Birmingham testing the boundaries in council shake-up

Moseley Village may soon be in Moseley no longer

Let's start in Moseley Village - "Britain's best place to live in", according last year's survey by The Sunday Times.

It's famed for its pubs, wine bars, restaurants, independent shops and craft outlets - a welcome exception to the rule that every single high street has to look much the same as every other one, complete with the predictable array of coffee shop logos, supermarket chains and the rest of the familiar 'multiples', from Land's End to John O' Groats.

But Moseley Village may soon be in Moseley no longer.

Under the new constituency ward boundaries proposed by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, it would become part of Balsall Heath.

The centre of Erdington, including the station that bears its name, would no longer be in Erdington at all, but in Stockland Green.

Hall Green School would be in Tyseley, and time-honoured names like Longbridge, Druids Heath and even the Jewellery Quarter would disappear altogether. Edgbaston's famous cricket stadium would no longer be in Edgbaston.

A Birmingham 'Cook's Tour'

It's proof yet again that there's nothing quite like a review of local boundaries for whipping-up a storm.

Remember how passionately the late lamented Lord Bilston (formerly the Labour MP Dennis Turner) fought against the removal from the constituency roll-call of the Black Country town from which he took his title?

Now the veteran local Labour activist Steve Gove-Humphries is taking up the cudgels against 'the bureaucrats' who he clearly believes plan to drive a constitutional coach and horse through communal loyalties:

And while we're linking to websites, the Local Government Boundary Commission has one of its own.

It's open for a public consultation over these draft proposals until Monday 8 February 2016.

I predict they will be inundated.

What's the Big Idea?

It all stems from the Kerslake Review, published just over a year ago, in which the former head of the civil service Lord (Bob) Kerslake addressed the well-documented, and sometimes catastrophic, failings of Birmingham City Council throughout successive administrations.

Among his recommendations was that the number of councillors should be reduced from 120 to 101 and that annual elections for one third of the council seats should be replaced by all-up contests every four years. This, he concluded, would facilitate greater stability and longer-term planning.

Sir Bob Kerslake said Birmingham City Council should not be broken up

The Boundary Commission's proposals are by far the most controversial result of his report.

The present 40 wards, with three councillors each, would be replaced by 77 wards of which 53 would have one councillor each and 24 larger ones would each have two.

The commission says it would mean greater equality for voters.

Each councillor would represent on average 7,215 voters and the present glaring disparities between larger and smaller wards would be ironed-out.

Where possible, the commission say they have tried to create single member wards. But they found some communities which were impossible to divide.

Birmingham's two main parties are both unimpressed.

The city's Labour MPs say the proposals are a distraction from the project to improve the council's performance and should be scrapped.

And the council's Opposition Conservative Group Leader, councillor Rob Alden told the Birmingham Mail: "It is very disappointing that the commission has decided to break up historic communities like Erdington, Hall Green and Northfield which perfectly fit two-member wards yet they have kept separate communities together."

On this weekend's Sunday Politics Midlands, we'll be bringing together the Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston Gisela Stuart and the local government minister Marcus Jones, Conservative MP for Nuneaton.

Also joining our debate will be Professor Colin Mellors, who chairs the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

And I hope you will join us too, in our usual 11.00 GMT slot on BBC One, this Sunday 17 January 2016.