Comments on: Halesowen and Rowley Regis

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:20:30 +0000

Well I’m genuinely horrified by the way the boundary commission have created two cross borough Dudley/Sandwell seats.

I’m also shocked by some of the other Black County seats.

But, I’ve always been opposed to these boundary changes, and I guess it’s somthing we’ll just have to learn to live with.

By: Aidan Thomson

Aidan Thomson — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:52:06 +0000

From the R&T Media Guide To The New Parliamentary Constituencies (1995), old seats:

Dudley East: 76,207
Dudley West: 87,611
Halesowen & Stourbridge: 78,566
Warley East: 52,763
Warley West: 58,024
West Bromwich East: 57,983
West Bromwich West: 58,554
Wolverhampton North East: 62,353
Wolverhampton South East: 57,072
Wolverhampton South West: 68,192

And while we’re at it:
Aldridge-Brownhills: 63,920
Walsall North: 69,894
Walsall South: 66,338

Solution:
Walsall and Sandwell: 6 seats @ 71,246
Dudley and Wolverhampton: 6 seats @ 71,667

Why didn’t they do that? Your guess is as good as mine…

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 15:03:53 +0000

I’ve always wondered about the pre 1997 boundaries in this part of balck country.

I asume that the old Halesowen and Stourbridge seat had an electorate of over 80,000. Am I correct?

I also asume that Dudley East and both the Warley seats had extreamley small electorates. Warley West may have been less than 50,000.

Also, surley Dudley West would have had more than 80,000 electors and I dred to think how small Wolverhampton SE was before Coseley East was added to it.

I still believe it would have made more sense for the last boundary commission to have allocated 3 seats to Sandwell, 3 to Dudley, 2 to Woverhampton and to have a cross-borough Dudley North and Bilston seat. There surley wouldn’t have been that much public oposition to that since Coseley East is now in Wolverhampton SE and it would have roughly the same boundaries as the pre 1974 Bilston seat. There could have been some oposition to splitting Stourbridge though, and to the East Park ward moving into Wolverhampton NE.

By: Harry Porter

Harry Porter — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:45:30 +0000

Thought so, as the present separate seats are a mix of wards from several districts I was wondering if the arrangements then were different

By: Votedave

Votedave — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:51:45 +0000

Yes, Harry, all of them.

By: Harry Porter

Harry Porter — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:36:09 +0000

I presume the 1983-97 makeup of H&S that Pete lists was all Dudley Borough wards

By: Pete Whitehead

Pete Whitehead — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:31:07 +0000

Some of these questions are not straightforward because of ward boundary changes. I know that the 1983-97 boundaries included the then wards of: Halesowen N, Halesowen S, Belle Vale & Hasbury, Hayley Green, Lye & Wollescote, Pedmore & Stourbridge E, Wollaston & Stourbridge W, Norton.
I seem to recall Robert Waller mentioning that Quarry Bank was moved from H&S to Dudley East in 1983 but this wasn’t probably the whole ward but part of the ward moving as a result of ward boundary changes

By: Harry Porter

Harry Porter — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:45:40 +0000

What were the wards of the old Halesowen and Stourbridge seat from 1974 to 1997?

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:58:14 +0000

I’ve noticed two things aobut the seats in Black Country that the last boundary commission failed to notice.

1) All of the seats in Wolverhampton, Dudley and Sandwell have very small electorates.

2) There are now two cross-borough seats (Halesowen and Rowley Regis and Wolverhampton South East).

When the boundary commission create seats that cross the boundary between two counties they are only allowed to create one cross county seat. I know that rule does not apply to metropolitan boroughs, but it is entirley possible to get seats that are close to the quota by having just one black country cross borough seat.

Also, If you add together the electorates of all the seats in Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Dudley, you get closer to the quota by having 9 seats instead of 10 and only having one cross bourogh seat. So this soleves both problems. The 9 seats in have in mind to eliminate these anomalies are:

Wolverhampton North East
Wolverhampton South West
Dudley North and Bilston (the cross borough seat)
Dudley Central
Dudley South and Stourbridge West
Halesowen and Stourbridge East
Tipton and Rowley Regis
West Bromwich and Smethwick
Wednesbury and Great Barr

By: Pete Whitehead

Pete Whitehead — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:59:19 +0000

It was in Worcestershire Mid, or Droitwich