Littleport is heading out of Cambridgeshire – at least so far as parliamentary constituencies are concerned – and moving across into Norfolk. The Boundary Commission for England has today published its final recommendations for new constituency boundaries

The Boundary Commission for England has today published its final recommendations for new constituency boundaries

The commission says: “We noted the initial support for our proposals regarding the inclusion of the Littleport East and Littleport West wards in the cross county South West Norfolk constituency.

“While acknowledging the later opposition to this, the alternative proposals had consequential effects on other constituencies, and we did not consider that they provided a better solution.”

The commission’s findings follow submission of its final report to Government last week, and that report now being presented to Parliament.

The Commission says it has fulfilled its statutory responsibility, and submission of the report and its publication ends the Commission’s involvement in the 2018 Boundary Review.

Secretary to the commission, Sam Hartley, said: “The recommendations we’ve published today mark the end of a thorough and consultative process to build the new map of constituencies.

“We’ve travelled the country, taken account of over 35,000 public comments, and heard many impassioned views about how best to reflect local communities in our recommendations, while ensuring that constituencies are all much more equally represented.

“We’re confident that the map we propose today is the best match of the legal rules Parliament has set us. It’s now up to Parliament to decide whether these boundaries will be used at the next general election.”

The Government will make arrangements for the commission’s recommendations to be voted on by both Houses of Parliament

The commission says: “We noted that Cambridgeshire’s electorate (which includes the unitary authority of Peterborough) of 554,887 results in an entitlement of 7.42 constituencies.

“However, it would be impossible to allocate seven constituencies to the sub-region that all fell within the permitted electorate range. The county therefore needed to be grouped with a neighbouring county.

“The electorate of Norfolk - at 645,761 - results in an entitlement of 8.64 constituencies.

“If we allocated nine constituencies, the average constituency electorate in Norfolk would be just 720 electors within the permitted electorate range and it would be very challenging to create constituencies, using whole wards, that all fell within the permitted electorate range while respecting local ties.

“We therefore decided to group Cambridgeshire with Norfolk for the purpose of creating constituencies.”