New election boundary changes slice Sittingbourne in two

Are you aware of the boundary changes for the up and coming election on 4th July?

From a Sittingbourne perspective, half of what was previously part of the Sittingbourne and Sheppey constituency has now been incorporated into the Faversham and Mid Kent constituency due to shifts in the electorate population.

So anyone living in the area shown in red will now be voting for the Faversham and Mid Kent candidates.

Since the last election the Boundary Commission for England has made a number of changes to consistency boundaries across the country as they have tried to even out the number of registered voters across constituencies.

To accomplish this, the number of electors registered on the electoral roll for each constituency in England must be between 71,031 and 78,507 and previously the Sittingbourne and Sheppey constituency was at 83,917 and obviously would have been even greater now, hence the need to reallocate parts of the constituency to Faversham and Mid Kent which has also undergone a number of changes itself.

In simple terms everything east of the town centre is now part of Faversham, and Mid Kent, this includes Bapchild, Bredgar, Buckland, Kingsdown, Luddenham, Lynsted, Mistead, Norton, Oare, Rodmersham, Stone, Teynham, Tonge and Tunstall.

Personally, I like to believe that rather than a vast tranche of Sittingbourne moving to Faversham that Sittingbourne now has two members of parliament, one who represents the west half and the other representing the eastern half.

For clarity the map included does not represent the whole of either constituency and is simplified in order to clearly show the area which is changing.

Andy Hudson
Sittingbourne.Me