God's Own County

Revised Yorkshire Parliamentary Boundaries

We are overdue for a rebalancing of parliamentary constituencies to relate more closely to current and anticipated populations. The last changes for England & Wales was in  2010 so about 8 years late (normal for the civil service?)

The Boundary Commission current consultations closed last year and final recommendations will go to parliament by 1 July 2023.

Boundary Commission for England recommends changes that must be based on constituencies having no less than 69,724 Parliamentary electors and no more than 77,062 electors. This has led to 650 constituencies distributed to the four parts of the UK as follows:

• England = 543,
• Scotland = 57
• Wales = 32
• Northern Ireland = 18

Yorkshire will be unchanged with 54 constituencies as it happens 10% of the English total. There will be some local tweaking. London and South East will get 9 more MP’s  but the North East and North West  will be reduced by 4.

The detail available is vast and this link provides access to maps and geo data for Yorkshire and Humberside

‘Enough is enough’ as many true Yorkshire folk would say. It is too long since we achieved a repeal of the act of parliament that messed unnecessarily with our county boundaries and organisations. I know you can’t easily unravel such a ball of tangled string but beware of what  follows, more false savings, gerrymandering,  political posturing and another reorganised North Yorkshire Combined Council.

Changes and Effects Caused by the Act

• South Yorkshire was an invented myth that lingers like the taste of  ginger.
• Met Districts became the focus for large authorities with growing power complexes
• Aldermen were killed off and sheriffs were promoted to be high sheriffs and small charter trustees created.
• The new controls  were supposed to be a two-tier the system but turned out to be three-tier and like a lot of local government it grew like Topsy. It retained civil parish councils (arguably the most effective of the lot).
• Health care and water supply / sanitation were taken over by separate, non-elected authorities.(A duff abdication of accountability)
• Recognising some errors the 1990’s brought back the East Riding as a reorganised local government authority  with new boundary changes.
• Political ducking and diving generated last minute ‘geographical’  changes for  Ossett and Rothwell.
• A pound to a penny a reduction in overall cost was not even one of the lesser effects.

North Yorkshire Council Reorganisation 2023

‘A single new council for everyone in North Yorkshire’ will launch on 1 April 2023. It will cover District Councils, in Harrogate, Skipton/Craven, Richmondshire,  Ryedale, Selby District  and Scarborough. Surprise, surprise it will exclude York City Council which will still be run by the Vikings.

The new council reports it will ‘retain a main office in each former district supported by around 30 additional local customer access points.’ That’s modern economising for you. The foolish mandarins couldn’t have chosen a more suitable day to launch, April 1st. The changes to productivity may be even bigger than the current working from home initiative!)