Have your say before 27th March

The name Acton may vanish as a Parliamentary constituency if changes proposed by The Boundary Commission for England (BCE) go ahead.

Following a decision by Parliament to reduce the number of constituencies in the UK, London will see a reduction from 73 to 68.  This will mean that Ealing will see some changes before the next scheduled general election in 2020.

It is proposed that the new Ealing Central and Shepherds Bush constituency would comprise of:

• Acton Central
• Ealing Broadway
• Ealing Common
• East Acton
• Hanger Hill
• South Acton
• Askew
• Shepherd’s Bush Green
• Wormholt & White City

• Northolt West End and Northolt Mandeville wards will be moving to the Hillingdon and Uxbridge constituency

• Southfield and Northfield wards will move to Brentford and Chiswick constituency

• Elthorne, Norwood Green, Southall Broadway, Southall Green and Walpole wards will move into another newly created constituency of Southall and Heston.

An initial consultation on these changes was held in the autumn of 2016 and the responses received have been published as part of this second consultation.

Rupa Huq, the sitting MP for Ealing Central and Acton says:

'' The Labour party nationally are opposed to this politically motivated redrawing of the electoral map purely for Tory gain. They talk about cutting the cost of politics when the number of peers has grown exponentially and in reality they want to simply abolish Labour MPs.

''In West London seats like the current Hammersmith and Brentford would be merged with surrounding areas to deprive them of Labour MPs. Contituencies would spread over several boroughs and with massive electorates at a time when we need more not less representation given how under this government’s punitive policies MPs advice surgery queues are only getting longer.

''In addition to this it’s bizarre that the word ‘Acton’ ceases to exist and if any redraw was needed to extend my seat it would have been more sensible adding Northfields and Cleveland wards and possibly adding Hanger Hill to Ealing North.”

The second consultation opened on Tuesday 28 February and closes on Monday 27 March.  The BCE are looking for your views on the suggestions made during the first consultation.  You can support the proposals or counter-proposals, highlight issues with alternative ideas, comment on suggested names for the new constituencies and say where you think the BCEs original proposals are still the best solution.

To view and comment on the consultation go to the BCEs website, www.bce2018.org.u

March 10th 2017