Boundary changes: Final chance to have your say on Shropshire MPs' seats

People have until December to have their say on the planned changes to the areas covered by Shropshire's five MPs.

The Boundary Commission for England will then publish its final proposals to go before Parliament by September next year.

The latest proposals include major changes to the parliamentary constituencies for Telford, The Wrekin and Ludlow.

The North Shropshire seat, held by Owen Paterson since 1997, will not change while Daniel Kawczynski's Shrewsbury and Atcham will see only minor changes – although Atcham will be dropped from the name.

The commissioners have drawn up their latest plans after reviewing comments made to earlier proposals put forward in January.

People living in the areas affected have until December 11 to comment on the changes.

The changes are being made following the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 which called for a reduction in the number of MPs from 650 to 600.

After an initial consultation drawn up in autumn last year, the commission put forward proposed new boundary changes in January.

The public was then invited to comment on the changes, which resulted in the proposals put forward today.

Most of the comments related to the changes surrounding the Telford seat, held by Conservative Lucy Allan, and The Wrekin constituency held by fellow Tory Mark Pritchard.

The commissioners' report said there had been significant support for plans to enlarge the existing Telford seat, and create a new constituency covering Bridgnorth, Wellington and The Wrekin.

They did, however, agree to drop "Wellington" from the name following objections on the grounds that the town had long been associated with The Wrekin, and that to mention it by name was superfluous.

The new constituency will instead be called Bridgnorth and The Wrekin.

Peter Bradley, the former Labour MP for The Wrekin, supported proposals to transfer the urban areas of Donnington and Hadley & Leegomery into the Telford constituency.

"The communities of those two wards have closer links and more closely shared characteristics with other parts of Telford than they do with the rural parts of The Wrekin," said Mr Bradley.

However, Ms Allan – who holds the seat by a wafer-thin majority of 720 – had criticised the plans, saying that all the support for them had come from a single political party.

The Conservative Party instead suggested that the Apley Castle ward should be included in the Telford constituency, and that Donnington should be part of The Wrekin constituency.

The assistant commissioners who compiled the new report rejected this call, saying there was insufficient evidence for such a change.

They did agree to Conservative calls to include Much Wenlock in the new Ludlow and Leominster constituency.

The villages of Chirbury and Worthen will move into the Shrewsbury seat under the changes, despite calls from the Liberal Democrats for them to be included in Ludlow and Leominster.

Sam Hartley, secretary to the Boundary Commission for England, said more than 250,000 responses had been received from all over the country.

"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," he said.

Mr Hartley said, based on these responses, more than half of the initial proposals had been revised.

"The new map of the country that 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," he said.

"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 to important to have your say in this fundamental democratic exercise."

The changes can be viewed in full on the website www.bce2018.org.uk , where people can also submit their comments.

No reprieve for Mid Wales constituency

Montgomeryshire will be split into three parliamentary constituencies under controversial boundary proposals announced today.

The proposals are little different from the ones put forward in January.

Present MP for the constituency, Glyn Davies, said he would want to stand again if they were went through in their present form.

However, he thought that the changes which took place at the General Election earlier cast doubt on whether they would actually get through parliament. Under the revised proposals, the town of Montgomery will become part of a new super-constituency of Brecon, Radnor and Montgomery, covering more than 1,150 square miles – making it one of the two largest constituencies in Wales.

The north of the existing constituency, which includes Welshpool, would come under a new Clwyd South and North Montgomeryshire constituency. The main difference between the draft proposals put forward in January is that Machynlleth would now come under Ceredigion and North Pembrokeshire.

Mr Davies, who has held the seat since 2010, said he was very disappointed with the updated proposals.

“If I’m honest, I think the changes at the last election means they are probably not going through, but if they do go through, I won’t be standing again,” he said.

Steve Halsall, secretary to the Boundary Commission for Wales, said as well as meeting the need to reduce the number of constituencies, the review had also looked at issues specific to Wales.

The proposals will now go forward for a third and final consultation.

Mr Halsall said: “It has also taken into account other relevant factors and has sought to identify the solutions most suitable to local needs within Wales. I would emphasise that these are not the final set of proposals so I urge the Welsh public to take this opportunity to have their say."