HOLYBOURNE Village Association is to raise “strong objection” to the part of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England draft proposals that recommend the redrawing of the current Hampshire County Council two-member division to axe Holybourne from the town of Alton and include it in the Rural division.

Alton is currently served by two councillors, one responsible for the town and the other for the surrounding rural area, effectively forming a “doughnut”. However, the boundary commission is not inclined to continue with such a division pattern, which it feels is “unlikely to reflect community identities and interests or communication links in the rural area”.

The proposal is for an Alton Rural division comprising the parishes of Bentley, Binsted, Chawton, Farringdon, Four Marks, Froyle, Kingsley, Medstead, Newton Valence, Selborne, Worldham and the Holybourne area of Alton Town, added “to minimise any electoral imbalance”.

The recommendation for Alton Town division is to cover the majority of the town, minus Holybourne but including the rural parishes of Beech, Bentworth, Lasham, Shalden and Wield “in order to avoid a division which is completely surrounded by an Alton Rural division”.

This arrangement is felt to better reflect the commission’s statutory criteria which is to improve electoral equality by equalising the number of electors each councillor represents, reflect community identity, and provide for effective and convenient local government.

Holybourne Village Association members beg to differ. In a letter to the Alton Herald this week, long term Holybourne resident Pat Lerew says she finds it “quite amazing that the first criteria is based on raw numbers without considering the context”.

“Although there may be more people in the current Alton Town area it has to be more difficult to visit people in the current Alton Rural area even though there are less of them. It makes as much sense as comparing the numbers of people in the Highlands of Scotland with those in central Glasgow,” she said.

“Community identity between the residents of Alton and the urban village of Holybourne is much stronger than between Holybourne and the rural villages of this part of East Hampshire.”

Mrs Lerew points out that transport links are shared with Alton, with Holybourne residents using the same bus and trains services, the same health service facilities, shops and schools.

The Anglican Parish of the Resurrection includes the Church of the Holy Rood which is covered by the same team of clergy as the other churches in Alton.

Furthermore, she said there was no discernible boundary between Alton and Holybourne other than the shared facility of Anstey Park, as the main road and street lamps continue seamlessly with no boundary signs.

“Most Holybourne residents consider themselves well represented under the current arrangement. It surely has to be more effective and convenient for our county councillors to represent homogenous areas where people are affected by similar issues than to dilute their time and energy by working on more diverse concerns which could be fragmented between both areas. The Holybourne Village Association, of which I am a committee member, is keen to maintain the status quo,” she added.

It is a view shared by James Voller, Alton town councillor for Holybourne, who believes that the village’s representation at county level would deteriorate if such changes were imposed as the Alton Rural councillor would find his time spread too thinly. Furthermore, Holybourne’s interests, he believes, are “clearly aligned with Alton”.

The public consultation into the boundary commission’s draft proposals ends next Monday, January 11.

Full recommendations and detailed interactive maps are available at lgbce.org.uk.

Submissions should be sent in writing to The Review Officer (Hampshire) LGBCE, 14th floor, Millbank Tower, London SW1P 4QP, or online via lgbce.org.uk.

Any adjustments would come into effect at the county council elections in 2017.