Local Government Boundary Commission for England Review of ward arrangements, Cheshire West and Chester 29 May 2017 I write as the elected Member for Handbridge park ward, first elected in May 2011 and re‐elected in May 2015. I have previously served as Member for Lache ward on Chester city council between May 2007 and May 2009 when the City council disappeared under local government reorganisation. I have also served terms as Governor of Lache primary school between September 2009 and January 2015 and St Clare’s Catholic primary, also in the Lache, between September 2011 and July 2016. I write to support the creation of a new Overleigh ward encompassing the existing Handbridge Park and Lache wards. I also wish to support the inclusion of polling districts JL3 and JE4 in the proposed new ward. The substantive issue of a single 3‐member ward south of the River dee in Chester is compelling. The residents in this area share common services such as schools, medical practices, places of worship and recreation facilities. The Police treat this as a single beat with 1 Constable and 2 PCSOs covering the beat. The local clinical commissioning group is aiming towards a single centrally located GP practice to serve the whole of this area. There is a strong case for multi member wards. In Handbridge Park, which is a 2‐member ward, the workload is shared between the 2 ward councillors and this allows for effective cover when 1 Member is sick or on leave. In the single member Lache ward, many residents have complained about lack of access to their councillor at such times. The creation of the separate Lache ward in the 2011 review was on the basis that there is a separately distinct community. Whilst Lache ward has a reasonably sized social housing provision it only comprises 30% of households as per 2011 census. The remaining 70 %of households are privately owned /rented. Thus the majority of the existing Lache ward is similar in housing provision to the existing Handbridge Park ward. Many of the residents complain that current and former ward councillors only take an interest in the social housing area. A large part of the ward lives in Stanley Park, separated by the railway form the rest of the Lache ward. In terms of unemployment, whilst Lache has slightly higher than average claimant counts, the data for March 2017 shows just 2.5 % claimants, only slightly higher than for the whole of Cheshire West at 1.5%., and below national averages. Turning to the inclusion of polling districts JL3 and JE34 . JL3 is a small group of houses that sit on the end of Lache Lane and to which they consider they are part of the local Westminster Park community and not the distant rural community of Doddleston. JE4 is presently sparsely populated, but will see the creation of some 1400 dwellings by 2030. This land has been re‐designated from green belt to allow the creation of an urban extension to Chester. The new houses will share facilities with the existing Handbridge ark ward and will be impacted by traffic and schooling provision with the existing Handbridge Park ward residents. It makes sense that these residents sit in the same ward, rather than a rural ward such as Doddleston and Huntingdon. Cllr Neil Sullivan .