Boundary shake-up to bring changes on Merseyside

A proposed shake-up of the England's electoral map would see some seemingly small, but possibly significant changes made to the way Merseyside is represented in Parliament.

The Boundary Commission for England says the aim is to make Parliament fairer by giving each MP a roughly similar number of voters.

Previous boundary reviews have suggested cross-river constituencies linking the Wirral and the city of Liverpool.

These proved so unpopular, they've not been resurrected this time.

But the commission says Wirral does not have enough voters to sustain the current tally of four constituencies within the borough council's boundaries.

As they have ruled out closer ties with Liverpool, the plan is to combine Wirral wards with some in the neighbouring Cheshire West and Chester council area.

Under these plans, the Wirral South constituency will go, to be replaced by a new Ellesmere Port constituency which includes places like Eastham and Bromborough.

Perhaps most significantly, Liverpool Walton, a constituency created in the Victorian era, will cease to exist under these plans.

The homes of the city's football clubs, in Everton and Anfield wards respectively, will become part of the Liverpool Riverside city centre constituency and a new north Liverpool constituency - Norris Green - will be created.

That new constituency will take in Aintree and Melling from the current Sefton Central constituency and extend east to take a couple of wards from Knowsley.

And Southport, currently Merseyside's only Conservative seat, will extend north to parts of South Ribble, and in doing so lose the golfing paradise of Ainsdale to Sefton Central.

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