View from the Boundary

The current structure of Newham council – a directly elected mayor and 60 councillors representing 20 wards – has been in place since 2002.

The mayoral system was put in place after a referendum 17 years ago and its future will be decided in another vote, probably 18 months from now. In the meantime, the Local Government Boundary Commission for England is taking a look at the rest of the council. How many councillors do we need and how should the wards they represent by drawn up?

The last review, which produced the 20 wards we have today, was in the late 1990s and a lot has changed since then! The population has grown substantially and that has resulted in considerable ‘electoral inequality’ between wards. Stratford and New Town has more than 18,000 electors, while Royal Docks has just 8,600. Yet both elect the same number of councillors.

Newham has argued – apparently successfully – that the total number of councillors should increase from 60 to 66, to take account of the growth in population and the large amount of casework (especially around housing issues) that has resulted. It has also put forward its own proposal on how the borough should be divided up into wards.

The council claims its proposal reflects existing local communities and the few ‘natural’ boundaries in the borough – the A13, the District line and the Docks. 

The new map, if agreed, would result in 23 wards, 20 of which would elect 3 councillors and three that would elect only two. The council rejected the option of creating single-member micro-wards. 

Of the 23 wards, nine are completely new, three have significant changes and 11 are either unchanged or have minor adjustments. All of the wards are within 10% (plus or minus) of ‘electoral equality’.

The biggest changes are in Stratford & New Town, where the existing mega-ward is split into two new – East Village and Olympic Park – and Royal Docks, which is also split in two, with each of them represented by two councillors. Canning Town South disappears; its western half becomes a more ‘electorally equal’ Canning Town ward while the eastern parts go into the new Plaistow West and a substantially redrawn Custom House.

Keen observers of local Labour politics will want to get the popcorn in for the reselection meeting in Manor Park, which will go from three councillors to two.

The full list is:

• Burges is the current Wall End (with some small additions).

** Plashet is the current East Ham North ward (again, with small additions) renamed.

In the next post I’ll look at the make up of each of the 23 new wards.

Tags: Boundary Review, councillors, newham