Boundary Commission proposes seven less seats in NW

Proposed boundary changes that will impact on the work of lobbyists, planners, developers and residents in fighting for and against planning applications have been published by the Boundary Commission for England.

The North West's 5.3m voters would be reorganised into 68 constituencies, down from 75, with 61 of the 68 having new boundaries.

Several proposals are likely to raise eyebrows, such as Poynton splitting from Macclesfield to form a new Hazel Grove and Poynton constituency.

The proposed sub-regional breakdown

View the full proposals here

Boundary changes are made to balance out the population as residential patterns shift over time so that an even number of people can vote in each area. The current electoral quota is 76,641 and a constituency is not allowed to have a number of voters 5% lower or higher than this figure. In practice, this means constituencies must contain between 72,810 and 80,473 electors.

In terms of new wards, Mersey Banks will be formed by splicing parts of Wirral and Cheshire West & Chester local authority areas, forming a new boundary from Bromborough in the west to Northwich in the east.

In Greater Manchester, Ordsall in Salford and Manchester city centre will be combined in a new constituency. Hazel Blears' Salford & Eccles seat will be no more and there would be no constituency with Salford in the name.

The Boundary Commission explained in its notes accompanying the draft boundaries: "We have included the boroughs to the north of the River Mersey in our Merseyside sub-region, and have included the Borough of Wirral with the unitary authorities of Cheshire East, Cheshire West, and Chester, Halton, and Warrington in the Cheshire and Wirral sub-region.

"We propose one constituency that contains electors from both Cheshire and Greater Manchester, which combines the Cheshire East town of Poynton with the Borough of Stockport town of Hazel Grove.

"Additionally, as the electorate of the County of Lancashire is such that it is not possible to allocate a whole number of constituencies to it, we propose another constituency that contains electors from both Lancashire and Greater Manchester, which combines part of the Lancashire Borough of Rossendale with the north of the Greater Manchester Borough of Rochdale.

"We propose five constituencies entirely contained in the County of Cumbria."

Public consultation on the plans is open until 5 December.