Pengelly changes mind over Plymouth boundaries?

The row over Plymouth's proposed boundary changes continues to cause uproar

Tomorrow the Boundary Commission road show rolls into town - more precisely the City of Truro.

The Commission is staging a public hearing into the new constituency boundaries it is proposing following the government's decision to reduce the number of MPs at Westminster.

There has been uproar west of the Tamar over the suggested Bideford and Bude seat, which would bolt together large swathes of both Devon and Cornwall under a single MP.

And there are long faces in Plymouth too.

Partly, perhaps, because the Boundary Commission's West Country tour won't be taking in the region's biggest city (a second session for Devon will be held next week - but in Exeter).

Boundary 'madness'

More importantly, though, Plymouth faces some of the most dramatic changes proposed anywhere in the South West.

The plans would incorporate a big chunk of north western Plymouth into a new constituency called Tavistock and Plympton.

This would extend deep into rural North West Devon almost as far as Holsworthy.

Plymothian politicians have been lining up to condemn the plans in no uncertain terms. Among them is Vivien Pengelly, leader of Plymouth City Council.

"Moor View and Plympton are part of Plymouth and we have nothing in common with Okehampton and all the bits in between," she was quoted as saying in the Plymouth Herald this week.

Truro hosts the Boundary Commission's South West road show

"It's madness and I don't think it's been thought through properly."

It is, of course, just the kind of thing you'd expect any leader of Plymouth City Council to be saying under the circumstances.

But can this be the same Vivien Pengelly who - only three years ago - was urging the creation of a not dissimilar local authority area?

Perfect sense?

The last government invited the people of Devon to propose new unitary authorities for the county and sketch out their boundaries.

Plymouth City Council - with Cllr Pengelly at the helm - came up with a grandiose bit of empire building which would have seen most of West Devon below the A30 governed from Royal Parade.

The council's imperial dream didn't extend quite as far as Okehampton, but it certainly included many of "the bits in between".

Needless to say, Mrs Pengelly didn't attempt to sell this idea to Whitehall on the basis that it was "madness".

On the contrary - as you can hear below - she insisted it all made perfect sense.

When I put this seeming contradiction to her she insisted a parliamentary constituency was "quite different" from a local authority area.

She stressed that Okehampton (included in the constituency proposal but not the unitary bid) was 30 miles from Plymouth.

When I pointed out that the council's unitary bid had stretched up as far as Lifton (more than 28 miles from Plymouth according to AA Route Planner), she replied, "Well, that's where we decided to draw the boundary".