Councillor Jason Zadrozny defends his role in Hucknall boundary controversy

Councillor Jason Zadrozny has defended his part in the proposals put forward to split Hucknall across two parliamentary constituencies.

These suggested changes are part of a national review of all parliamentary constituencies being carried out by the Boundary Commission. Their main brief is to ensure that all constituencies have similar size populations with the majority of seats having to serve between 69,724 and 77,062 electors.

The plans, if approved by the Boundary Commission, would see Hucknall West become part of Ashfield with the rest of Hucknall remaining in the constituency of Sherwood. This was tabled at, and voted through, during the most recent Ashfield District Council meeting, last Thursday.

Since then, there has been considerable frustration, anger, and confusion from Hucknall residents with Councillor Zadrozny coming in for a lot of criticism.

However, the Leader of Ashfield District Council, has defended his part in the proposals.

Speaking to Hucknall Nub News, he said: "We had a cross-party committee looking at a number of factors and then officers and committee members drew up proposals to try and spark a conversation with the government because there were a couple of things that they'd done which made it difficult for Ashfield.

"Number one was that Ashfield officers, the council, when they were counting an election this would mean they were dealing with two other councils: Newark and Sherwood and Mansfield. To try and make this administratively easier we wanted to reduce that so we're only dealing with one council.

"Our proposals mean we only have to deal with Newark and Sherwood Council on count night which is something we're used to because Hucknall's always gone a different way because of the boundary numbers. Number two is that we wanted to try and take as much of Ashfield District into one constituency as possible.

"We've used obviously the bypass as a strategic break. What they've done with Mansfield (in the original plans proposed by the boundary Commission) is literally sliced a third of an estate out so there's no strategic break, no main roads or anything like that.

"They've chunked a pyramid shape of the Ladybrook estate out and chucked that into Ashfield. It has no connections with Ashfield at all; Mansfield local Councillors and the Council are really unhappy with it, residents are really unhappy with it.

"Obviously Hucknall is part of Ashfield so trying to keep as much of Hucknall in Ashfield as possible makes lots of sense. Plus there's the strategic boundary of that side of that big A road being one constituency. We were trying to get the government to relook at it and this is only public consultation."

Asked why more hadn't been done to keep Hucknall together, Councillor Zadrozny said: "I could have voted against it but the alternative would have been worse. I don't set the criteria the government have, the government have set exactly how many numbers you have and that means whatever you do you cannot fit all of Ashfield into one place."

Pressed as to why it seems other local areas such as Kirkby, Sutton and Mansfield seem to take precedence over Hucknall, Councillor Zadrozny blamed Sherwood MP Mark Spencer.

"I've done in three years, as a Council leader, what he's not been able to do in 13 years as the MP and he's Government Chief Whip. I've had loads of responses from people of Hucknall West saying well at least we might get a fighting chance of getting some funding or looked after because we're not going to be neglected.

"I've had loads of people saying that we're fed up of having an MP, who because he's Government Chief Whip, never speaks about Hucknall in Parliament, has never delivered anything. The only stuff that's ever been delivered in Hucknall is what we've delivered, so 5000 or 6000 houses getting better representation is better than none as far as I'm concerned."

Councillor Zadrozny went on to argue that Hucknall might even benefit from having two MPs representing the town: "Imagine a scenario where you have two MPs for Hucknall. Every time there's a debate, you've got two people in the House of Commons going hang on a minute what about a doctor's surgery, what about Post Offices what about schools in Hucknall because you've got two people shouting about it. Hucknall might have the chance of having two people fighting for it in Parliament instead of one."

The proposals formed part of an open eight-week consultation period in which the Boundary Commission welcomed responses to their initial plans. This consultation period concluded at the start of this week and feedback will be published shortly, before a secondary consultation process begins early next year. This will be followed by a final report and recommendations being submitted and published in the summer of 2023.