Putting Whickham on the map

The consultation on boundaries for the new Parliamentary constituencies came to an end earlier this month. The previous proposals would have taken a wrecking ball to Gateshead and the borough would have been split between 6 (or was it 7? - I have lost count) constituencies. The new proposals create a Gateshead West constituency (covering the old town of Gateshead, Whickham and Birtley), a revised Blaydon (covering Blaydon, Rowlands Gill, Ryton and, more controversially, a chunk of western Newcastle) and Jarrow and Gateshead East (the Gateshead bits are effectively the Felling area).So, in summary, Gateshead will have one full constituency and two in which wards of Gateshead form a significant part.

These proposals taken together are a significant improvement. The issue now is the name of the Gateshead West constituency. I believe that Whickham should be included, so my submission to the Boundary Commission's consultation made a case for this. It is a view not universally held: when it was discussed at a Gateshead Council advisory group, Labour Leader Martin Gannon dismissed the proposal to include Whickham with the words, "Not on your life!"

Anyway, here is my submission to the Boundary Commission consultation:

The proposed Gateshead West constituency covers a logical and sensible geographic area and avoids communities being split. However the name could be potentially misleading. A further 5 wards of Gateshead Council to the west of the Gateshead West constituency will be in the revised Blaydon constituency. It is therefore not an accurate description. The name of Gateshead on its own has significant historical recognition in terms of the old Gateshead town forming the eastern part of the new constituency.

Furthermore, Whickham is the 2nd biggest town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, beaten only by the town of Gateshead itself. The name "Whickham" appears in three of the 22 wards in Gateshead.

The only other town in Gateshead to appear in the name of more that one ward is Dunston which appears in two (Dunston Hill and Whickham East ward and Dunston and Teams ward). Dunston historically is part of Whickham. The historic area of Whickham will therefore constitute nearly 40% of the constituency.

I therefore propose that instead of "Gateshead West", which could be confusing to many, the name of the new constituency should be "Gateshead and Whickham".