The Boundary Commission for England (BCE) has published proposals for new Parliamentary constituency boundaries as it opened its third and final consultation last week.
Following a decision by Parliament to reduce the number of constituencies in the UK to 600 from 650, and to ensure that the number of electors in each constituency is equal, the BCE has been asked to make independent recommendations about where the boundaries of English constituencies should be.
The revised proposals would see Wilmslow, Alderley Edge, Handforth and Styal in a new constituency with Bramhall, Woodford and Hazel Grove called Hazel Grove and Wilmslow constituency with an electorate of 77,051.
Whilst Nether Alderley and Mottram St Andrew would be in the Macclesfield constituency which stretches to Plumley in the west, north to Poynton and Disley and south to Wincle and Eaton - with an electorate of 72,751
Knutsford, Hale Barns, Mobberley, Pickmere, High Legh and Little Bollington would be in the new Altrincham and Knutsford constituency with an electorate of 77,647.
An initial 12-week consultation was held in the autumn last year, giving the public the first chance to view and comment on BCE's plans, followed by a second consultation in the Spring of this year. Over 25,000 public responses were received during these consultations.
Based on what the public response have told them about their local communities, BCE have decided to revise over half of their initial proposals.
The initial proposals published by the Boundary Commission for England in September 2016 saw the Tatton constituency abolished and Wilmslow split between two constituencies.
Additionally the initial proposals were for the Macclesfield constituency to extend to the north‐west to include most of Wilmslow, Alderley Edge and the Chelford ward from the existing Tatton constituency. Whilst Wilmslow Dean Row and Handforth would be included the Bramhall and Poynton constituency and Knutsford, Mobberley and High Legh were in the proposed Altrincham and Tatton Park constituency.
People can go to the BCE's website to view the new plans. All the public comments received during the first two consultations will also published on the website. You have until 11th December to have your say.
Sam Hartley, Secretary to the Boundary Commission for England, said: "We're delighted with the huge number of comments on our initial proposals that we've received from members of the public, many of which contain valuable evidence about people's local communities. Based on what people have said to us, we have revised more than half of our initial proposals. The new map of the country we publish today is, we think, close to the best set of Parliamentary constituencies we can achieve, based on the rules to which we work and the evidence given to us by local citizens. But we still want people to tell us what they think of this latest map before we make our final recommendations to Parliament next year. It's so important to have your say in this fundamental democratic exercise."
Following this third and final consultation, the Boundary Commissioners will consider all the evidence submitted throughout the process. They will then decide on their final recommendations before submitting them to Parliament in September 2018.
If agreed by Parliament, the new constituencies will be in use at the next scheduled General Election in 2022.
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Comments
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Instead I expect the Boundary Commissions to be recommissioned to redraw the boundaries again based on 650 MPs (no change) and a wider tolerance (wider than the +/- 5% mandated for this review) of the number of electors per constituency. Essentially the review will reflect electoral population migration.
Personally I viewed this as a bad idea (because it was unnecessary and would cause a lot of upheaval and pain) when it was first proposed, but the parliamentary arithmetic since June 2017 has probably converted enough MPs to my point of view as well now. Funny that!