteristics of the urban area. We also support their proposal to include Eastern Green (IPG2) in the proposed Penzance divisions. Additionally, we propose extending IPG2 eastwards to the Chy an Mor roundabout to include the whole of the retail park, which more properly belongs with the urban area than with the adjacent rural divisions2. The precise boundaries between the two new Penzance urban divisions are a matter for town representatives (Cornwall councillors and Penzance Town Council), and so we make no proposals on those boundaries. We understand that Cornwall Council’s boundary review panel has been consulting on this point. 4. THE NUMBERS Based on the 2023 forecast electorates supplied, the size of each of the four rural divisions under our revised proposal would be: Ward Electorate Average for Cornwall +/- Penwith SW* 5521 5163 +258 (+5.0%) Penwith NW 5142 5163 -21 (-0.4%) Penwith Central** 5157 5163 -6 (-0.1%) Penwith East** 5617 5163 +454 (+8.8%) * Pending confirmation of actual number of electors in Tolcarne district of Newlyn (currently part of Penzance Promenade); we have used an estimate of 200. ** Subject to how polling district ILN1 electorate is split between Central and East. We have assumed 50/50 but the relative sizes of Central and East could be rebalanced by allocating more voters to Central than to East. All these figures are within the range of tolerance (± 10%) specified in the terms of the Local Government Boundary Review. Detailed figures by polling district, and a map showing the boundaries, are provided as appendices. 2 There are no residential properties in this proposed extension, so there is no impact on the relative sizes of the electorate in each of the divisions concerned 3 5. COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE REVIEW Looking beyond the Local Government Boundary Review, SHED and GVCA have also agreed in principle that we should work together in the forthcoming Community Governance Review to seek a change in the civil parish boundaries such that our villages would form part of a separate civil parish distinct from Penzance Town Council. Our intention is that the whole of this new civil parish would fall within the “Penwith Central” division as outlined in our proposal, and would potentially include not just the villages of Heamoor and Gulval but also the existing Madron parish (subject to the views of Madron Parish Council, with whom we intend to discuss the implications of the Community Governance Review for our rural communities). The division boundaries contained in this proposal are hence integral to our vision of a reshaped civil parish that would acknowledge the separate identity and character of Heamoor and Gulval, in line with Cornwall Council policy as stated in policy 3.8, paragraph 9 of the emerging Allocations DPD: “To ensure the settlements of Penzance, Newlyn, Heamoor, Gulval and Long Rock maintain their individual and distinctive characters” (Policy 3.8, paragraph 9) * * * 4 Alternative electoral division distribution - West Penwith CNA (6 divisions) Polling district Location Electorate Two Penzance town wards from existing polling districts IPP Penzance Promenade (1) 3011 IPC Penzance Central 3313 IPE Penzance East 3246 IPG2 Eastern Green 535 Total electorate 10105 Penwith SW INM Newlyn & Mousehole 3535 IPP (part) Tolcarne (1) 200 IPA Paul 209 ISB St Buryan 1189 ISL St Levan 388 Total electorate 5521 Penwith NW ISN Sennen 677 ISJ St Just 3877 IMH Morvah 56 ISA Sancreed 532 Total electorate 5142 Penwith Central IZR Zennor 174 ILN4 Nancledra (south) 213 IMD Madron 1282 IPH Heamoor 2177 IPG1 Gulval village 662 ILN1 (part) Ludgvan Churchtown & Lower Quarter (2) 649 Total electorate 5157 Penwith East ILN1 (part) Crowlas (2) 649 ILN2 Long Rock 563 ILN5 Whitecross, Canonstown, Cockwells (3) 491 IMZ Marazion 1213 IPR Goldsithney, Perranuthnoe & Rosudgeon 1985 ISH St Hilary 695 ISM St Michaels Mount 21 Total electorate 5617 Notes (1) Tolcarne district of Newlyn transferred from Penzance Promenade to Penwith SW to reunite Newlyn. Estimated electorate: 200 (precise number TBC). (2) ILN1 split between Crowlas (to Penwith East) and Ludgvan Churchtown/ Lower Quarter (to Penwith Central) to avoid exceeding the 10% margin in either proposed division. A 50/50 split of the forecast electorate is assumed (precise split TBC). (3) ILN4 (Lelant Downs, electorate 197) proposed to be transferred to Hayle & St Ives CNA.