The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume one: Report – West Midlands
Herefordshire
Initial proposals
Both of Herefordshire’s existing constituencies are within the permitted electorate range, but their boundaries could only remain unchanged if we were to split the new local government wards in the county. Realignment of the constituency boundaries to new local government ward boundaries in our initial proposals included Stoney Street ward wholly within North Herefordshire, and Holmer ward wholly within the Hereford and South Herefordshire constituency.
Although our initial proposals received a reasonable level of support, we also received a counter proposal to switch the allocation of the Stoney Street and Holmer wards, i.e. include Stoney Street in Hereford and South Herefordshire, and include Holmer in North Herefordshire. This reflected the importance of the River Wye as a boundary in the county, with Stoney Street ward lying mostly on the southern side of this significant geographical feature. Responses also noted that this alternative approach would see fewer electors moved from their existing constituency.
Our Assistant Commissioners recognised the strength of the arguments put forward in respect of the natural geography and the ability to retain a closer approximation of the existing constituencies, and therefore recommended adoption of the counter proposal, We agreed with their reasoning and revised our proposals accordingly.
In the consultation on our revised proposals, we received an extremely low number of responses commenting specifically on the proposed constituencies for Herefordshire. Of these, around half were actively supportive or accepting of the revised proposals. Of the remaining handful of responses, one sought to simply name the constituencies for their biggest urban centres (Hereford, and Leominster and Ledbury, respectively), while three raised a new issue: requesting that the Old Gore ward be transferred to the Hereford and South Herefordshire constituency, due to its connections to Hereford, relative location in the county (more south than many of the wards in the Hereford and South Herefordshire constituency), and noting that the geographical feature of the River Wye means that the area from the hamlet of Foy west has no internal physical connection to the rest of the constituency.
We have carefully considered the new issue raised concerning the Old Gore ward. This ward is part of the existing constituency, so moving it would entail a substantive change to two constituencies changed otherwise only to realign with changed ward boundaries. A transfer of the ward from the North Herefordshire constituency would take the electorate below the permitted minimum, so another ward would have to be transferred the other way to compensate: while we could select such a ward, we do not consider we have evidence to suggest that transferring a different ward would reflect community ties. Furthermore, we do not believe a splitting of the Old Gore ward would be justified.
In respect of the naming of the two constituencies, while we would normally look to name a constituency for its main population centre(s), the highly rural nature of the vast majority of both these constituencies warrants an exception to that general approach. In addition, there has been extremely limited substantive change to the boundaries of the constituencies, in which circumstances we would generally not look to amend the existing names.
As no other issues, evidence, argument or alternatives have been raised in relation to the remainder of Herefordshire, we accordingly recommend the following two constituencies: Hereford and South Herefordshire; and North Herefordshire. As no other issues, evidence, argument or alternatives have been raised in relation to the remainder of Herefordshire, we accordingly recommend the following two constituencies: Hereford and South Herefordshire; and North Herefordshire. The areas covered by these constituencies are listed in Volume two and shown on the maps in Volume three of this report.
