As highlighted on VB just over a week ago, trying to find out which of the written public responses to the proposed boundary changes related to the Isle of Wight was close to impossible.
Happily the Boundary Commission has now come up with a way to identify them, providing a list of unique reference number to look up.
This in from Andrew Turner’s office, in their words – Ed.
Andrew Turner, the Island’s MP has welcomed a response from the Boundary Commission following criticism about the way in which they published responses to their consultation on the new parliamentary boundaries.
From today it is possible to identify which responses on their website relate to individual constituencies. Previously the 5,000 + responses for the South East region had been put together, with no way to find out which constituency they referred to.
Raised in Parliament
Mr Turner had written to the Boundary Commission and the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, about the issue and also raised the matter last week in Parliament.
This afternoon Mr Turner said :
“This phase of the consultation is to enable the public to respond to what other people have said – so having to wade through over 5,000 replies was ridiculous. I am pleased that the Boundary Commission has now put this right.
Not perfect, but better than it was
“Although the new system is not perfect, it is a great deal better than it was – there were 51 responses from members of the public about the Island’s proposals – and it is now possible to identify them and read them all.
“It was interesting to read that the Conservative and Labour parties had independently come to the same conclusions about how the proposals needed to be amended – and the same points have been made by some members of the public.
“The Liberal Democrats wanted an East/West split and also for the constituencies to be named Wight East and Wight West – rather than Isle of Wight North and Isle of Wight South. I disagree with that, even if we had two constituencies we would still be an Island – and I think that should be reflected in the name.
Mr Turner went on to say :
Not yet a ‘done deal’
“Although these proposals are now on the table, it is not yet a ‘done deal’. Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay and other senior Liberal Democrats have indicated that they may not vote to support the fairer boundaries unless they get their way on urgent reform of the House of Lords. Time will tell whether the Island does get two MPs after the next election.”
