You Can Make us Whole Again

Onchan MHK Rob Callister has said he hopes that any review into the island’s constituencies will come down in favour of Onchan becoming one constituency again.

The parish was split by the last boundary review, with a large part of the village joining Laxey to form Garff.

Before the 2016 election, the Boundary Review Committee recommended that the island was split into 12 constituencies of roughly equal size, however this meant Onchan was not large enough for four MHKs, but deemed too big for two.

In his letter to the Commission, Mr Callister said: ‘Dividing the island’s population into twelve equal constituencies is relatively straight forward, as highlighted in the Committee’s third report dated May 2013, but the only exception is Onchan, and I thank the previous Committee for acknowledging that point.

‘Unfortunately, this meant that when the redrawing of the boundaries took place ahead of the 2016 House of Keys General Election, around 2,000 Onchan residents were moved mainly into a new larger constituency of Garff, but a handful of Onchan constituents were also placed into the constituency of Douglas North.’

Mr Callister said that he believes there is ‘very strong evidence’ to suggest that Onchan should be a three seat constituency, as it was between 1986 and 2016, but said that constituents don’t seem to have strong views on how many people should represent them.

He added: ‘What appears to be more important for many Onchan residents is for the boundary of Onchan to be redrawn, in order to bring back together the Parish and the Village of Onchan as one Constituency for House of Keys elections.’

For Mr Callister, it is much a case of also looking back at when he first met the Onchan voters, when they elected him to the Commissioners in 2012. At that time, he represented all of Onchan, something he wants to do again.

You can read his full letter below: