Split Chiswick Up For Next Election Says Ruth Cadbury

Local MP proposing High Road should be part of Ealing and Acton constituency

Ruth Cadbury MP has rejected proposals for new constituency boundaries that would have brought the whole of Chiswick into one seat for the next election. In her response to the Boundary Commission's initial consultation she has backed the Labour party's counterproposals for the reorganisation of local constituencies which would split Chiswick down the middle..

The majority of local residents who responded to the Boundary Commission's consultation were supportive of the plan to bring all of the Chiswick wards together in a Brentford and Chiswick constituency. The alternative suggested by Ruth Cadbury would mean that part of Chiswick High Road would be in a proposed Hounslow and Brentford constituency and part would be in Ealing and Acton. The boundary would run along Turnham Green Terrace and down Devonshire Road. Chiswick residents to the west of this line and north of the A4 would be in Ealing and Acton. If you currently live in Chiswick Riverside ward or Chiswick Homefield, this proposal would move you into the Hounslow and Brentford constituency.

Chiswick wards in dark blue would be in Ealing and Acton constituency

Peter Thompson, leader of the Conservatives on Hounslow Council said, "I fully support the Government's plan to reduce the number of MPs down to 600 and righting an historical wrong whereby some constituencies have 41000 votes and others have 92000. No reasonable or fair minded person could possibly object to this equalization. The independent Boundary Commission proposals for Chiswick, joining the Hounslow and Ealing bits of W4 together, made perfect sense to me. Cutting out Turnham Green ward and sticking it into an Ealing seat would divide a natural community and strikes me as a bonkers proposal."

A total of 33 residents have posted comments on the Boundary Commission website on the new proposals, mainly in favour of a Brentford and Chiswick constituency.

In her proposal, the Brentford and Isleworth MP, who won the seat from Chiswick-based Conservative MP Mary Macleod in the last election by 465 votes, suggests;

• Bringing all four wards of Hounslow into one parliamentary seat

• that Turnham Green would go to a seat called Ealing and Acton

• that Osterley & Spring Grove would go to Ealing Southall.

The proposal would keep 80% of the electorate in the current constituency whereas the Boundary Commission suggestion would mean 30% would go over to another constituency.

Ruth Cadbury said this would retain the whole of the Brentford and Hounslow constituency in one borough, which would make the job of the MP and the local authority easier, as well as other sectors and services such as health, police, fire, voluntary and chamber of Commerce. This ensured that an area which was relatively deprived and whose residents were more highly dependent on a variety of public services, was served by a single MP.

"Whereas Chiswick is less so. This is not to undermine or underestimate the thriving sense of community that we have in Chiswick – many community institutions operate across the W4 post-code (the area called Chiswick) that pervades despite already being split between three boroughs and three Parliamentary constituencies. And in fact both the Labour party and the Boundary Commission proposals mean those splits remain, just in a slightly different pattern."

Representation at borough Council level would continue as it is with Southfield ward still part of Ealing borough and the other Chiswick wards in Hounslow.

Current boundaries in blue, boundaries proposed by Boundary Commission in red

The chairman of the Brentford and Isleworth Conservatives, Julian Tanner outlined his position at the 2018 Review of Parliamentary Constituencies hearing in Kingston upon Thames last October.

"Turnham Green is very much at the absolute heart of Chiswick and we would look at any
proposal that would take that out as being something that would be very disunifying to the
community of Chiswick and would not represent the Chiswick community well.

"The proposed boundary changes are fairer as the constituency of Brentford and Isleworth as it stands today is too large. It has over 20,000 more residents than some constituencies, and this is not fair on the residents requiring the help of their MP, nor is it fair on the caseload of the MP. It is also democratically unfair to have so many residents electing one MP. The boundary changes as proposed would remove these issues and render a fairer solution.

"The proposed boundary changes are more logical as they unite or keep united three distinct West London communities:

a. Isleworth (Osterley & Spring Grove, Isleworth, Syon wards)
b. Brentford (Brentford & Northfield wards)
c. Chiswick (Homefields, Riverside, Turnham Green & Southfield wards)."

Ms Cadbury previously described the Boundary Commission proposals as 'gerrymandering' and said the Tory government seemed determined to shore up its support by changing the boundaries to suit themselves.

As part of the consultation process, the Boundary Commission for England accepted comments for 12 weeks at the end of last year. Now it has published all 18,753 comments received from across the country - including those relating to the Brentford and Isleworth constituency which you can read here.

The rules set out in the legislation on boundary changes state that there will be 600 Parliamentary constituencies covering the UK, a reduction of 50 from the current number. This means that the number of constituencies in England must be reduced from 533 to 501. The government claims this will make representation more equal.

Each constituency has to have an electorate that is no smaller than 71,031 and no larger than 78,507.

March 3, 2017