The current constituency of Hornsey & Wood Green
The current constituency of Hornsey & Wood Green

The third consultation has now opened on the Boundary Commission’s proposals for new constituency boundaries.  You have until 5 December 2022 to submit your views.

You can read more about the process and what it means for you by entering your postcode here.

The changes are radically different to what was proposed during the second consultation in the summer.  The new plans would see the current Hornsey & Wood Green constituency replaced by a new Hornsey & Friern Barnet constituency.  The wards that make up Wood Green (Noel Park, Woodside and Bounds Green) would move to a new Southgate & Wood Green constituency and Highgate would move to Hampstead and Highgate.

I don’t believe these are the right plans for our area as they dilute Haringey’s voice in Parliament and uproot Wood Green, the civic heart of Haringey, by placing it in a predominantly Enfield seat.   I am submitting my own formal response opposing these plans and working with Labour Party colleagues to set out an alternative.  In particular, I am arguing that:

  • Wood Green has always been at the heart of Haringey, with a thriving town centre, strong business community and active voluntary and community sector.  It has a strong and proud identity and forms a central part of Haringey Council’s borough regeneration plans.  Since 1950, the area has been part of a Haringey constituency and since 1983 it has been one of two very distinct neighbourhoods making up the Hornsey & Wood Green seat.  People living and working in the wards that make up the historic borough of Wood Green – Woodside, Noel Park and Bounds Green – feel themselves to be an integral part of Haringey and this proposal breaks that bond.
  • Many in the local community would feel alienated at having Parliamentary representation which crosses both community boundaries and Borough boundaries – up to and including the M25. People in Wood Green rightly consider themselves to be part of inner London, and a Parliamentary constituency which goes as far north as currently proposed would not match the flavour, character, or identity of the constituency.
  • I have serious concerns about the Haringey-wide impact of these proposals, and those of the neighbouring constituencies. Haringey, as an inner-London Borough, has areas of acute need which demand specific representation and I believe the Borough has been served well with two Members of Parliament covering the Borough within its boundaries. While the need to meet the criteria laid out for the Commission is clear and would require at least some minor cross-Borough changes, the proposals as they are will see parts of Haringey covered by Parliamentary seats which also cover the Boroughs of Enfield, Barnet, and Camden. With each of these Boroughs having their own specific identities and areas of need, the specific Haringey voice in Parliament will be significantly weakened, effectively disenfranchising constituents in the existing constituency of Hornsey and Wood Green.
  • I believe these proposals are more disruptive than the original proposals, as they see integral wards of Haringey put in three constituencies which cross Borough Boundaries, requiring Members of Parliament to engage with different councils, different support services, different Borough Police Commanders and many NHS bodies in pursuit of effectively representing all their constituents.

It’s vital that the Commissioners are aware of the strength of feeling of local residents, so please engage in the process and take a minute to submit your thoughts through the Boundary Commission’s website before midnight 5 December.

Read the response of local resident Brian Curnew to the consultation:

As a resident in Bounds Green Ward I oppose the secondary proposals reconfiguring Hornsey and Wood Green by creating Southgate and Wood Green Constituency. However I am not writing simply regarding this ward, but the basic reconfiguration. 

The proposals seek to observe ‘local ties, geographical factors and local government boundaries’. All of these are worsted by the proposal. 

Local ties and geographical factors: from Bounds Green we look towards first Wood Green, and also Muswell Hill and Crouch End, certainly not Southgate and Cockfosters. The Piccadilly Line northward provides no such factor or tie. 

Local government: the constituencies of H & WG and Tottenham correspond to the London Borough of Haringey. Whatever case may be made for some ward transfer between these two constituencies, this overall coherence serves the important relationship between local, Greater London and parliamentary processes, as they affect an area in which multiple needs require cohesive planning. 

Wood Green itself, whose wards would be divided between the constituencies, is the hub of Haringey. It makes no sense politically to divide it; nor to create here a constituency relating to two councils, including areas with very different agendas. 

The proposed new constituency lacks rationale, apart from number of electors in an area which looks as though it is ‘what’s left’, in its northern extension, as a corridor between Chipping Barnet and Edmonton.”

 

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