Comment DBCC-8115

I am generally against the change to boundaries for Alyn and Deeside as they do appear to dilute the level of representation the public will receive but appreciate this will likely go ahead at this stage.

I would like to register strong opposition to the name of "Fflint and Wrecsam" on the grounds that 1. it erases representation for the Deeside area, and 2. it is not reflective or respectful of local naming conventions.

1. The Deeside area is a conurbation with a population of roughly 55k people, roughly equivalent to the population of Wrexham, and about twice that of Flint i including neighbouring villages. It would be a great shame to see no recognition or reflection of the area within the constituency title when the choice of "Fflint" suggests the town of Flint rather than county of Flintshire (usually instead shown as the full "Sir y Fflint") -it feels the new constituency is representing the town of Flint and city of Wrexham. I think either the name needs to more clearly represent the counties "Flintshire and Wrexham" OR refer to townships but including Deeside "Flint, Deeside and Wrexham".

2. Whilst I am understanding of why the Welsh names have been used and more generally support the preservation of the Welsh Language, this is not reflective of local community needs in this instance. Flintshire is a largely non-welsh speaking county (where only 11% speak Welsh, a statistic which itself appears to be an overestimate based on experience) unlike for example Gwynedd (where 76% speak Welsh). Where there are bilingual names the anglicised names are almost unanimously used by local residents (e.g. Connah's Quay, and never Cei Connah; Mold never Yr Wyddgrug etc). Given this is quite literally a matter of democracy and representation concerning electoral boundaries it seems disrespectful to essentially ignore/bypass local residents vernacular to instead use spellings of town names that residents would not actually use in their everyday lives. Even looking at Cardiff which has a much higher percentage Welsh speaking population and is much more frequently referred to by the Welsh name in everyday use still has the constituencies anglicised (e.g. Cardiff East). So the "Fflint and Wrecsam" naming does appear to be unnecessary and reflect a misunderstanding by the the Boundary Commission of local need (it feels like an outside decision being imposed for reasons external to the area). Again I am sure this was well intentioned, but the needs of the public should definitely be prioritised here.

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