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Nov 2022

Last Updated: 07/11/2022

Politics

Harrogate and Knaresborough to have fewer voters under new plans

by Calvin Robinson

| 08 Nov, 2022

Today's revised Boundary Commission plans would see Boroughbridge move to another constituency and Ripley become part of Skipton and Ripon.

The Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency, as planned by the Boundary Commission.

The Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency would be reduced in size, under revised plans published today by the Boundary Commission for England.

The commission first published proposals for a shake-up of Harrogate and Knaresborough in June 2021, which included moving Boroughbridge to another seat and shrinking the size of the constituency.

Under today's revised proposals, the electorate would stand at 75,800. Latest Parliament figures show the current boundary has an electorate of 77,605.

The seat is currently held by the Conservative Andrew Jones.

The latest changes would see Claro ward and areas such as Burton Leonard reintroduced to the constituency from the initial proposals.

However, Boroughbridge would still remain in a newly created seat.

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The commission will now undertake another round of public consultation until December 5 before making recommendations to government.

It will publish a final report on boundary changes in 2023.

Under the current proposals, the number of constituencies in Yorkshire and Humber would remain at 54.

Conservative Nigel Adams’ seat of Selby and Ainsty, which includes the south of Harrogate, would be scrapped.

Instead, Selby would have its own seat and the north of the district would fall under a new constituency called Wetherby and Easingwold, which would take in areas including Wetherby, Bishop Monkton and Boroughbridge.

The Skipton and Ripon constituency, which is currently represented by Conservative Julian Smith, would include Ripley, which is currently part of Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Tim Bowden, secretary to the Boundary Commission for England, said:

“Today we are announcing the publication of our revised proposals. Last year we published our initial proposals for new constituency boundaries – our first go at what the map should look like. We are delighted with the huge number of comments from members of the public on our initial proposals, many which included valuable evidence about local communities.

“Today’s publication is the culmination of months of analysis and we have revised nearly half of our initial proposals based on what people have told us. We now believe we are close to the best map of constituencies that can be achieved under the rules we are working to.

“However, we still want people to tell us what they think of this latest map before we submit our final recommendations to Parliament next year. This is our final consultation and I encourage you to participate in the 2023 Boundary Review.”

As part of the review, the number of constituencies in England will increase from 533 to 543.

You can comment on the proposals at the Boundary Commission website here.

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Harrogate and Knaresborough to have fewer voters under new plans

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