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Pocklington Town Council posted an article about the proposed parliamentary constituency boundary changes just before Christmas which will have been missed by many due to other priorities.
It’s a story which is getting more complicated by the day and there’s a bit of a disagreement between Pocklington Town Council and local Conservatives.
This is a summary of where we are:
Three options are currently doing the rounds:
Recently 863 people responded to a Town Council petition to support option 1 above. Town Councillors collecting the paper signatures reported that not a single person spoke up for the revised changes while many were vehement in their opposition.
There is no evidence to suggest local Ward Cllrs consulted anyone apart from party members.
The town council are critical of political pressure from East Riding Conservatives who encouraged their members to write to the boundary commission with their views. This resulted in PTC asking the boundary commission to take a circumspect view of all individual submissions received after 14 November because they were likely politically inspired. They say they were not impressed with the way EYCCA has been acting, which may be gerrymandering.
The EYCCA is a political organisation, whose stated aim is to ensure our area is well served and represented by Conservative candidates” and “We need to work together to ensure our area remains Conservative….”.
This is an e mail from Felicity Temple, Chairman, East Yorkshire Conservative Association which seems to support the Pocklington/Goole constituency stating….
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From: Felicity Temple
Date: Monday, 14 November 2022,
Subject: Latest Proposals from the Boundary Commission
Dear Executive Members,
Further to our recent meeting, the Boundary Commission have now produced their latest proposal.
In simple terms we lose Pocklington to a reconfigured Goole and Howdenshire Constituency, along with a few parishes of Wolds Weighton; and gain Hornsea from Beverley & Holderness, thereby cementing our East Coast status.
If you are interested in seeing the proposals you can access on BCEReviews.org.uk.
As our Association therefore largely stays the same – unlike either the previous BC proposal or the counter proposal from CCHQ, I will be writing to ask them if we may keep “East Yorkshire” as our Constituency name, rather than the Bridlington and the Wolds which we actually requested. (The previous iteration was suggested to be Bridlington and Filey and went across the border, hence our request to highlight the Wolds).
Remaining the same will mean no change to bank details or stationery etc. etc. and hopefully the BC will see the sense.
As this also means we will keep Sir Greg, and only have minor changes to our financial situation, we will therefore be spending wisely rather than rashly!
If anyone would like to write a comment to the BC on their website in support of the proposal that would be very well received by them and our Party, so please do have a look and comment positively if you can.
Yours Felicity Chairman, EYCCA
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In one e mail she will have confirmed what many have believed for years that East Riding Conservatives don’t really care about the Western Parishes. It’s all about Beverly and the coast and keeping Sir Greg Knight as their MP.
The comments seem totally focussed on the objectives of local Conservatives as opposed to any consideration of what is best for local residents and businesses.
In response to a request from me for a comment Cllr Kay West replied:
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“I have already written to the Commission to express my disapproval of the changes. I think that there must have been some misinterpretation on Felicity Temple’s suggestion. I understand she was asking people to support the name of East Yorkshire. No one who lives in this County would like to see the demise of its historic name.
The Ward members have been asking everyone to express their preferences over this subject whether it be against the changes or for and give alternative suggestions”.
Cllr Kay West
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(Have you been asked by a Ward Cllr to express a view?)
Even though the Chair of the ERYCCA stated “we lose Pocklington to a reconfigured Goole and Howdenshire Constituency”, Cllr Leo Hammond claimed in his e mail to me that PTC were spreading misinformation.
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“It is my view that the Town Council has misinterpreted Cllr Temples email.
The East Yorkshire Conservative Association has not and has never to my knowledge formally approved the proposed boundary changes, in fact myself and Cllr Paul West have both objected to them.
What was agreed however, was that if the new proposals are to be agreed by the independent boundary commission, then we would like the name of the proposed Bridlington and the Wolds constituency to be East Yorkshire, as it is pretty much the same as the existing East Yorkshire Constituency but loses Pocklington and gains Hornsea. This is what Cllr Temple is asking party members to support.
To also clarify, the Conservative Party’s proposals submitted to the boundary commission earlier this year, are not what have been presented by the commission in these latest proposals, contrary to what the Town Council is saying; the Conservative Party has not been lobbying for a Goole Pocklington Constituency, the proposals submitted by the Conservative Party were for a Wolds Weighton, Pocklington Provincial and Howden area constituency.
As I have been clear from the start, I believe it is best for Pocklington Provincial and Wolds Weighton to be kept together as they are interlinked economically and socially. This is why I have objected to the latest boundary commission proposals along with Cllr Paul West.
Finally, as the Town Council seems oddly interested in the submissions of just the Conservative Party, I will remind you that all political parties have submitted proposals for these boundary changes, and as it was not the Conservatives who proposed Goole and Pocklington, I would be interested to know if it was one of the other party’s. Perhaps the Town Council or yourself can find this out.
In future I would strongly urge the Town Council to contact the East Yorkshire Conservative Association, or any other organisation for that matter, for clarification, before spreading misinformation about them
Cllr Leo Hammond”.
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Always up for a challenge I did find out. Most submissions relating to East Yorkshire appear to be from members of the public. The political submissions came from MP Greg Knight, Felicity Temple Chair of ERYCCA, Yorkshire and Humber Conservative Party and Tim Norman a Yorkshire Party member in Bridlington. I could find no submissions from pther political parties.
The current review will conclude with a formal report and recommendations in June 2023.
In summary
This is a link to the Pocklington Town Council Post:
https://www.pocklington.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Short-summary-article-for-the-PTC-website-221222.pdf
I have seen the official response from the Conservative Party in respect of East Yorkshire and I support them.
I believe that their submitted proposals for the splitting of the existing East Yorkshire constituency better reflect local community ties than the initial proposals of the Commission.
Regarding the plans for a Bridlington constituency, Filey is only a relatively short distance from Bridlington and there are strong transport links along the A165 linking the coastal communities of Bridlington and Filey.
I believe that a proposal to include Filey in the same constituency as Bridlington is appropriate. Such constituency should also include Driffield, a town with both close ties and easy access to Bridlington, just a short journey along the A614.
I would name this proposed new constituency ‘Bridlington and the Wolds’, particularly as the Yorkshire Wolds are becoming even more widely acknowledged as a national asset and are now set to receive “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty” status.
I also support the official response from the Conservative Party in respect of proposals for the Haltemprice and Howden constituency, which would not include the 3 wards based on Goole, south of the Humber, but instead include the Pocklington Provincial and Wolds Weighton wards. I consider that this better reflects local community ties and I would hope that this constituency would be named Pocklington and Howdenshire.
Type of respondent
Member of Parliament
Personal details
Greg Knight
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Our Executive Committee recently approved the Conservative Party’s proposals for both halves of our existing Constituency.
We would strongly press for the Western part to be known as
Bridlington & The Wolds: because the proposals include The Wolds ward of Ryedale, East Wolds and Coastal Ward of ERYC, Driffield (Capital of the Wolds) and Filey, which is where the Wolds Way ends.
We believe this configuration to be the most appropriate as Driffield people look more towards Bridlington than they do Beverley. As Bridlington and Driffield together are currently too small and therefore insufficient to comply with the numbers, we understand the need to add in the ERYC Ward of North Holderness which has close links with the ERYC ward of East Wolds & Coastal.
The other half of our Constituency, comprising the Wards of Pocklington Provincial and Wolds Weighton look more towards York, and it is of concern that this is not recognised. We understand that not all requests can be accommodated.
However, a majority of our Executive also approved the Conservative Party’s proposals for an amended Haltemprice and Howden Constituency, to be known as
Pocklington & Howdenshire: to reflect the growing importance of Pocklington within the East Riding. This would have the village of Cottingham and the Market Towns of Market Weighton and Howden as well as the hinterland.
Type of respondent
Official response from the Conservative party
Personal details
18 Exchange Street
Driffield
YO25 6LJ
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