The Electoral Commission is looking to redraw the County Divisions in Nottinghamshire. This is to ensure that all divisions throughout the county have the appropriate number of electors for representational purposes.
The Commission has asked the County Council to make some proposals on the changes that are needed, and these proposals were examined at a meeting of the County’s Policy Committee today.
In the Broxtowe area the intension is to reduce the number of county councillors from 10 to 9. This is because the county councillors in the Broxtowe area serve rather less electors than in other parts of the county. This means that huge changes are proposed in the structure of the divisions.
The following are maps (left) of existing county divisions for the Broxtowe area and (right) the county divisions that are being proposed.
The Commission has asked the County Council to make some proposals on the changes that are needed, and these proposals were examined at a meeting of the County’s Policy Committee today.
In the Broxtowe area the intension is to reduce the number of county councillors from 10 to 9. This is because the county councillors in the Broxtowe area serve rather less electors than in other parts of the county. This means that huge changes are proposed in the structure of the divisions.
The following are maps (left) of existing county divisions for the Broxtowe area and (right) the county divisions that are being proposed.
In our area, the existing Bramcote and Stapleford Division (the purplish area on the map on the left, which is currently represented by two county councillors) would be split down the middle.
The west side (part of Bramcote and the whole of Stapleford) would be joined with a large area to the north to form a new “Stapleford and Central Broxtowe Division” (the light blue area on the map on the right, represented by two county councillors).
The east side (the larger part of Bramcote) would be joined with part of Beeston North to form a new “Bramcote and Beeston North Division” (the green area on the map on the right, represented by one councillor).
At Policy Committee I raised the following concerns about these proposals, and asked for these concerns to be conveyed to the Electoral Commission for consideration by them.
1) Splitting up the Bramcote and Stapleford Division and combining the west part with areas to the north, makes no sense in terms of community identity. For example, Stapleford in the south of the new division and Awsworth in the north are very different communities. In contrast Bramcote and Stapleford exist side by side and share common facilities such as shops, schools, churches, parks and leisure facilities.
2) The current proposal splits Bramcote into two parts, with the area to the west of the Sherwin Arms moving with Stapleford into the new Stapleford and Central Broxtowe Division, and the area to the east of the Sherwin arms combining with Beeston North. This would have the effect of splitting up a community, the different parts of which have very strong community ties. Thus the two parts of Bramcote would effectively move apart from each other. They would have the same Borough councillors but different county councillors, and this would cause some confusion in terms of representation.
The west side (part of Bramcote and the whole of Stapleford) would be joined with a large area to the north to form a new “Stapleford and Central Broxtowe Division” (the light blue area on the map on the right, represented by two county councillors).
The east side (the larger part of Bramcote) would be joined with part of Beeston North to form a new “Bramcote and Beeston North Division” (the green area on the map on the right, represented by one councillor).
At Policy Committee I raised the following concerns about these proposals, and asked for these concerns to be conveyed to the Electoral Commission for consideration by them.
1) Splitting up the Bramcote and Stapleford Division and combining the west part with areas to the north, makes no sense in terms of community identity. For example, Stapleford in the south of the new division and Awsworth in the north are very different communities. In contrast Bramcote and Stapleford exist side by side and share common facilities such as shops, schools, churches, parks and leisure facilities.
2) The current proposal splits Bramcote into two parts, with the area to the west of the Sherwin Arms moving with Stapleford into the new Stapleford and Central Broxtowe Division, and the area to the east of the Sherwin arms combining with Beeston North. This would have the effect of splitting up a community, the different parts of which have very strong community ties. Thus the two parts of Bramcote would effectively move apart from each other. They would have the same Borough councillors but different county councillors, and this would cause some confusion in terms of representation.