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4th October 2015

Dear Member

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England is minded to recommend that 45
councillors should be elected to the London Borough of Bexley in the future instead of the current
63, and it has invited our Association to submit proposals to help the Commission draw up a
pattern of wards to accommodate this reduced number. The Commission also welcomes the
views of private individuals. More information is available on its website: www.lgbce.org.uk.
A key criterion is that the pattern of wards should, as far as possible, reflect the interests and
identities of local communities.
The considered view of our Committee is that we should propose a new-shaped ward to replace
Cray Meadows ward as follows: to encompass that part of Footscray Meadows east of the River
Cray (ie our side of the Five Arch Bridge, the original North Cray Place estate); the area bounded
by the Cray up to Footscray Bridge; eastwards along Maidstone Road on its northern side;
northwards taking in our Green Belt; then westwards to include Coldblow and Bexley Village east
of the River Shuttle, then turning southwards, taking in Bexley Woods.
This new ward would embody the whole of the area covered by the NCRA and bring into it, Bexley
Village and Coldblow, both of which are areas where people share our concern about the Green
Belt, over-development and the need to protect our Conservation Areas. Attached is a map
showing what we propose.
It would be a new ward which would have much in common: the Green Belt and Open Spaces
such as the Meadows and Bexley Woods; shared transport links (492 bus and the railway station
in Bexley Village); adjacent parishes (those of the ancient parish churches of St James and St
Mary's); a history of local police teams working together across the present ward boundary - and
of course a shared history when looking at that of North Cray Village and Bexley Village (where
our children used to attend the school in Bexley until ours was built in North Cray, and where our
poor were sent to the Poor House in Bexley) and today both North Cray Village and Bexley Village
are Conservation Areas. In addition we already enjoy a mutually supportive relationship with the
Coldblow Residents Association over our shared concerns about the Green Belt and the need to
fight against over-development, something that would alter the nature of our shared environment
which is largely open, mainly semi-rural and 'village' in character.
We do not have access to precise electorate figures for the new ward that we are suggesting, but
looking at the population size we feel hopefully that this would give the required number of voters
to entitle us to have three councillors, as we do now.
The Committee would be grateful to have any comments on its proposal that you would like to
make. There is not much time before we need to respond to the Boundary Commission (its
deadline is 16 November 2015), and there is a great deal of work to do in drawing up the
submission document, and so we hope that if you do have any comments, you will let the
Committee have these as soon as you can.

The next stage in the Consultation process will be the Commission's draft recommendations
(expected in February 2016). Final recommendations are expected to be published in July 2016
and the new electoral arrangements will come into effect at the local elections in 2018.

Contact : committee@northcrayresidents.org.uk Website : http://www.northcrayresidents.org.uk

04/10/2015 16:40