Windermere Town Council is meeting today, to consider its final response to draft proposals for new council ward boundaries.
A ten-week public consultation on the recommendations started on the 9th of May.
The Local Government Boundary Commission for England's recommendations outline how SLDC's councillors should represent seventeen three-member wards across the district.
A petition was started earlier this month, to stop Windermere effectively being 'cut in half'.
The consultation is ongoing until the 18th of July.
It would see the likes of Windermere train station and Post Office moving into Ambleside and Grasmere.
Local councillor Ben Berry says it's "ridiculous" and "silly" and says more than 500 resident have already signed the petition.
At today's meeting, Julie Wright, Clerk to Windermere Town Council, will say: "I would like to begin our response by pointing out that Windermere Town Council has no political affiliations of any kind and all of our councillors are independent, unpaid volunteers, many of whom have lived in this community for generations. They have a unique understanding of the local community and are democratically elected by them to serve on the Town Council.
"The Town Council have taken a great deal of time to review the Boundary Commission proposals and understand the basic reasoning behind them. It is clear that, with the new electoral arrangements for SLDC, there is a need to move to 3 member wards. As a starting point, the Town Council would have preferred to continue with the 4 member ward in Windermere & Bowness, that currently works very well, but do appreciate the necessity for 3 members.
"It is the proposals for the new ward boundaries which give rise for huge concern. The Town Council is absolutely appalled at the proposal to shift a substantial part of the north of our town (Applethwaite & Troutbeck) into the Ambleside and Grasmere ward. It is inconceivable that this will bring any of the benefits which the review is supposed to deliver. One of your stated aims is that the pattern of the division should, as far as possible, reflect the interests and identities of local communities. The proposals, in their current format, ride roughshod over the historic basis of our community. The original name for Windemere was Applethwaite. This is the ward you propose to detach from its historic roots. The settlement of Windermere, Bowness & Troutbeck Bridge has always had a single identity and community. There are neighbourly links to Ambleside and Grasmere but there is no community link between the two settlements, which have a completely different history and evolution.
"Much of the vibrant heritage of Windermere is actually based in the Applethwaite ward. This includes Elleray Woods and Orrest Head (gifted to the Town Council by a local family), Millerground, where many of our older residents learned to swim (in the lake). Applethwaite contains our transport hub – the bus and train station. It contains one of our main parish churches – St Mary’s. It contains large hotels and businesses with the Windermere brand and identity. It is also the site of our secondary school, the independent Windermere School and some vital community services – St Mary’s surgery, an elderly person’s home, 5 sheltered housing schemes, our town post office and sorting office. Moving these facilities into another community’s ward area shatters our physical and geographical identity and cuts the community in half.
"The new boundaries you propose take most of Windermere lake out of Windermere. This is inconceivable to local people and will seem bizarre to visitors and tourists. The lake bed of Windermere was actually bequeathed to the Urban District Council of Windermere (the forerunner of the Town Council) in the early part of the last century. It is only through local government reorganisation and a specific Act of Parliament that the current situation has arisen, whereby it is managed via a partnership of SLDC, Windermere Town Council and Lakes Parish Council. Once again, by passing Windermere lake to Ambleside & Grasmere, your proposals ignore a vital part of our community’s identity.
"Another of your stated aims is that the electoral arrangements should provide for effective and convenient local government. Currently, the District Council ward is readily recognisable to the electorate, having almost coterminous boundaries with the parish area. Shifting a large part of north Windermere to Ambleside & Grasmere will cause a huge amount of confusion. Imagine living and working on Main Street, Windermere, which is regarded as a central location and receiving a ballot paper titled Ambleside & Grasmere. There is a real risk of it being thrown in the bin as a postal mistake. The proposals, as they stand, run a risk of denuding local democracy rather than enhancing it, as less people living in Windermere are likely to vote in an election for Ambleside and Grasmere.
"We call upon the Boundary Commission to set aside these proposals, which make no sense locally. Our proposal is that the Windermere ward retains its current boundaries but moves to having 3 members elected to SLDC. The 3 member ward internal boundaries could be shifted to represent Applethwaite, Windermere Town and Bowness. We realise that this creates some difficulty in meeting your third stated aim of ensuring that each district has roughly the same number of electors and that there would be a disparity of approx 1,400 between Windermere and
"Ambleside & Grasmere. We believe that this disparity is perfectly defensible. Ambleside and Grasmere is a sprawling rural area of small settlements and two small rural hubs. Windermere is the largest urban settlement in the Lake District National Park. It seems to us perfectly appropriate that there is some electoral numbers disparity. After all, these are just numbers.
"The alternative is to split a community in half and create problems of identify and democratic effectiveness for generations to come."