The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume one: Report – West Midlands
Worcestershire
Initial proposals
Four of the six existing constituencies in Worcestershire are within the permitted electorate range, and three are coterminous with their local authority boundaries. The initial proposals therefore proposed to move only two wards (Dodderhill, and Harvington and Norton) from the existing Mid Worcestershire constituency to the Redditch constituency. We also proposed two name changes to better align with our naming policy: Droitwich and Evesham; and Kidderminster.
Our initial proposals for the four unchanged constituencies were supported, other than significant opposition being received to the proposed name of Kidderminster, where respondents demonstrated strong local support for retention of the existing name of Wyre Forest.
There was a mix of support and opposition to our initial proposals for the remaining two constituencies, with opposition particularly coming from the two wards proposed to transfer into the Redditch constituency. There were two significant counter proposals received: one that would leave Harvington and Norton in Droitwich and Evesham, but transfer into Redditch instead the Alvechurch South ward from Bromsgrove; the other proposed a more radical reorientation of both the West Worcestershire, and Droitwich and Evesham constituencies.
Taking account of the strong support received, the Assistant Commissioners recommended the retention of the initial proposals in full for Worcester, and a change of name only for our initially proposed Kidderminster, to revert to Wyre Forest. We agreed.
Our Assistant Commissioners recognised the close ties of Harvington and Norton with Evesham, particularly as compared with Redditch, and considered carefully the counter proposals received that aimed to address this issue. They noted that a transfer of Alvechurch South ward to Redditch would divide the village of Alvechurch between constituencies and change the otherwise unchanged constituency of Bromsgrove, which was also coterminous with its local authority boundaries. As this counter proposal had also not received any other support, but had attracted a significant degree of opposition, they did not recommend it. Considering the other counter proposal, the Assistant Commissioners felt it would cause far greater disruption to existing constituencies than the initial proposals, as well as having less regard for local authority boundaries: on this basis, and in light of the support in consultation for the initially proposed West Worcestershire constituency, they again did not recommend adoption of this alternative. We agreed with their reasoning and retained our initial proposals for the remaining four constituencies in Worcestershire.
We received very few consultation responses in relation to the revised proposals across Worcestershire. Of these, there is mostly support for the constituencies as now proposed, with a handful of responses seeking the transfer of wards (or part wards) between constituencies whose boundaries have otherwise been proposed to remain unchanged from existing. The only issue that attracted more than a handful of responses was, again, the local ties between Norton and Harvington, and Evesham. These responses included a counter proposal to keep Harvington and Norton in Droitwich and Evesham, but instead transfer the ward of Lovett and North Claines into Redditch constituency.
We have not been persuaded of the merit of any of the individual requests to change otherwise unchanged constituencies by the movement of individual wards or part wards.
We have considered the counter proposal to transfer the Lovett and North Claines ward into Redditch constituency instead of the Harvington and Norton ward. We do not agree that this would be an improvement on the revised proposals: not only would many of the residents of the Lovett and North Claines ward likely have as strong a claim to local ties with Droitwich as Harvington and Norton do to Evesham, but it would both create a particularly unusual shape for the Redditch constituency, and also completely detach the wards of Hartlebury and Ombersley from the rest of the Droitwich and Evesham constituency.
Accordingly, we recommend six constituencies for Worcestershire unchanged from our revised proposals: Bromsgrove; Droitwich and Evesham; Redditch; West Worcestershire; Worcester; and Wyre Forest. The areas covered by these constituencies are listed in Volume two and shown on the maps in Volume three of this report.
