MP disappointed constituency will not be renamed
SHE IS CAMPAIGNING TO HAVE UTTOXETER ADDED TO NAME
BURTON’S MP says she is “disappointed” that her constituency will not officially be named Burton and Uttoxeter following a nationwide review.
Kate Kniveton’s constituency is currently officially known as Burton, despite also covering the town of Uttoxeter, which it has done for decades. She wants to change its name to Burton and Uttoxeter as part of the 2023 Parliamentary Boundary Review.
However, following the first round of consultation, the Boundary Commission has not yet agreed to the name change. Its reasons are as yet unclear.
Conservative MP Ms Kniveton said: “I am pleased that the Burton constituency remains as it is but disappointed that the commission has not adopted the locally-popular proposal to officially rename it to ‘Burton and Uttoxeter.’
“However, there is now a final round of public consultation so we can have one further attempt to make the case for this change. This consultation is open now and will run until December 5.”
If Ms Kniveton is eventually successful, it will be the first time the constituency has changed its name in more than 135 years. It has been known as the Burton constituency since 1885 when Michael Bass was elected for the Liberal Party. Before then, it had been known as Staffordshire East until that was abolished.
The Boundary Commission is undertaking an independent review of all constituencies in England. The number of electors within each constituency currently varies widely due to population changes since the last boundary review.
The 2023 Boundary Review aims to rebalance the number of electors each MP represents, resulting in significant change to the existing constituency map. As part of the review, the number of constituencies in England will increase from 533 to 543.
Following the recent review, the number of constituencies in the West Midlands will decrease from 59 to 57 but the number of constituencies in the East Midlands will increase from 46 to 47.
After the final consultation has closed on December 5, the commission will analyse the responses and form its final recommendations. These will be submitted to Parliament by July 1, 2023.
So far, the commission has taken into consideration more than 45,000 comments sent in by the public during the previous two stages of public consultation and has changed nearly half of its initial proposals based on this feedback.
This is the third and final consultation on the new map of revised constituency proposals and comments can be made by visiting www.bcereviews.org. uk by December 5.