Radical plans for new Barnet constituencies shelved in new review
Finchley and Golders Green, Chipping Barnet, and Hendon seats remain largely unchanged in new proposals published by Boundary Commission for England
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Plans for radical new constituency boundaries in the borough of Barnet have been shelved in newly published revised proposals.
Last year it was suggested the Finchley and Golders Green seat could become Finchley and Muswell Hill as boundaries were redrawn to ensure that the number of electors in each constituency was more equal than is currently the case.
But in revised proposals published on Tuesday, the parliamentary seat currently held by Tory MP Mike Greer remained unchanged.
In Chipping Barnet, the new proposals included a minor boundary change in which Friern Barnet moved to the neighbouring Hornsey and Wood Green seat.
While the Edgwarebury ward, currently in Hendon, is moved to Chipping Barnet.
The new plans saw the Hendon constituency remaining largely untouched other than the Edgwarebury gain.
It is confirmed that both the Conservative and Liberal Democrats opposed “almost all ourinitial proposals for these boroughs and provided counter-proposals.”
The review adds “most of the counter-proposals provided to us respected the A5 road as a dividing line. Consequently, the boroughs of Barnet and – in many cases – Camden, were divided into fewer constituencies, and there were fewer borough boundary crossings on the whole.”
But under the proposals Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer would move from his current Holborn and St Pancras seat into a Hampstead and Highgate constituency.
Labour are likely to object to this and other planned changes.
But it Bury, Greater Manchester, home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the UK, Kersal and Broughton Park joins up with the Bury South seat.
The Boundary Commission for England published new revised proposals for constituencies across the country and also opened a final month-long consultation, giving the public a last opportunity to send in their views.
The commission said it has taken into consideration over 45,000 comments sent in by the public during the previous two stages of public consultation, and has changed nearly half of its initial proposals based on this feedback.
A third and final consultation on the new map of revised constituency proposals is open now until 5 December.
Tim Bowden, Secretary to the Boundary Commission for England, said:“Today we are announcing the publication of our revised proposals.
” Last year we published our initial proposals for new constituency boundaries – our first go at what the map should look like. We are delighted with the huge number of comments from members of the public on our initial proposals, many which included valuable evidence about local communities.
“However, we still want people to tell us what they think of this latest map before we submit our final recommendations to Parliament next year.
‘This is our final consultation and I encourage you to participate in the 2023 Boundary Review.”
Under last year’s proposals, Hendon and Golders Green would have been joined by a newly established Finchley and Muswell Hill seat.
The previous plan also included a Stanmore and Edgware constituency comprising six wards, Burnt Oak and Edgware, from the existing Hendon constituency.
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