East Gosforth is no more, now its Dene & South Gosforth
Earlier this year High West Jesmond Residents’ Association (HWJRA) and Friends of the Valley and Little Dene (FOVALD) both made representations to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England as their first draft of the proposed new wards for Newcastle City Council had split High West Jesmond in half by putting a boundary along Lodore Road.
The good news is that we were successful in our representation and we have heard back today with the final recommendations confirming that the area is being kept together in a newly formed Dene & South Gosforth Ward.
High West Jesmond representations considered
The final recommendations report notes on para 57 of page 19 that:
“Residents of High West Jesmond commenting on our draft recommendations stated that their community associations lie with Gosforth and Jesmond rather than with the area to the east of the Ousburn river.
We are unable to include High West Jesmond in either the wards for Gosforth or Jesmond without giving rise to high levels of electoral inequality.
However, we do acknowledge community identity in our final recommendations by naming the ward Dene & South Gosforth.
In doing so we include Rectory Road and Rectory Drive in this ward as proposed by the Council in its initial consultation.”
This is their email below together with links if you want to look at it in more detail.
“The Commission has now completed its review of Newcastle upon Tyne. A full copy and summary of the report is available on our website, www.lgbce.org.uk.
An interactive map of final recommendations is available at www.consultation.lgbce.org.uk
The changes proposed for Newcastle City Council must now be implemented by order subject to Parliamentary scrutiny.
A draft Order – the legal document which brings into force the recommendations – will be laid in Parliament. T
he draft Order will provide for new electoral arrangements for Newcastle upon Tyne to be implemented at the local elections in 2018“.