KIRKLEES - Constituency BOUNDARY REVIEW

Background

During the days of the "Coalition" the two parties did a deal to, as they saw it help them to get elected. The Conservatives wanted to reduce the number of MP's, if possible Labour MP's, by 50. The Lib/Dems wanted proportional representation (or something of that ilk) that they thought would help them. It was all
planned to happen before the last election, but for some reason the Lib/Dems fell out with the Tories, threw their dummy out of the pram and scuppered the review.

But now with a Conservative majority the half plan is being implemented, reducing the number of MPs. This is after the government ignored the views of the "impartial" election commission and introduced individual registration, a wheeze designed to take loads of voters off the list, no doubt in conservative minds, Labour voters.

Where we are now

The Boundary Commission, sensibly decided to make the task more manageable by splitting the country into regions, our region being Yorkshire and the Humber. (we have to remember here that we are not talking of the proper Yorkshire, as defined by God with three Ridings of which the West Riding was the greatest. No we are talking about the boundaries imposed on us by the boundary commission at the behest of Margaret Thatcher).

They then looked at sub-region boundaries, ours being West Yorkshire, that is Leeds, Calderdale,

Bradford, Wakefield and Kirklees. I must intercede here to tell you about the "Electoral Quota". This is the number of voters each constituency should have to achieve the number of seats aimed for (600). The Electoral Quota is 74,769, this is slightly less than required as the numbers being worked on was set before loads more people got themselves on the register for the referendum. To give a bit of flexibility they are aiming for no seat larger than 78,507 or smaller than 71,031

If you divide the number of voters by the Electoral Quota you can arrive at the number of seats each authority should have. This works out at Bradford 4.37, Calderdale 1.91, Kirklees 3.95, Leeds 6.89 and Wakefield 3.17. As the commission is looking to avoid, where possible cross boundary seats (but only if it can keep within tolerance) it could mean that we keep our four seats without crossing other authority boundaries, though what happens elsewhere could affect us.

But that does not mean we stay as we are. Batley and Spen and Dewsbury are within tolerance and could be left as the are, but Huddersfield is too small and Colne Valley too big. Remember the target is 74,769, Colne Valley is 79,912 and Huddersfield is 62,365. A very simplistic view would suggest that 8,773 voters need to move out of Colne Valley into Huddersfield, to achieve the requirement for Kirklees.

The Commission's proposals will be published in September this year.