Parliamentary constituency changes affect Norfolk/Suffolk border

One MP could represent voters in both Norfolk and Suffolk under proposals to change constituency boundaries.

The new Waveney Valley seat has been suggested by the Boundary Commission under its plan to redraw constituencies across England.

It would include Diss and Harleston in Norfolk and Eye, Bungay and Halesworth in Suffolk.

Meanwhile, a plan to create a new seat containing Haverhill in Suffolk and Halstead in Essex has been dropped.

The new map is designed to rebalance constituencies based on the number of electors each MP represents.

The Waveney Valley seat would comprise parts of Richard Bacon's South Norfolk seat, Peter Aldous' Waveney seat, Therese Coffey's Suffolk Coastal seat and Dan Poulter's Central Suffolk and North Ipswich seat.

Elsewhere in Norfolk, Wymondham would be transferred from George Freeman's Mid Norfolk seat to South Norfolk, to compensate for the loss of Diss and Harleston.

All the existing seats were won by Conservatives at the 2019 general election.

Drayton, which lies north-west of Norwich, would be transferred from Jerome Mayhew's Broadland seat to Chloe Smith's Norwich North constituency.

Mr Mayhew's constituency would be renamed Broadland & Fakenham, to reflect the fact that Fakenham is not covered by Broadland District Council.

There had been an earlier proposal to transfer Fakenham over to Duncan Baker's North Norfolk constituency, but that has been scrapped, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A proposal to transfer Stalham and Hickling from Mr Baker's seat to Brandon Lewis's Great Yarmouth constituency has also not made it into the revised plan.

Meanwhile, Thorpe Hamlet, just east of Norwich city centre, would be retained by Norwich South, currently represented by Labour MP Clive Lewis, after an initial version of the proposals suggested transferring the area over to Norwich North.

Ms Smith had argued during a hearing earlier this year that the area was better suited to Mr Lewis's constituency, because it included landmarks like the railway station and cathedral, which meant it was closer to the urban character of his seat.

The South West Norfolk constituency, held by former Prime Minister Liz Truss, would be slightly shrunk, losing some of the countryside between Thetford and Attleborough to Mr Freeman's re-drawn seat.

Initial proposals to create a cross-county constituency including Haverhill in Suffolk and Halstead in Essex have been abandoned.

Haverhill would remain in the West Suffolk constituency, currently held by ex-Conservative minister turned I'm a Celebrity contestant Matt Hancock.

Halstead would remain in the Braintree constituency, currently held by Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

As the proposed new constituency of Halstead & Haverhill has been scrapped, the 18 existing seats in Essex will have slightly larger electorates that originally aimed for by the Boundary Commission with an average size of 74,900 voters, rather than 73,000.

Some fare worse, with Basildon & Billericay having 77,000 compared to, say, Bedford which will have 70,000.

They have made some changes in the margins of a few constituencies and there are two I think that will be particularly contentious among some political parties.

Colchester was going to lose Prettygate ward (where the sitting Conservative MP Will Quince lives) and the urban constituency would have been made up of wards where currently there are no Conservative councillors. Not anymore, as Prettygate will remain in Colchester.

A proposal to move the half of the Lexden & Braiswick ward that is currently in the Colchester constituency to join the rest of the ward in Harwich & North Essex has also been dropped.

However, the solid Labour ward Old Heath & Hythe is out instead and it would move to the Harwich & North Essex seat, held by Conservative Bernard Jenkin.

That is why Labour has opposed the proposals as they stand. For the past year, Labour have been favourites, according to most constituency analysis of opinion polls, to win Colchester for the first time in more than 70 years (they won in 1945 but the boundaries were different to what they are today).

The proposals as they stand would make Essex's most marginal seat arguably a closer three-way fight.

Southend West moves... err east, and becomes Southend Central & Leigh. This should make this constituency more competitive as the centre of Southend is pretty solidly Labour.

Parts of Leigh-on-Sea have strong Liberal Democrat support. Labour has (with the exception of 2019) been gaining in Rochford and Southend East - which had the second smallest Conservative majority in Essex in 2017.

But these boundary changes will shift their focus to the sea Anna Firth retained for the Conservatives following the murder of Sir David Amess. Leigh has not been split as proposed (where West Leigh would have gone into Castle Point). But Eastwood and its pretty-solid Conservative vote has gone into the Rochford & Southend East seat, currently held by James Duddridge for the Conservatives.

There is now a final round of consultation on these proposals open until 5 December after which the final proposals will be published and put to Parliament for approval in July.

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