Ahead of an all out election later this year that will remove the boundary line between North and South Jesmond, local councillors are putting in early groundwork to ensure a seamless transition into what is predicted to be one of the city’s largest wards by number of electors.

Speaking to JesmondLocal, James Coles, one of three Liberal Democrat councillors currently serving the North Jesmond ward said that since finding out about the boundary changes they have “effectively operated on the basis of being the ward councillors for ‘Jesmond’ rather than just ‘North Jesmond”.

The upcoming changes, which will add some properties down the Coast Road (A1058) up to the point of Armstrong Bridge, and the Vale to the area already covered, came about due to both current wards having too few electors per councillor, resulting in what was described as poor electoral quality.

Coles said the councillors’ increased workload to accommodate would-be electors included already “deploy[ing] a community payback team in the Vale to help with litter picking and hedge trimming as they weren’t being serviced by the sitting councillors.” The current councillors in the area did not respond to JesmondLocal’s request for comment.

Coles also claimed the three North Jesmond councillors “work very closely on HMO licensing within the ward, and review any application or amendment that comes into North Jesmond”. With this likely to increase due to it being an issue in what is currently South Jesmond, he added that “we have asked the planning department to start sending applications that cover the ward’s new boundaries so we can get ahead of this as we don’t want to get surprised by decisions in May”.

The new boundary will effectively halve the number of sitting councillors while combining the voter base, which aims to align Jesmond with the 2030 city average target of 2,575 electors per councillor.

Despite having half the councillors to cover the significantly larger area, Coles is confident that they will have the capacity to effectively manage the casework, local issues and committee responsibilities. “It’s more work,” he said, “but it’s work we’re already doing”.

He also credits the “very friendly and dedicated group of helpers” that they’re “hoping to expand to make sure nothing is missed.” Working closely with the Jesmond Residents Association, they say they are better able to deal with issues experienced by residents of both current wards.