The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume one: Report – West Midlands
Warwickshire
Initial proposals
Four of the six existing constituencies in Warwickshire are within the permitted electorate range, and our initial proposals suggested bringing the other two within the range by simply moving one ward – Budbrooke – from the Warwick and Leamington constituency into Kenilworth and Southam. The Stratford-on-Avon and Rugby constituencies were proposed with boundary changes only to realign with new local government wards, and the Bedworth and North Warwickshire, and Nuneaton constituencies were proposed with completely unchanged boundaries from existing (though we included Bedworth in the name of the former to reflect the local authority crossing).
We did identify an opportunity to more closely align constituency boundaries with local authority boundaries across the county. As this would require a greater degree of change from the existing constituencies than was otherwise necessary, we did not make this approach our formal proposal, but actively invited views on the option in the consultation.
The four proposed constituencies that would see essentially no change were well supported in consultation, and the possible alternative of greater change to align better with local authority boundaries did not attract much active support.
Though there was some support for the proposed transfer of the Budbrooke ward, there was also strong opposition expressed to this, on the basis of the local ties of the ward to Warwick particularly (and lack of ties to either Kenilworth or Southam), and the effect the initial proposal would have of creating a Kenilworth and Southam constituency that would completely encircle that of Warwick and Leamington. We received a counter proposal to split the Budbrooke ward, transferring to Kenilworth and Southam constituency only the Hatton Park area, while retaining the rest of the ward in the Warwick and Leamington constituency.
Our Assistant Commissioners had little difficulty recommending the retention of the initial proposals for the four essentially unchanged proposed constituencies, given the large degree of support expressed for those, and we agreed.
The Assistant Commissioners considered carefully the counter proposal to split the Budbrooke ward, and visited the area as part of their considerations. While they agreed Hatton Park would be a suitable area to transfer to Kenilworth and Southam if the ward were to be split, they did not feel that there was a sufficiently strong case for splitting the ward in the first instance, as the M40 and A46 formed a sizeable and distinct boundary between most of the inhabited areas of the ward and Warwick and Leamington. We agreed with their reasoning, and therefore retained our initial proposals for these two constituencies also.
We received general support and very few responses overall in respect of the four constituencies proposed essentially unchanged. The few opposing responses were mostly individuals who sought a transfer of a ward (different in each case) between constituencies in the north of Warwickshire, or in some cases from the far south of the Stratford-on-Avon constituency into our proposed Banbury or North Cotswolds constituencies. There were, however, a number of responses that requested a reordering of the name of the proposed Bedworth and North Warwickshire constituency, highlighting that around two thirds of the population was located in the latter part.
We received, again, a significant number of responses in opposition to the transfer of the Budbrooke ward to Kenilworth and Southam, though raising no new evidence or alternatives (in fact a large proportion of these responses stressed ties of the Hatton area with Warwick, contrary to the counter proposal previously received). We also received around the same number of responses requesting the transfer of the Radford Semele ward from the Kenilworth and Southam constituency to Warwick and Leamington, largely on the basis of local ties. Finally, in this area, we received a very small number of requests to transfer part of the Red Horse ward into the Stratford-on-Avon constituency, as well as a request to rename Kenilworth and Southam either Mid Warwickshire or South East Warwickshire.
We have seen no persuasive evidence or support for amending the boundaries of our revised proposals in the north of the county, or in Stratford-on-Avon. Specifically, we do not see sufficient grounds to amend these otherwise essentially unchanged constituencies, and particularly not cross a regional boundary. We are, however, persuaded of the argument to reorder the name of our initially proposed Bedworth and North Warwickshire. We therefore recommend the following constituencies with boundaries as set out in our revised proposals: North Warwickshire and Bedworth; Nuneaton; Rugby; and Stratford-on-Avon.
In respect of the remaining two constituencies, it remains the case that the whole of Budbrooke ward cannot be included in the Warwick and Leamington constituency, and we have received no new evidence or alternative to justify either a split of the Budbrooke ward, or an alternative ward being transferred out of Warwick and Leamington. We considered the request to transfer Radford Semele from Kenilworth and Southam to Warwick and Leamington. Unlike with Budbrooke, this ward can be included in the Warwick and Leamington constituency without the need to split it. This would represent a degree of additional change to both constituencies from their existing configuration, but we were persuaded by the evidence of local ties, and noted particularly that Radford Semele was in the Warwick and Leamington constituency until the boundaries were last changed. We were not persuaded that there was a sufficiently strong case to split the Red Horse ward in order to transfer the Tysoe area to Stratford-on-Avon, nor – in light of the relatively limited change to the constituency and the extremely low numbers requesting it – were we minded to change the name of the Kenilworth and Southam constituency. We therefore recommend amendments to the boundaries of the following constituencies: Kenilworth and Southam; and and Leamington.
Our final recommendations for Warwickshire are therefore for constituencies of: Kenilworth and Southam; North Warwickshire and Bedworth; Nuneaton; Rugby; Stratford-on-Avon; and Warwick and Leamington. The areas covered by these constituencies are listed in Volume two and shown on the maps in Volume three of this report.
