The Boundary Commission for England has today published new revised proposals for constituencies across the country and opens a final month-long consultation, giving the public the last opportunity to send in their views.
Revised proposals see plans to rename The Wrekin constituency as Newport and Wellington dropped. The constituency would also now include Hodnet and Cheswardine, both are currently part of the North Shropshire constituency.
The Ludlow constituency would change its name from Ludlow to South Shropshire. The constituency would also increase in size by some 100 square miles, taking in two large rural wards to the north of the present boundary, namely Burnell and Severn Valley from the Shrewsbury & Atcham constituency.
A third and final consultation on the new map of revised constituency proposals is open now until 5 December. The public are invited to view and comment on the new map at bcereviews.org.uk.
The Commission has taken into consideration over 45,000 comments sent in by the public during the previous two stages of public consultation, and has changed nearly half of its initial proposals based on feedback.
Commenting on the proposals, Philip Dunne said: “Today’s proposals confirm the initial suggestion from this review, to increase the constituency by some 100 square miles, taking in two large rural wards to the north of the present boundary, namely Burnell and Severn Valley from the Shrewsbury & Atcham constituency, adding some 7,500 voters to take the constituency to within the band around 75,000 voters per constituency.
“While I am saddened to see the historic name of the constituency of ‘Ludlow’, in use in Parliament since the first inception of Ludlow town as a ‘parliamentary borough’ in 1473 and the modernised Parliamentary Constituency since 1885, changed, I think it now makes sense to rename the constituency ‘South Shropshire’, which better reflects the proposed geography.
“These proposals will increase the geographic scale of the constituency to some 700 square miles. It already stretches from some 35 miles along the Welsh Border to the west and as far east as to within six miles of Wolverhampton city centre. The South Shropshire constituency will now reach as far north as the edge of Shrewsbury by including Burnell and Severn Valley wards. The southern boundary with Worcestershire and Herefordshire will remain undisturbed.
“South Shropshire is a more suitable name with which everyone can identify within the new constituency.”
Tim Bowden, Secretary to the Boundary Commission for England, said:
“Today we are announcing the publication of our revised proposals. Last year we published our initial proposals for new constituency boundaries – our first go at what the map should look like. We are delighted with the huge number of comments from members of the public on our initial proposals, many which included valuable evidence about local communities.
“Today’s publication is the culmination of months of analysis and we have revised nearly half of our initial proposals based on what people have told us. We now believe we are close to the best map of constituencies that can be achieved under the rules we are working to.
“However, we still want people to tell us what they think of this latest map before we submit our final recommendations to Parliament next year. This is our final consultation and I encourage you to participate in the 2023 Boundary Review.”
After this final consultation has closed on 5 December, the Commission will analyse the responses and form its final recommendations. These will be submitted to Parliament by 1 July 2023.
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