Flick, Nancy and myself - along with a lot of local people from all parties and none went to considerable lengths to explain why putting Fortune Green at the bottom of a Barnet constituency was such a bad idea.
Fortune Green would have sat in the Finchley and Golders Green constituency. This was what their first proposal looked like...
Fortune Green was tucked right at the bottom of a constituency that stretched far to the north - its difficult to see how any MP representing that seat would ever think of Fortune Green as anything other than an after-thought.
We campaigned and lobbied - and now the Boundary Commission have scrapped that idea and their proposals now look like this...
This is much more sensible - as its mainly Camden wards - with some near neighbours from Brent.
I'm not sure its a perfect solution - but its much better than their first stab.
Full details are on the Boundary Commission's website (though their server seems to be struggling with the demand at the time of writing)
NB
In the short and medium term this is fairly academic - as the agreement at a national level to establish an elected House of Lords and even up constituency sizes has fallen apart. So no changes are likely before the next General Election anyway.
However, I suspect boundaries are always under review and at some point the idea of evening out all constituencies will be raised again. When time comes to look at this matter again a much more sensible plan will be ready and waiting to be put into effect.
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