Ashfield District Council vote in favour of splitting Hucknall across two parliamentary constituencies

A controversial plan to divide the town of Hucknall across two parliamentary constituencies has gone through following a vote in tonight's Ashfield District Council meeting.

The Councillors voted 23-10 in favour of moving Hucknall West into the Ashfield constituency instead of the Sherwood constituency in which it currently sits along with the other Hucknall District Wards.

Interestingly, nine of the ten Hucknall Councillors voted against the proposals, including five Ashfield Independents, despite it being their leader, Jason Zadrozny's, proposal. Conservative Councillor Chris Baron was the only Hucknall Councillor to vote in favour of the change.

Even more tellingly, prior to the vote, Councillor Zadrozny along with 13 other Councillors, including Hucknall North's John Wilmott, voted for the vote not to be recorded so that there wouldn't be a public record of who voted which way. However, 15 Councillors, including the other 9 that represent Hucknall, voted in favour of a recorded vote and due to three abstentions it was enough for them to edge the vote.

These proposals will now be passed to The Boundary Commission for their consideration and ultimately, they will decide whether or not to apply these changes for 2023.