Changes to boundaries, although some of the proposals were refused

At the full meeting of Northumberland County Council on Wednesday, January 6, members were asked to decide on a community governance review in Morpeth, sparked by a request from the town council.

The recommendations involve proposed transfers of parcels of land between Morpeth Town Council’s area and the neighbouring parishes of Hepscott, Mitford and Hebron.

The proposal for Mitford was recommended for refusal and Hepscott was one for approval and the other for refusal.

Part of the overall recommendation was that the county council ‘requests the related alterations to county electoral divisions’.

This is because the parish/town boundaries usually have to be ‘coterminous’ with the county ward boundaries. However, a number of members noted that they share town/parishes with other councillors across two county divisions.

Coun David Towns, ward member for Pegswood, said that while he had been consulted on the parish changes, he was not aware that this would have any impact on the county wards – describing this as a ‘curveball’.

Morpeth Stobhill councillor John Beynon also raised concerns, suggesting that all of the changes to county boundaries should be dealt with in one go in the run-up to the 2025 elections.

Another three of the county councillors affected – Coun David Bawn (Morpeth North), Coun Richard Wearmouth (Morpeth Kirkhill) and Coun Glen Sanderson (Longhorsley) – had declared interests and were therefore not in the meeting at the time. Coun Sanderson had lodged an objection.

While the next elections are set to take place in May this year, they were originally scheduled for May 2020 before being cancelled due to the pandemic and therefore the changes won’t come into effect until the 2025 elections.

There were calls to defer given these issues, but members were told the 12-month deadline to make a decision had already been reached.

Seeking a way forward, Coun Jeff Reid moved the recommendations as set out in the report, but without specifically requesting any electoral division changes to the Boundary Commission – while acknowledging that they would look at it anyway.

His motion was eventually approved by 23 votes to 19, with 10 abstentions.

Recommendations in more detail

In Hepscott, transferring its part of Stobhill Manor to Morpeth Town Council (the other part was already in Morpeth) and a ‘small triangular area to the north of the A196 comprising those dwellings in the Turner Square area’ was recommended for approval.

However, the proposal to transfer the South Fields estate from Hepscott to Morpeth and the proposal to transfer an area of land bounded by the Lancaster Park estate to the east and the A1 road to the west from Mitford to Morpeth were recommended for refusal.

In Hebron, an area of land including the St Andrews Gardens development will be transferred to Morpeth as it was recommended for approval and a section of land near Katerdene will move from Morpeth to Hebron.