Thank you to everyone across Dulwich and West Norwood who responded to the Boundary Commission for England’s consultation on draft proposals for new Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries earlier this year.  

As you may know, the initial proposal was to split the current Dulwich and West Norwood constituency between four new constituencies, with all of our cross-borough communities being represented by multiple Members of Parliament.  There was a wide consensus that this proposal would have been bad for our area, and I’m grateful to the hundreds of local people and community organisations who made a very strong case to the Boundary Commission that they needed to think again. There were over 400 submissions from Dulwich and West Norwood focused on the impact on communities including West Norwood, Herne Hill, Gipsy Hill and West Dulwich.

The revised proposals published earlier this month retain a Dulwich and West Norwood constituency, which is similar to our current constituency. The proposals include some changes with Goose Green and Dulwich Hill wards moving into a new Lewisham West and East Dulwich constituency and Champion Hill ward, which was part of Dulwich and West Norwood prior to 2005, moving into Dulwich and West Norwood once again. 

While as the local constituency MP, it is very sad to think of any part of the constituency I represent moving into a new constituency, it was always inevitable that we would see some changes to our boundaries.  Unlike the earlier proposals, the new proposal represents incremental change rather than the complete abolition of our current constituency. Overall, it is a much better outcome for our cross-borough communities.

While the new proposals are a big improvement on the initial proposals, they are still in draft and the Boundary Commission has now opened the final round of consultation on the new proposed boundaries. I am therefore writing to ask if you would be willing to submit a response in support of the latest proposals, or the part of the proposals which is most relevant to your area of the constituency, to avoid any risk that the Boundary Commission reverts to the previous approach of abolishing our constituency altogether.  The consultation is open until 5 December, and you can find further details here.

I will remain the Member of Parliament for the whole of the current Dulwich and West Norwood constituency until the next General Election and in the meantime, I will continue to work hard on behalf of residents and members living in every part of the current Dulwich and West Norwood constituency, which it has been an absolute privilege to serve since 2015.