The four Green Councillors at North Yorkshire Council welcome the improvements to the boundary changes in some areas, but believe some further work is needed to reflect reality on the ground.
This represents the views comes from Cllr Kevin Foster, Cllr David Noland, Cllr Andy Brown and Cllr Arnold Warneken.
Speaking for the Greens at North Yorkshire Council, Councillor Arnold Warneken:
North Yorkshire Greens believe that these revisions from the boundary commission go some way towards addressing concerns raised by their residents.
We want to do what’s best for these communities, rather than focus on how it will affect the 2027 elections.
In the first consultation, the councillors put forward the wishes of their respective Parishes, in particular where they feel that their identities lie. Residents were concerned that the boundaries didn’t reflect the way their communities interact with each other.
The resulting revisions have gone some way towards addressing these concerns.
However, in some areas there is still some more refinement needed – Skipton’s changes need a bit of work. The Ouseburn division poses the most problems because a river runs through it. The general opinion was not to split the Hammertons from the Ouseburns and let the rivers draw the boundaries, and we are pleased that that has been achieved.
However, this means that Long Marston is no longer in the Division, and the villages around Eastern Knaresborough such as Arkendale and Coneythorpe are now in the Ouseburns, which is slightly at odds of the aims of re-distributing constituents more evenly amongst Councillors as this will add to the numbers, but is probably what is more fitting for community.
To see the map of the proposed changes for draft 1 and draft 2 proposals.
https://lgbce.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=47fcbe36369748ae96827100a5708b4e
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