Daryll Pitcher, leader of the Vectis Party, shares his take on the initial proposals put forward in the Boundary Commission Review, published yesterday by News OnTheWight.
In his own words, Ed
The Vectis Party welcome the fact that the historic under-representation of the Isle of Wight is being corrected and very much support the creation of two seats on the Island.
We also understand the difficulty of creating two equally sized seats from the current Ward boundaries, however this laughably inept proposal from the Boundaries Commission can only have been drawn up by someone who was mildly surprised to discover that the Isle of Wight was part of England.
Shows a shocking lack of understanding
To split up the County Town and include the outskirts of Ryde in the “West” shows a shocking lack of understanding for the Island and an incomprehension of basic geographical terms.
The creation of a strange crescent-like East Wight Constituency where somehow Luccombe and East Cowes Esplanade supposedly have more in common than Luccombe and Ventnor Esplanade is bizarre, not least because almost none of the intervening places are in the same constituency.
Our proposal
The Vectis Party are today presenting our own proposal for creating east and west seats using a modicum of common sense to maintain geographical cohesion.
Our plan would see the whole of the Medina valley area remain in one constituency, while also ensuring that Ventnor remains connected to the Bay area.
Equitable wards remain
The sizes remain equitable with the West Wight Constituency having 54,911 and East Wight having 56,805.
To us this proposal is far more realistic than that of the Boundaries Commission while still sticking to the basic guidelines they set out with.
We shall be submitting this proposal as part of the public consultation (you can do same here) and will engage with the Isle of Wight council to elicit their support when they submit their response.
