Victory for Emerson Park residents as Boundary Commission drops plan to move ward into Romford constituency.

The Boundary Commission for England announced yesterday its revised plans for Havering’s parliamentary constituencies, dropping its original proposal to move Emerson Park ward from the Hornchurch and Upminster into the Romford seat after fierce opposition from local residents.

The Commission’s review into parliamentary boundaries is driven by the need to create electoral fairness by making constituencies more equal in size at the next General Election. Hornchurch and Upminster stood to lose electors as it is currently oversized, but the original plan to remove Emerson Park in its entirety attracted a strong local campaign in opposition because it severed clear community links to Hornchurch.

Residents’ campaign, led by Hornchurch and Upminster MP, Julia Lopez, was explicitly referenced in the Boundary Commission’s response to its public consultation. The Boundary Commission made clear in its documents that the majority of voices in opposition to their original plan were Emerson Park residents and were greater in number, while the voices in support came largely from the Romford constituency. They also accepted the arguments made about the strong community links between Emerson Park and Hornchurch. In light of the strong community opposition, Boundary Commission officials made a special trip to the area to understand the geography and community links in greater detail. 

As a result, they have now withdrawn their plan to transfer the entirety of Emerson Park ward to the Romford constituency. Instead, Hornchurch and Upminster will be losing a smaller number of voters across three wards to the two neighbouring constituencies of Romford and Dagenham and Rainham. The Commission has decided which parts of those wards move according to the new council ward boundaries as implemented at this year’s local elections. This means that those areas that had previously been within the Emerson Park ward and had been transferred to the Squirrel’s Heath ward at the local election are proposed to be transferred to the Romford constituency while the remainder of the Emerson Park ward will stay in the Hornchurch and Upminster constituency. Meanwhile, it is proposed to move those small parts of the Hacton and St. Andrew’s wards that had been transferred to the Elm Park ward to the Dagenham & Rainham constituency. 

The Boundary Commission is now running a final consultation on the revised plans until 5 December, and has encouraged local residents to express their views.

Speaking of the new constituency boundaries, Mrs Lopez said, “While I do not wish to lose any part of my constituency, in the circumstances I am relieved that the plan to remove Emerson Park from Hornchurch and Upminster has effectively been dropped, disruption to the seat has been substantially minimised and far, far fewer residents stand to be affected. I wish to thank the Boundary Commission for the very detailed work they did in response to the strong community reaction to their original plan, and for listening to people’s very real concerns. I also want to thank every resident who spoke out and supported our grassroots campaign – it really helped the Commission understand the community ties and history of the area, and has led to a substantially improved plan.”