The officials behind a boundary review which proposes that Portslade is renamed Brighton West have said that they expect and welcome feedback about the controversial suggestion.
Brighton and Hove News reported the proposed new name for the Hove parliamentary constituency – Hove and Brighton West – earlier this week.
Elected representatives said that the idea was “ludicrous” and “nonsense” – and Portslade councillor Peter Atkinson said: “Someone has got their geographical wires totally and utterly crossed.”
For some years, Labour and Conservatives have informally called the seat Hove and Portslade so that it recognises both towns.
None of the constituency is in the western part of Brighton which forms the Brighton Pavilion seat.
Asked about the choice of name, the Boundary Commission for England said that voters often had strong feelings about what their constituency was called.
A Boundary Commission official said: “We’re expecting representations from members of the public as well as MPs – and we welcome that.
“We want to encourage interaction so that we have as good an understanding as possible of people’s views and the strength of feeling.”
Councillor Atkinson said: “It’s a total nonsense. It’s an insult to the people of Portslade.”
And the Labour MP for Hove, Peter Kyle, said: “I’m going to complain about the name. It makes no sense whatsoever.”
Other than the name, the Boundary Commission is recommending no changes to the Hove seat as it redraws the political map to ensure seats have an average of 73,393 voters.
The law requires 645 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons to have no fewer than 69,724 voters – 95 per cent of the average – and no more than 77,062 – or 105 per cent. The five exceptions include the Isle of Wight.
Hove had 73,726 electors on the qualifying date – in March last year – and Brighton Pavilion had 76,854. But Brighton Kemptown, with 68,733 voters, had too few.
As a result, the Boundary Commission has proposed that Hanover and Elm Grove ward becomes part of the Brighton Kemptown constituency instead of Brighton Pavilion.
And it wants Queen’s Park ward to become part of the Brighton Pavilion constituency instead of Brighton Kemptown.
The end result will be that Brighton Kemptown has 69,737 voters while Brighton Pavilion has 75,850.
To read more about the review, click here. And to comment, click here.
The Boundary Commission added: “Consultation is currently open until Monday 2 August 2021. Please make sure we receive your response by that date at the latest or it will not be considered.”
What a lot of nonsense!!!! We are Portslade by Sea not West Brighton!!!Stop wasting our money on ridiculous ideas and use it to do something useful for a change!!!! If anything we’re closer to West Hove than Brighton!!! Just leave Portslade as it is.
Probably just an excuse to put up the prices etc
Portslade is pretty grim. Please keep your name!
Swapping Hanover and Queens Parks sound more like gerrymandering than just changing the numbers as it only changes the constituencies by about 200 voters, but swaps a Green area for a Labour one giving the Conservatives a better chance of winning Kemptown next election as the votes are likely to be split more.
It is twenty years since Hove fended off Labour’s plan to rename it West Brighton. There was uproar when it was spotted that rent books were addressed Ingram Crescent, West Brighton. This continues to resonate – and such diseased nomenclature has spread further west.
For goodness sake stop playing around with this ridiculous idea. Brighton is becoming an embarrassment and is making some disastrous decisions at the moment so leave us out of it, you have annoyed us enough at present. Portslade is very separate in its identity thank you and long may that last.
NO! The name Portslade should stay.
Why change the name after all these years and certainly don’t want to be known as part of Brighton!! Perfectly alright as it is. Why waste more of our money!
Portslade is not Brighton never has been. Why confuse the issue.