Earlier this year, I worked with residents and local campaigners to oppose the Boundary Commission’s plan to move Emerson Park into Romford and out of Hornchurch & Upminster at the next General Election. Thanks to residents' support, our campaign against this proposal attracted 933 petition signatures and 671 direct submissions from constituents to the Boundary Commission, and I spoke against the plan at the public hearing in Havering Town Hall. 

Today, the Boundary Commission announced its revised proposals and I am very pleased to say that our campaign to keep Emerson Park in the Hornchurch & Upminster constituency has been explicitly referenced by them and listened to. The Boundary Commission made clear in its documents that the majority of voices in opposition to their original plan were Emerson Park residents and were greater in number, while the voices in support came largely from the Romford constituency. They also accepted the arguments made about the strong community links between Emerson Park and Hornchurch. Indeed, in light of the strong community opposition, they made a special trip to the area to understand the geography and community links in greater detail. As a result, they have now withdrawn their plan to transfer the entirety of Emerson Park ward to the Romford constituency, and I wanted to thank residents for all the support that they have given this tremendous community effort. 

I am afraid that a small number of constituents will still be affected because the Hornchurch & Upminster constituency is too large. The Boundary Commission’s purpose in revising constituency boundaries is to create electoral fairness by making parliamentary seats more equal in size, and therefore our seat will be losing a number of voters across three wards to two neighbouring constituencies.  

The Commission has decided which parts of those wards move according to the new council ward boundaries as implemented at this year’s local elections. This means that those areas that had previously been within the Emerson Park ward and had been transferred to the Squirrel’s Heath ward at the local election are proposed to be transferred to the Romford constituency while the remainder of the Emerson Park ward will stay in the Hornchurch & Upminster constituency. Meanwhile, it is proposed to move those small parts of the Hacton and St. Andrew’s wards that had been transferred to the Elm Park ward to the Dagenham & Rainham constituency. 

I appreciate that it can be difficult to digest boundary changes in writing and I would therefore recommend that residents view the Commission’s report in full, alongside a map of the proposed constituencies, on the Commission’s website.

NEXT STEPS - ACTION REQUIRED BEFORE 5 DECEMBER

While I do not wish to lose any part of our constituency, in the circumstances I am relieved that the plan to remove Emerson Park from Hornchurch & Upminster has effectively been dropped, disruption to our seat has been substantially minimised and far, far fewer residents stand to be affected. If residents are content with the revised proposals, I would encourage constituents to confirm this to the Boundary Commission via their formal consultation running until 5 December.

• Click www.bcereviews.org.uk  

• Enter your postcode

• Click on the green ‘Make a Comment’ box - highlighting Hornchurch & Upminster on the map - to submit your views to the formal Boundary Commission consultation.

I wish to thank the Boundary Commission for the very detailed work they did in response to the community reaction to their original plan, and for listening to people's concerns.

We now await final confirmation of their proposals once the last consultation process has been completed.