Last chance for boundaries say

Thames Valley: MP constituency areas are under review

Thousands across Berkshire and Buckinghamshire are being presented with a final chance to have their say on the new constituency boundaries in a month-long consultation.

The Boundary Commission for England published its revised proposals for constituencies on Tuesday, which aim to rebalance the number of electors each Member of Parliament represents.

As part of the review, the number of constituencies in England will increase from 533 to 543, which will be submitted to Parliament by the middle of next year.

So far, the commission has received more than 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 this feedback.

A third and final consultation on the new map of revised constituency proposals is open now until Monday December 5.

The public are invited to view and comment on the new map at bcereviews. org.uk

Of the responses received, the proposed changes to Maidenhead were ‘largely well received’, despite initial concerns over the Bracknell/RBWM border.

The commission proposed taking Twyford out of the Maidenhead constituency and moving it into Wokingham, with Sonning moving to a new Earley and Woodley constituency.

The wards of Binfield with Warfield and Winkfield and Cranbourne, as well as part of Ascot, would also move into Maidenhead under the proposals.

In Slough, the changes proved less popular, with representations being made ‘mostly in opposition’.

This comes as Langley is set to be divided between Slough and Windsor.

Nevertheless, both Slough Borough Council and Tan Dhesi MP ‘submitted

responses acknowledging the commission’s initial proposals as the strongest option, noting that wards must be lost to Windsor’.

Overall, the ‘imperfect’ redrawing of Slough’s boundaries were not altered following consultation.

Whilst the commission received ‘almost no representations from its Berkshire wards’, the people of Egham, which was set to see two wards moved over into Berkshire from Surrey, had a negative opinion of the changes.

As a result, Windsor will now be paired with Virginia Water and Englefield Green.

On Tuesday, Tim Bowden, secretary to the Boundary Commission for England, said: “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.”