Opposition To Ward Changes in Ealing
Conservatives are unhappy about Southall and Acton ward alterations
Conservatives have outlined their opposition to changes which will see every Ealing ward having its boundaries or name changed.
The new wards have been welcomed by Ealing Council, but the Conservative opposition have complained they will leave some areas over-represented and others under-represented.
The boundary alterations, and the recommendation that the total number of councillors increases from 69 to 70, were finalised by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.
The current ward boundaries were agreed back in 1999 and changes are now subject to approval by Parliament.
(current ward boundaries)
If accepted the new ward boundaries will take effect at the May 2022 local elections.
Ealing Council said changes in population across the borough meant there are now significant differences in the numbers of voters in different wards.
The Council said: “The recommended new ward boundaries are designed to ensure greater equality, in terms of voter numbers, between wards.”
Every current council ward will change as a result of the review, and Ealing will gain a councillor.
Many wards have been renamed and one completely new ward will be created in Southall.
Ealing Councillor Gareth Shaw, chair of the Boundaries Panel, said the recommendations for boundaries are “sensible changes that will help the council become more responsive to our residents, as each councillor will now represent broadly the same number of voters.
Ealing Conservative leader Greg Stafford however had three main objections to the new boundaries.
The first was the inclusion of a new councillor position for Southall.
“We feel the creation of two two-member wards in Southall was unnecessary,” he said.
“The reason they propose doing so was because of the Southall Waterside development, but looking at the demographics and the rate at which they are building Southall Waterside we feel they have massively over-estimated how many people will be living there at the next local election.”
“We will essentially have two councillors representing a very small number of people.”
Mr Stafford said the Conservatives would prefer to keep the existing 69 councillor total.
His second objection concerned the continued inclusion of Copley Close in the Pitshanger (previously Cleveland) Ward despite being disconnected from it and only accessible via a bridge over the railway.
Mr Stafford said the failure to include Copley Close in the new Hanwell boundaries made the Conservatives’ chances of getting a foothold in Pitshanger more challenging.
The final issue concerned the new North Acton ward, which stretched from the Brent border down to Acton High Street.
He said: “That’s an absolutely huge area, and while I can understand why they’ve done it from a numbers point of view, I think the idea that people who live in the northern part have much in connection with the southern part is really to be discussed.”
As well as the boundaries of certain wards changing, some names have also been replaced.
Roughly, these are the old and new names:
Greenford Green will become known as Central Greenford
Southall Broadway will become split between Southall West and Southall Broadway.
Elthorne will become known as Hanwell Broadway.
East Acton will become split between new wards East Acton and North Acton.
Cleveland will become known as Pitshanger and Hobbayne will become North Hanwell.
Ged Cann Local Democracy Reporter
15th October 2019