By Elliott Patrice –

An electoral review is being carried out by the Local Government Boundary Commission aiming to bring “electoral equality” to Kirklees.

Under the Boundary Commission’s draft recommendations, Kirklees would see changes to 18 of its 23 ward boundaries. The amount of councillors and wards will stay the same, with 69 councillors across 23 wards.

This change aims to make sure there are three councillors for each of the wards across Kirklees.

The new boundaries would see a massive change to the area of the Ashbrow, with the ward changing names and becoming part of Huddersfield North Ward.

Along with the wards of Dalton, Greenhead, Newsome, Crosland Moor and Netherton which will all be divided across five new wards covering the Huddersfield area – Huddersfield Central, North, South, East and West.

This would see the old Ashbrow Ward reshaped to include the area of Birchencliffe, but it will lose the areas of Deighton to the new Huddersfield East Ward and Woodhouse Hill and Fartown Green to the new Huddersfield Central Ward.

The Boundary Commission has given the public the chance to have their say on the plans and can make their opinions known for 10 weeks from February 27.

The proposed changes will then need to be approved by Parliament and the new electoral boundaries would then be implemented from 2026.

We took some time to ask the people of Ashbrow what they thought about these changes to the Ward.

Dawn Sanderson of Ashbrow Road said: “I was aware there were going to be changes, but not how or where. I’m not really sure how I feel about it to be quite honest. I don’t know how it’s going to work. With each area having three (councillors), and whether they’re actually going to work together or be completely independent from each other.”

“It’s definitely confusing, I hope that it benefits everybody, Not just for my benefit, but the people in the new wards. If each area has three councillors, they should be abode to get more stuff done for the people in those areas. It should be better, I would hope. It should be fairer to have equal representation, councilors will have more time for the people in their wards.”

“I don’t think we are informed enough on this. I was aware of changes going to be made, but not what they were, but I don’t think a lot of people even know. I just hope it will work better, that the system will work better.”

Jeremy Marks, Bradley Huddersfield said: “ I was not aware of the changes which are being proposed before today. Initially looking, I can’t see that it necessarily will make that much of a difference. As for where I live, I would keep the same three councillors as I have now.”

“It’s a little bit confusing, I mean I can understand it, but I could see other people having problems with understanding it. I don’t trust these changes are really for my benefit. It’s the Tories that have proposed this idea. So this might just be the cynic in me, but I think it’s basically just to benefit the party.”

“I don’t think we have been informed well enough, Until today I didn’t know about these boundary changes. I can’t really see it making much of a difference in certain areas, I just very much see it as a Tory ploy to get votes.”

So opinions are split amongst the community, some have hope it will make a positive difference. Some are definitely mistrust of the local council and don’t see it having much effect. One thing everyone I spoke to agreed on was the lack of communication of these plans and the feeling there wasn’t enough information being provided

If you want to have your say on the planned changes to the Wards here is the link: https://www.lgbce.org.uk/all-reviews/kirklees

People can also give their views by e-mail at reviews@lgbce.org.uk, and by post:

Review Officer (Kirklees)
LGBCE
PO Box 133
Blyth
NE24 9FE

What do you think of the proposed changes? Let us know in the poll or comments section below.