Please note: the opportunity for residents to submit comments to the consultation has now closed. This post is for information only.
The Ward boundaries in all Local Government areas are reviewed as population and circumstances change. Mole Valley Ward boundaries were last reviewed in the late 90’s.
The Local Government Boundary Commission (LGBC) has concluded its review of MVDC and has published its recommendations. For Bookham and Fetcham instead of the present four wards, three are now proposed. One for Bookham, one for Fetcham and a new combined ward called Eastwick Park combining parts of Bookham and Fetcham.
The LGBC are seeking comments on this proposal, and we have replied objecting strongly. The LGBC set three key objectives in determining the new boundaries and we argue that two are not being implemented by the Boundary Commission. One is that village/conurbation identities should be maintained and second any new arrangements should be beneficial and effective for Local Government.
The proposed Eastwick Park ward boundary splits Bookham in half along the middle of Church Road, High Street and Dorking Road. This produces the oddity that St Nicolas Church is now in a hybrid ward for both Fetcham and Bookham and the Baptist Church is in Bookham. The shopping areas apart from Lower Shott are in two wards as well.
Councillors in this new ward will have to keep up to date with all of Fetcham and Bookham affairs and this increased load on part time Councillors does not help the effectiveness of Local Government.
We suspect that when to Boundary Commission visited Fetcham and Bookham, they saw that there was no clear boundary between the villages. We have reported the many differences, with examples, between these two large conurbations and trust the LGBC will rethink their proposals.
If the LGBC were minded to ignore the views of the BRA and Fetcham Residents Association (FRA) then we hope LGBC describe the new ward as what it is, i.e. “Bookham North and Fetcham East” ward, not "Eastwick Park" which is pretty meaningless to many.
If you agree with our position, also held by Fetcham Residents Association, please could you email the LGBC stating your objections preferably in your own words to achieve greater impact.
This could simply be objections to the LGBC in failing to meet their own objectives with the new Eastwick Park ward by failing to maintain village and conurbation identities. A second in that Local Government effectiveness will be made worse because of increased individual councillor responsibilities.
The LGBD website shows the closing date as Monday 6th at midnight but we have been granted a grace period of a further week to midnight 13th June.
Objections and comments should be sent to:
