Local Resident Submissions to the Bristol City Council Electoral Review
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Local resident submissions to the Bristol City Council electoral review This PDF document contains 30 submissions with surnames A-H. Some versions of Adobe allow the viewer to move quickly between bookmarks. Click on the submission you would like to view. If you are not taken to that page, please scroll through the document. Fuller, Heather From: Sent: 29 September 2014 15:31 To: Reviews@ Subject: Bristol Ward Boundary revisions Follow Up Flag: Follow up Flag Status: Completed To the Local Government Boundary Commission for England 3rd Floor, Layden House 76-86 Turnmill Street London EC1M 5LG Bristol Ward Boundaries I send this as an individual submission but wish to reinforce some of the ideas in the Bristol Labour Party submission from my own experience of living and standing for election in Bristol wards and Bristol West constituency. I wish however that we had adopted the voting system used in Scotland, single transferable vote, which would I believe give better more representative governance alongside the elected mayor. I also make suggestions if you decide to join up areas previously in the same ward now separated by lines on maps, either parliamentary constituencies or the M32 or other main roads. I refer only to the current Bristol West and adjacent areas. I have lived in since 1976 and during that time I have been in two wards, first Bishopston and then Redland which was created in the early 1980s. I previous lived in Lawrence Hill for a few months. Although I stood as a parliamentary candidate for Bristol West, I have attended parliamentary boundary inquiries as a champion of electoral reform believing as I do that parties should fight for every vote, be a vehicle for information and communication between the electorate and politics. So although I understand the party political imperative for creating safe seats and marginals I genuinely believe in taking notice of the ways communities work together, the way they orientate because of geographical reasons, schools, medical surgeries, faith meeting places. As a self taught psephologist, co-writing a book Making Votes Count, I have made a special study of my home constituency and ideally look forward to Bristol West becoming Bristol Central which reflects what I believe it really has become. Even in the old Bristol West before the addition of Lawrence Hill and Easton, the St Werburgh's Community Centre branded itself as working with the people of East Bristol. This inquiry only affects the current ward boundary changes but I do believe with the growing population in new build, often gated communities in the inner city wards, you will have an eye on the future parliamentary review. If you wanted to make the electorate in central Bristol more coherent this could be done in two ways. Either a new ward in central Bristol drawing on adjacent 1 wards of Cabot, Dove Street, the areas of St Paul's and lower Montpelier on either side of Ashley Road and Lawrence Hill. Or by uniting areas which used to be in the same ward or simply shifting the population up through the constituency so that the north of Bishopston and Redland are reunited with parts of Horfield and Henleaze (Durdham) that used to be in the same ward. In terms of orientation, the new Redland Green School, gives a new dynamic to the immediate area of Redland/Bishopston. Cranbrook Road (east, evens) was included in the Bishopston. The Bishopston - Kuppam Link helped create community in Bristol by having street wardens (I was one) as well as supporting a similarly sized community in K V Kuppam, Tamil Nadu, India. Because of the daunting hill which cuts off older people and parents with push chairs from the polling station used in May 2014 at the last minute, and the Gloucester Road shops, people in this area have links not only with the people in St Andrew's but use the park there. In previous boundary changes I have been involved in, it has clearly been tempting to erect boundaries in terms of main roads, motorways, rail tracks, parks and some indeed initially create barriers. But often where communities have things in common, they will overcome barriers even the M32 and A38. The bottom of Ashley, minus the St Andrew's which has more in common with Gloucester Road and lower Redland share a park. Cromwell Road is currently in Ashley and Redland yet they both orientate to Gloucester Road. Perhaps you will draw on former boundary changes and revisit them. Redland was carved out of Cotham, Durdham and Bishopston. This changed the wards which with the growing inner city have northern polling districts which still orientate north rather than to the rest of their wards in the inner city. Perhaps they could be rejoined to Henleaze and Horfield if you decide to cross constituency boundaries. I have noticed that St Werburgh's has linked up with the other part of Baptist Mills now on the East of the M32 where Millpond School exists now but used to be Baptist Mills School where I was a school government. Cabot School in Halston Drive has many children from Easton. The shops on Ashley Road have shoppers from Dove Street, Cabot, as well as local residents of St Paul's. The people living in Banner and Norrisville, Albert and Brook Roads and Sussex Place have more in common with St Paul's than they do with either St Werburgh's than upper Montpelier. The people in the top of Montpelier despite the railway have much in common with the St Andrew's area. In many ways middle class people do not need councillors to show them the way through bureaucracy, or jumping the hoops, in the same way as recently arrived immigrants, established but ethnic minority communities and people who are transient in a constituency which has greater church than virtually any way else in the UK. I don't envy you your job of making sense of the city but I do think that wards containing students could have larger electorates since they draw on services at the University rather than call on councillors for help. I further believe that people in multioccupation, council and social housing, often have health, mental as well as physical, problems similar to each other and different from their neighbouring more middle class areas. These inner city or outer estates need to call on council support more often and therefore case loads are greater. This suggests they should have smaller populations not only because their registration rates are smaller. I believe Stephen Williams the current MP believes the population of Bristol West is near 120,000 than the registered population because of under registration. Best wishes and good luck, 2 Local Boundary Commission for England Consultation Portal Page 1 of 1 City of Bristol Personal Details: Name: Ben Appleby E-mail: Organisation Name: Comment text: The wards need to be more equal in size Cabot in particular is huge , contains the whole city centre as well as several unconnected residential communities Ward boundaries should not divide high streets communities. the boundary between cabot and ashley runs through stokes croft. this means that different sides of the same community are in different neighbourhood partnerships. Stokes Croft. Until the recent riots the police beat boundary ran through stokes croft meaning that different teams policed the two sides of the road - very unhelpful. Same in whiteladies Rd, this high street needs all the help it can get but the ward boundary Clifton East / Cotham means that the two sides of the road are in different neighbourhood partnerships. Thes hgh streets should be at the centre of a ward not used as a convenient boundary More care needs to go into thinking about how the ward boundaries impact on neighbourhood partnerships. The big problem remains that \Bristol ends too soon areas that are wholly dependant on Bristol are not political part of the city. North Somerset starting immediately over the bridge is daft. South Glos has no reason to exist it is almost wholly dependant on Bristol, BANES should not control kingswood etc which are really all part of Bristol This is a real problem for Bristol and its role within the region Uploaded Documents: None Uploaded https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk/node/print/informed-representation/3668 08/08/2014 Local Boundary Commission for England Consultation Portal Page 1 of 1 City of Bristol Personal Details: Name: Jane Armstrong E-mail: Postcode: Organisation Name: Comment text: I am happy with the boundary as it is for Ashley ward. Uploaded Documents: None Uploaded https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk/node/print/informed-representation/3584 24/07/2014 Local Boundary Commission for England Consultation Portal Page 1 of 1 City of Bristol Personal Details: Name: Charlotte Ballard E-mail: Postcode: Organisation Name: Comment text: I live in Horfield and am happy with the current boundaries. Uploaded Documents: None Uploaded https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk/node/print/informed-representation/3596 25/07/2014 Fuller, Heather From: Mary Bannerman < > Sent: 27 September 2014 11:10 To: Reviews@ Subject: Bristol wards Follow Up Flag: Follow up Flag Status: Completed Dear sir or madam I understand that Bristol central wards are too large. Having lived in Redcliffe for nearly 20 years, I am only too well aware that in spite of being a well‐defined and lively community area, it suffers greatly from being in two wards. Lawrence Hill and Cabot are both high‐density urban areas, but Redcliffe is distinct from both and is marginal to both. Please could it be a ward on its own? Mary Bannerman 1 Local Boundary Commission for England Consultation Portal Page 1 of 1 City of Bristol Personal Details: Name: Keith Beresford E-mail: Postcode: Organisation Name: Comment text: Postcode , currently Stockwood, but makes far more sense to be Brislington.