Former deputy mayor wants to move Newmarket to Cambridgeshire
Former councillor Tom Kerby (centre) was told by East Cambs Council leader Anna Bailey (right) she could not support his bid to move Newmarket into the SE Cambs constituency of Lucy Frazer (left). - Credit: Archant
Former deputy Newmarket mayor Tom Kerby failed to persuade councillors that the Suffolk town would be better served by a Cambridgeshire MP.
Mr Kerby took his plea to East Cambridgeshire District Council.
He asked them to use the current Parliamentary constituency boundary review to support Newmarket moving from the constituency of West Suffolk to South East Cambridgeshire?
“This would be the first step in joining Newmarket with Ely under the Council of East Cambridgeshire,” said the former East Cambs councillor.
But his pleading fell on deaf ears.
Council leader Anna Bailey said there were good examples of close working agreements between Newmarket and East Cambs.
“Nevertheless, I don’t honestly believe that the current parliamentary constituency boundary review is necessarily the most appropriate mechanism to address this issue,” she said.
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Cllr Bailey said East Cambs Council supports the current proposal which “for the first time keeps our district in one constituency”.
She said: “We would be reluctant to make counter proposals that could put this in jeopardy.”
And she warned that “changing our proposed boundary will have a domino effect on surrounding areas that could be problematic”.
Cllr Bailey said the change would have the effect of splitting the constituency across two counties.
Given than Cambridgeshire has a combined authority this would “probably be undesirable.
“I also understand that the proposal would potentially split Suffolk into Essex and Cambridgeshire.”
So, for all of those reasons I don’t think it’s something we could take f
Mr Kerby explained that previous attempts to move Newmarket from Suffolk to Cambridgeshire had been unsuccessful.
However, there was there was a desire to revisit it since geographically, he said.
He felt Newmarket was an anomaly within Suffolk, and the district and county councils in Suffolk did not “serve the town well.
“Residents generally looked to the triangle of Ely – Newmarket – Cambridge for retail and leisure rather than towards the larger towns in Suffolk.”
The council later approved a motion to support having Littleport to be included in SE Cambs, moving it out of NE Cambs.
Cllr Christine Ambrose Smith said as a ward member for Littleport she felt the move would be better for residents “although Stephen Barclay had been an excellent and conscientious MP for Littleport and would be much missed”.
