Hampshire rural postcodes and the fantasy of even polygons

We live among the postcodes we warn you about. A sector that looks compact on a national map can include a valley, a closed bridge, and a surgery that opens three mornings. Splitting it down the middle to even a call count is how you lose a representative in February.

When a UK book includes a rural fringe, we ask for home postcodes of the field (not their private addresses on a poster — the sectors they start from) and we draw drive-time bands. The realignment session then argues about hours, not about whose polygon looks larger on a slide.

If your entire book is inner-city hospitals, this note will bore you. Skip it. If you have one person covering the Isle of Wight from the mainland, do not skip it. Ferries are not a rounding error.