It is likely to be all change for some North Yorkshire voters at the next general election after "contentious" final recommendation by the Boundary Commission were published, reshaping and renaming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Richmond constituency.
The commission says Bedale should be moved and become part of the Thirsk and Malton constituency, and has also backed a change to the title from Richmond (Yorks) to Richmond and Northallerton. A call for the name to be Northallerton and Richmond was rejected.
The final recommendations now go to the Privy Council and could well come into effect before the next election, due at the end of 2024.
Protests over the removal of Bedale brought the most representations to the Boundary Commission over changes in North Yorkshire, but failed to sway the decision.
In their final report commissioners said: “We acknowledge the strength of opposition to the inclusion of the Bedale and Tanfield wards in the proposed Thirsk and Malton constituency.
"Despite this, we do not consider persuasive new evidence has been received to modify this constituency and we conclude that the proposed arrangement best reflects the statutory factors. We are not persuaded by counter proposals that sought to separate either the Bedale and Tanfield, or Great Ayton and Stokesley wards, or the transfer of the latter two to the proposed Thirsk and Malton constituency.
“We note these two wards are geographically separated from the Thirsk and Malton constituency by the North York Moors. We are also not persuaded by the arguments for reordering the name of the proposed Richmond and Northallerton constituency. Therefore, we retain our revised proposals as our final recommendations.”
The shake up is part of moves to ensure constituencies have similar numbers of people - around 70,000 in England. Rishi Sunak’s constituency had 83,219 at the last election in 2019.
More than 100 irate residents and public bodies made representations to the Boundary Commission over the plans to move Bedale. The area had previously been moved out of Richmond into Thirsk and Malton in a previous shake up and moved back in following another review. Objectors' concerns included fears that the new Thirsk and Malton constituency stretched across nearly half the country from Tanfield, near Ripon, to Filey on the east coast near Scarborough.
One protested: “How stupid to propose linking a Yorkshire Dales town with the East Coast / York Moors area. They have no linkage whatsoever, local towns are Northallerton and Leyburn.”
Another said: "Bedale has historic and current links with the towns of Northallerton and Richmond and non whatsoever with Thirsk, Malton and the North York Moors. Bedale is, as the name confirms, the gateway to the Yorkshire Dales not the Moors.
"This appears to be a number crunching exercise by civil servants in Westminster who have no knowledge of this area and the implications for the residents of Bedale and the surrounding villages if this proposal goes ahead.”
Northallerton Town Council had proposed to the Boundary Commission that the Richmond constituency should be renamed in honour of the county town, which has the bigger population.
Mayor Councillor Phil Eames said: "The town council is pleased that Northallerton will feature in our parliamentary constituency name in future elections, but disappointed that the Boundary Commission has not accepted our proposal to name the constituency Northallerton and Richmond.”
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