New Hedon (including parts of Hull) and Withernsea Parliamentary constituency?

"HEDON AND WITHERNSEA" might be the name of a new parliamentary constituency that would embrace areas as diverse as Bransholme East in North Hull, Ings, Longhill, Marfleet, Southcoates in East Hull and Holderness. The new constituency would be formed if proposals from the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) are adopted by the Government.

Plans to reduce the number of parliamentary constituencies by 50 and to equalise the size of constituencies are already being discussed by the House of Commons. The ERS have attempted to demonstrate how this can be done fairly using a state-of-the-art mapping technology. The new political map they have drawn up will create 598 new constituencies. Each new parliamentary area will be based on the number of voting age people within it and gives an average size constituency of 85,300. The average Ward will contain 5,400 people.

The solution put forward by the ERS is based on the number of people over the age of 18 in 2015, rather than the number of people registered to vote.  They consider this to be a fairer approach due to fluctuations in the size of the registered electorate in different areas. The new Hedon and Withernsea constituency would have 89,240 people over the age of 18 in 2015.

The new Hedon and Withernsea constituency, under the ERS proposals, would be formed from the following wards:

• Bransholme East, Kingston upon Hull North
• Ings, Kingston upon Hull East
• Longhill, Kingston upon Hull East
• Marfleet, Kingston upon Hull East
• Mid Holderness, Beverley and Holderness
• South East Holderness, Beverley and Holderness
• South West Holderness, Beverley and Holderness
• Southcoates East, Kingston upon Hull East
• Southcoates West, Kingston upon Hull East

The details of the proposals will be debated in the coming weeks. However, local politicians will be weighing up the ramifications of potential voting patterns that might result from the very different mix of Hull and Holderness based wards.