Government’s Boundary Commission’s proposals to carve up Thames Ditton
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To All Thames Ditton Residents,
You may have seen in the local press that the Government’s Boundary Commission has made recommendations to reduce the number of Elmbridge councillors and to re-draw the Council’s ward boundaries. They have proposed that 940 Thames Ditton residents who have always been part of the Thames Ditton community should be forced to join Long Ditton ward.
The roads concerned are all the roads east of the Portsmouth Road between Thorkhill Road and Claygate Lane. Please note that this move is for Elmbridge Council voting purposes and will not alter your postal address or post code. Full details of the Elmbridge review can be found at www.lgbce.org.uk .
The historic community of Thames Ditton is being carved up for the sake of bureaucratic convenience. The residents in the area that the Commission proposes to move to Long Ditton have always been in the ancient parish of St. Nicholas, Thames Ditton, and part of the Thames Ditton electoral ward since 1895.
The proposals cut across two of the Boundary Commission’s own criteria: that wards should reflect the interests and identities of local communities and that electoral arrangements should provide for effective and convenient local government but these have been ignored in our case. At present all residents of Thames Ditton and Weston Green are joined in the Thames Ditton & Weston Green Residents’ Association which works actively to protect and promote the Thames Ditton and Weston Green communities.
WE ALL HAVE UNTIL MONDAY 24TH AUGUST 2015 TO OBJECT
If you feel that this historic link and community identity should be preserved, you should email or write to object to the proposal BY MONDAY 24TH AUGUST 2015 (which is when the consultation period ends).
To The Review Officer (Elmbridge)
Local Government Boundary Commission for England
14th Floor Millbank Tower,
London SW1P 4QP
email address : reviews@lgbce.org.uk
Objection suggestions are set out below
It is important that communications from residents are not identical, as identical letters are likely to be discounted. You may wish to make some of the points overleaf when writing to the Boundary Commission, preferably in your own words.
It would be appreciated if you could copy your email to Karen Randolph at karen@randolph-watson.co.uk
Karen Randolph Elmbridge Borough Councillor Tel: 020 8398 5005
Tricia Bland Elmbridge Borough Councillor Tel: 020 8339 0485
Ruth Lyon Elmbridge Borough Councillor Tel: 020 8398 3396
Rhodri Richards Chairman, Thames Ditton & Weston Green Residents’ Assoc.
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POINTS TO MAKE
1. Suggested heading for your letter (choose ONE from the following)
- Elmbridge Electoral Review - Objection: Proposals for Thames Ditton Ward
- Objection to LGBCE proposals for Thames Ditton (Elmbridge Council)
- Elmbridge - objection to Thames Ditton proposal
2. Suggested objection criteria (you may wish to choose two or three and rearrange the order)
a) Contrary to one of Boundary Commission's main considerations "to reflect community identity"
- The proposal to remove all residents on the CB register on the roads east of the Portsmouth Road to Long Ditton ward would divorce them from the Thames Ditton ward, parish and community of which they have been a part since 1100 AD. The Thames Ditton ward's boundary has included them since the first local council (the Esher & the Dittons Urban District Council) was established in 1895.
- Residents in these roads look to Thames Ditton as the centre of their community for shops, doctors, schools, village hall (now Vera Fletcher Hall), St. Nicholas Church, village green (Giggs Hill Green) Thames Ditton Centre for the Community, Girl Guides etc. Thames Ditton ward councillors respond to local residents re: improving/campaigning for High Street shops, doctors' services, leisure services eg. at Giggs Hill Green.
- Giggs Hill Green is Thames Ditton's village green, Thames Ditton Cricket Club has played on the green since 1833 and the houses round the Green have always formed part of Thames Ditton. It is now proposed to move all those on one side of the Green into Long Ditton.
- There is an active Residents' Association for the whole of Thames Ditton and Weston Green. The community magazine “Thames Ditton Today” and website serves the whole of the existing Borough wards of Thames Ditton and Weston Green.
b) Contrary to the Boundary Commission's main consideration "to provide for effective and convenient local government"
- To remove 940 electors from the Thames Ditton ward based organisation that represents them, Thames Ditton & Weston Green Residents' Association, diminishes community involvement in the democratic process. It also confuses local residents as to whom to lobby re: parking, shops, services etc.
- Giggs Hill Green is Thames Ditton's village green and all the houses round it as well as those in Angel Road feel part of the Thames Ditton community. Giggs Hill Green Conservation Area runs along the Portsmouth Road side of the Green and extends into Angel Road. Thames Ditton Conservation Area Advisory Committee covers the area and there is no Long Ditton Conservation area or Advisory Committee that could take this on which could provide the protection residents enjoy at present.