CONCERNS have been raised by residents in Launceston and Bude who say they think ‘Cornwall should stay Cornwall’, after proposals for a new ‘Devonwall’ constituency were announced.

The initial proposal for the Devonwall constituency was published on Tuesday, September 13, which marked the start of 12 weeks of consultations.

During the consultations the Boundary Commission for England (BCE) wants to hear from the public to help shape the proposed new constituency boundaries — but there are many who are skeptical over how this will affect them and their area.

Proposals would see a new ‘Launceston, Bude and Bideford’ constituency being formed — a cross-border constituency.

The Boundary Commission report also says: “We propose that the existing South East Cornwall constituency is extended to include the wards of Altarnun, and Stokeclimsland, from the existing North Cornwall constituency. No change is proposed to the name of the constituency.”

The government has said it wants to reduce the number of constituencies in order to make them of equal size. If the proposals are accepted only 68 of the existing 533 English constituencies will remain unchanged.

Sam Hartley, secretary to the commission, said last week: “They are just the commission’s initial thoughts — during the next 12 weeks we want people to take a look and tell us what they like and don’t like about our proposals.

“Parliament has set us tight rules about reducing the number of constituencies, and making them of more equal size, and we now need the views of people around the country to help us shape constituencies that best reflect local areas.

“Use our website to tell us what you think, or come along to one of our public events to give us your views in person.”

The new ‘Launceston, Bude and Bideford’ constituency would take in the following towns and parishes in order to make a full constituency of 71,465 residents: Bude; Camelford; Grenville and Stratton; Launceston Central; Launceston North and North Petherwin; Launceston South; Poundstock; St Teath and St Breward; Tintagel; Appledore; Bideford East; Bideford North; Bideford South; Broadheath; Clovelly Bay; Coham Bridge; Forest; Hartland and Bradworthy; Holsworthy; Kenwith; Monkleigh and Littleham; Northam; Orchard Hill; Shebbear and Langtree; Tamarside; Waldon; Westward Ho!.

Those towns listed above would become the new ‘Devonwall’ constituency, as it has become known. However, the proposal has been met with a lot of opposition from Cornish residents who have recently been granted minority status.

Some have said they feel their heritage is at risk if this ‘merge’ goes ahead. The Post spoke to residents to gauge their initial thoughts on the proposal.

Ruth Maunder, from the Tourist Information Centre in Launceston, was born and bred in Cornwall and said ‘I am proud to be Cornish’.

She was born in Helston and later attended Launceston College before marrying her Cornish husband in Launceston. She said: “I have lived here all my life. I was born in Cornwall. I have lived here all my life, went to school here and even married a local Cornishman.

“I feel that we want to stay Cornish, I have got nothing against people from Devon but we are Cornish and we want to stay that way. Many people fought very hard to get minority status.

“This is just my opinion, I don’t have any other political reasons for wanting to stay as we are I just think Cornwall should stay as Cornwall and I am sure if you asked people from Devon they would say the same, that they want to stay as Devon.”

Launceston’s mayor Brian Hogan raised his concerns over the Boundary Commission’s proposal and gave his thoughts on what ‘Devonwall’ will mean for Launceston. He said: “Everyone has a right to be proud of their roots and their heritage. With that in mind, Cornwall has been given national minority status recently, so why would the Boundaries Commission seek to overturn a thousand years of history?

“I think that the Cornish are very proud of their national identity, which is only right, and perhaps because of political red tape something may be forced upon them that the majority of Cornwall do not want.

“Having spoken to several local residents recently, they are opposed to any changes with the boundary.”

Cllr Hogan was born in Devon but made the decision to move to Cornwall at the age of 25. He said that his move to Cornwall was ‘a decision I have never regretted’ and that, although not Cornish by birth, Cornwall is where his loyalties lie.

Speaking on how he thinks the proposed changes will affect Launceston, he said: “I think the proposed boundary change will affect Launceston in so far as if we have only one MP to cover a large area of North Devon and North Cornwall there may be a conflict of interest politically between Cornwall Council and Torridge District Council. This may result in both areas being disadvantaged.

“This decision should involve the local communities that are well informed through local consultations.”

Margaret Young, who was born in Launceston and later taught at the local college for 32 years, said: “Launceston is my heart. I feel very strongly about this as I think that Cornwall should stay Cornwall and it shouldn’t be mixed.

“I can see the other side of this with regards to numbers but they have to consider we have an identity to uphold.

“I don’t really see the benefits for Launceston as Bideford is too far away to be useful to anyone. Communications will be difficult and the road to Bideford is a bad one, which will make travelling for the MP difficult.

“I don’t know how useful they will be to a rural area like ours as it will be difficult for them to get out to the surrounding parishes.

“I don’t think it will affect Launceston awfully. It is a lovely little town but we do tend to get overlooked with funding going to places like Bodmin instead.

“I’m not going to be one of these ‘waving the banner’ types over it but I am Cornish and feel strongly about it.”

On the other side of the border, Holsworthy’s mayor Jon Hutchings said he thinks the change may bring some prosperity to towns like his that feel they are ‘out on a limb’. However, agreeing with those in Cornwall, he says the differences between Devon and Cornwall may prove to be too great for a harmonious merging.

Cllr Hutchings said: “I have nothing against our Cornish neighbours, but Devon and Cornwall are so different in so many ways.

“However, I feel Holsworthy is out on a limb from the rest of Torridge, so maybe the change might be an improvement!

“It would put Holsworthy in the centre of ‘Devonwall’ and I don’t think that would be a bad thing for Holsworthy.”

Bude is also to become part of the new ‘Devonwall’ constituency if the proposals do go through. Bude’s mayor Lea Deely commented on the proposed changes from the boundary commission, and explained that she has ‘mixed feelings’ over what it will mean for her town, but has hope that it may also prove beneficial for Bude.

She said: “I have mixed feelings about the proposed electoral reforms. I am sorry that it will mean losing North Cornwall’s distinct voice in Parliament.

“On one hand I am very concerned about the erosion of traditional county boundaries, especially between Cornwall and Devon.

“On the other I can see the unfairness in the current situation where our votes in Cornwall count for less than those in many industrial conurbations.”

She said she feels that ‘regularising the number of electors in each constituency makes for a fairer representation in Parliament’.

Cllr Deely went on to explain how Bude may be affected by any changes introduced after the upcoming consultation period. She said: “As far as Bude is concerned the change might prove beneficial since infrastructure deficiencies are common to both Torridge and North Cornwall. Hopefully it will combine efforts to improve transport, especially road and the railway, in our area.

“This problem is not quite so apparent in other parts of Cornwall who are well served by transport. I also believe that we have more in common with Holsworthy than we do with Truro.”

Mayor of Camelford Rob Rotchell said: “I think I am probably going to have to agree with everything that has already been said, we need to retain our Cornish heritage and identity.

“However, there is also a practical issue I see with this proposal. If it does go ahead, what I’m thinking is that the workload of the individual [MP] would be radically increased.

“They are currently having to deal with Cornwall’s services like the health service and education needs and issues, and the number of organisations that they are currently in touch with would have to more than double overnight.

“If they are busy now in their constituencies, and if these proposals go through, I can’t really see how they are going to manage.

“Overall I am completely in support of our minority status and am fully opposed to these proposals.”

In response to the Boundary Commission’s proposals, Conservative MP for North Cornwall Scott Mann said: “The government understandably wants to reform constituency boundaries to make the system fairer and to reduce the cost of politics.

“I’ll be looking at the detail of these initial proposals over the coming weeks and I will discuss them with my constituents.

“Consultation will be open to the public until December, and people in North Cornwall can give their feedback via the Boundary Commission website.”

Since the ‘Devonwall’ proposal was announced last week the public have been urged to get involved and have their say on the proposed boundary lines.

There is more information available on the BCE’s website regarding the proposed boundaries at www.bce2018.org.uk with a ‘have your say’ option also available for those who would like to submit a comment.

The public is able to comment on anything from where the proposed new boundary lines are to the name of the constituency.

Consultation closes on Monday, December 5, of this year. There will then be a further two rounds of consultation in 2017.

Once a conclusion is made from all three consultation periods the BCE will collate the evidence and produce its final recommendations to Parliament in September of 2018.

ONE MP is stressing that the public ‘should not necessarily assume these proposals will go through’ after a proposed ‘Devonwall’ constituency was announced.

Conservative MP Geoffrey Cox voiced his concern that there are ‘more important things to focus on’ within the constituency at this crucial time than the ‘flawed’ notion of a hybrid Devon-Cornwall seat’. He said: “We should not necessarily assume these proposals will go through. The previous proposals released a few years ago came to nothing and there is a fair chance that this will happen again.

“However, just over one year after the general election there are more important things to focus on in the interest of my constituency, such as pushing forward on rural broadband; ensuring that the proposed redesign of our health services produces a fair and reasonable outcome for our communities, and ensuring the Brexit deal and the new national policies which will replace EU competences are good for the UK and for Torridge and West Devon.

“However, I will say that I am disappointed that the Commission has resorted once again to the flawed notion of a hybrid Devon-Cornish seat. I believe it is not desirable to have a constituency that straddles the divide.

“These two counties are very distinct and have strong separate identities. I believe combining parts of the two counties in one constituency would give rise to competing pressures.

“Ultimately, while he or she would do their best, it would be very difficult for an MP to reconcile these wholly different and sometimes conflicting interests.”

However, Cornwall’s Liberal Democrats have reacted with anger at Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans for a Parliamentary seat straddling the border between Cornwall and Devon.

Former councillor for the parishes of Morwenstow, Kilkhampton and Launcells, and now the chair of Cornwall Liberal Democrats, Frances Tippett, said: “We support the principle of equally sized constituencies, but only if flexibility is applied to take account of natural communities, and this vast rural constituency could hardly be seen as that.

“As the Electoral Reform Society point out, the real scandal here is that the poor and marginalised will be less not more represented in our democracy, and so I urge local people on both sides of the border to hold their Conservative MPs to account and to oppose these unnecessary and damaging proposals.”

Dan Rogerson, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for North Cornwall, and former MP, added: “In the last Parliament, Cornwall’s Liberal Democrat MPs voted against similar proposals and blocked them. Now Cornwall has six Conservative MPs.”

The proposal for Devonwall will be taken through various consultations during the next 12 weeks before any decision is made.

Current consultation is open until December. For more information on the proposed boundaries and to make a comment, visit www.bce2018.org.uk