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Hello Tottenham, Goodbye Vote - Stroud Green Ward moves to Tottenham
The Boundry Commission is planning to make Stroud Green Ward part of the Tottenham constituency instead of Hornsey and Wood Green. Local government boundries will not be affected but your MP will change. Does it matter? Yes, for at least two reasons: Hornsey and Wood Green is a marginal constituency and has changed hands recently between Lib Dems and Labour. Your vote is critical. Tottenham is one of the safest Labour seats in the country. Your vote will have little impact. So if you want your vote to matter, you must be in Hornsey and Wood Green.
How else might it affect you? Hornsey and Wood Green MPs know our vote is important and pay attention to issues which affect us locally. Can we expect the same as part of Tottenham? Have a look at the map. Tottenham is a large constituency with a geographical heartland based on the A10. It is undergoing a major regeneration as a result at least in part of the 2011 riots. It has plenty to occupy any MP. Stroud Green Ward will be a prosperous add-on separated from the rest of the constituency by a major rail line. How much attention can we expect from our MP?
The Boundry Commission issued a consultation paper asking for responses by 5th Dec 2016. Time is short and the grounds for objection are limited, so if you want to have a say you need to get busy. So what are the grounds for objection? Not much, because the Boundry Commission does not recognise social geography as important in drawing ward boundaries. It is not interested in where you think you live, where you do your shopping or where your children go to school. It does not care whether you feel you are part of the Hornsey and Wood Green community or Tottenham. It only considers physical geography such as mountains, hills, rivers and lakes, not human or social geography such as culture, history and socio-economics.
So if physical geography is the criteria, what are the facts? How connected is Stroud Green to its neighbouring wards? There are 9 streets linking Stroud Green to other wards in the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency, 11 linking it to the proposed Finsbury Park and Stoke Newington constituency, and just one street (and one footbridge) linking it to Tottenham. Why? Because the Great Northern Railway Line (or whatever it is called these days) provide a physical barrier between Stroud Green and Harringay wards. The Boundry Commission may consider 'special geographical conditions including the size, shape and accessibility of a constituency'. It recognises the River Lea as a physical boundry but not the railway line. It is reasonable to ask why not. If the railway line is not physical geography, what is it? Is it a 'social' phenomenon? It is a great ditch filled with seven railway lines at its narrowest and 20 at its widest. Impassible except for one road crossing, one footbridge and nothing else. So what is the railway line if not physical geography?
What about buses? There are three major bus routes through Stroud Green ward. The W7 and 210 connect us to other parts of Hornsey and Wood Green constituency. Neither go to Tottenham. The W3 connects us to six wards in the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency before reaching the border of Tottenham after 24 stops and 38 minutes at White Hart Lane. The W5 is a less frequent service. It has 23 stops in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency and 2 in Tottenham. The alternative is to cross the footbridge and get a bus on Green Lanes. In summary, it is possible to get to Tottenham by bus, but we are far better connected to Hornsey and Wood Green.
What about overland rail? The only station actually in Stroud Green Ward is Harringay. It connects north and south but does not go to Tottenham. Crouch Hill station provides a good connection to Haringey and South Tottenham stations and to the entire London Overground network at Gospel Oak. It is not strictly speaking in Stroud Green but nearby. Finsbury Park station provides good connections to central London, to Seven Sisters, Tottenham Hale and Turnpike Lane in Tottenham, and to Wood Green and Bounds Green in Hornsey and Wood Green. It is also not strictly speaking in Stroud Green.
Why are the changes being made? It is part of the Government plan to reduce the number of MPs and equalise the number of voters in each constituency. Each must have between 71,031 and 78,507 voters. Hornsey and Wood Green is currently bang on target with 74,641 and will be 74,418
after the changes, but must be dismembered in order to make the numbers add up elsewhere. You can see the proposals and local map here ([https://www.bce2018.org.uk/node/6485?postcode=N44HD]).
Comments
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/11/22/wisconsin_partisan_gerrymander_the_supreme_court_could_take_the_case.html
Here's my comment, which you should feel free to steal:
"I strongly oppose moving Stroud Green ward into the Tottenham constituency.
Stroud Green's historical links are with Crouch End and the wider Hornsey Borough, not with Harringay - let alone Tottenham.
In modern terms, the East Coast Mainline is a key physical and psychological boundary which divides Stroud Green from the Tottenham constituency. Stroud Green's contemporary links are with Crouch End, and with Finsbury park in Islington - if were to be moved into a different constituency it would make much more sense to place it in a shared constituency with the western side of Stroud Green Road - not into a constituency with which the economic and social links are so tenuous.
It is particularly offensive that David Lammy is claiming that people should 'welcome back' Stroud Green into the Tottenham constituency - it has never been part of that division. Doubtless this deceptive language is actually motivated by Mr Lammy wanting his home - in Stroud Green - to be part of his constituency so that he no longer has to face the the embarrassment of living outside it. Please do not reward his mendacity.
As a final point- moving Stroud Green into Tottenham would move me from a marginal seat in which my vote counts for something to a safe Labour fiefdom in which it would count for little or nothing. I therefore object to this in the strongest terms."
"The Stroud Green Branch Labour Party is the division of the Labour Party for Stroud Green ward, and has met do discuss and approve the submission of this document.
As of December 4th 2016, we have 689 members in the Branch Labour Party - around one in 12 of the adult population.
After meeting in the Autumn to discuss the proposal to move Stroud Green out of Hornsey and Wood Green and into Tottenham constituency, there was significant and near universal dismay that this would cut historical community links and marginalise the politics of the ward.
We would instead support Stroud Green remaining within Hornsey and Wood Green as currently comprised, which would fit within the mandated constituency size and not disrupt existing communities. During the 2011 Boundary review, this same change was rejected, and there is no clear reason why, if it was unacceptable then, it’s not now.
There was also a palpable dismay regarding the context within which this decision is being proposed. Setting boundaries using December 2015 electoral roll data is unjustifiable and deliberately designed to disadvantage younger and more itinerant populations in cites - to the advantage of older and more settled communities in Conservative constituencies.
And the equalisation of constituency sizes based on voter rolls ignores the larger populations of foreign born citizens in many constituencies who MPs are still expected to represent and who should have some voice and political representation.
In the view of the Stroud Green Labour Party, this is not only a disgraceful manipulation of the system, but is a dangerous breach of the bipartisan tradition of managing boundary changes with cross-party agreement.
Although these wider points are understandably beyond the purview of the Boundary Commission, we wish to register these objections before moving on to our collective view on how the specific proposals will effect Stroud Green.
We resolved as a party to survey members and ascertain the extent and strength of people’s views on the matter, as well as (in order to be fair) to register any views in favour of the change.
This short submission is a collective response based on this survey of Labour members. 65 members took part.
Quotes have been attributed only where respondents gave permission for us to do this. Where respondents either did not give permission to use their name or withheld it, the quotes are provided anonymously.
The submission of this document was agreed at the Stroud Green Labour December meeting. It is submitted the the Frank Hobson, the Secretary of the Branch Labour Party on behalf of the ward."
Looking at the map on the site there didn't seem to be many comments from SG at all only One in Albert Road none in Lorne and thin on the ground elsewhere
Catherine West defied the whip and voted against triggering Article 50. I think this is pretty significant...
All of this means the current boundary review is incredibly unlikely to pass the House of Commons and Stroud Green will continue to be in Hornsey and Wood Green, at least until a less controversial boundary review can be organised.