LETTER: Wait and see over Boundary Commission changes

A few weeks ago, I described as daft the moving on, yet again, of West Craven (like a political football), this time into the Ribble Valley Constituency, unless the inhabitants of West Craven clearly wanted it, a view shared by our MP.

In fairness to the English Boundary Commission, it has been asked to put forward draft proposals for probably the greatest changes in modern times in order to eliminate 60 constituencies. It had to start somewhere.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson and Coun. Paul White put forward a very constructive proposal to an inquiry in Preston. In a nutshell, it was to keep West Craven and, instead of bringing in North Burnley, to substitute a move of Briercliffe and Cliviger with Worsthorne into Pendle.

The numbers add up and these areas are more typical of our Pendleside and West Craven villages. This would make for a more homogeneous future Pendle. By comparison, adding urban North Burnley does not make sense. I’m sure other areas throughout the country will be putting forward similarly constructive suggestions and that the national exercise has a reasonable chance of success. As John says: “We’ll have to wait and see”.

OWEN OLIVER

Bents, Colne