VOTERS have until Monday to make their views known on changes to the political landscape in Worcester.

The Boundary Commission for England has drawn up new constituency boundaries for hundreds of different constituencies across the country, in order to reduce the number of MPs.

It has to reduce the number of constituencies in the UK from 650 to 600, and try and even up the sizes, by number of constituents - with every constituency meant to hold between 71,000 and 78,000 voters.

Worcestershire would keep six MPs, but there would be some tinkering with boundaries and names

Worcester would be largely unchanged, but would pick up the districts of Norton And Whittington.

About 40 per cent of the current Mid Worcestershire constituency would be moved into a new Bromsgrove and Droitwich seat, including Droitwich Spa and the neighbouring wards of Hartlebury, Ombersley, Lovett and North Claines and Dodderhill.

A New seat of Evesham would replace much of the rest of Mid-Worcestershire, gaining gain all of the Wychavon District Council wards west of Evesham, as well as the southern Malvern Hills District Council wards including Upton upon Severn and up to but not including Great Malvern and the Herefordshire border.

Also affected would be West Worcestershire constituency, which would be replaced by a new area called Malvern and Ledbury, which would constitute areas in Malvern Hills district not moved to Evesham, and also include some areas of Herefordshire, including Bromyard and Ledbury

Worcester MP, Conservative Robin Walker was previously broadly supportive of the changes and said: ““The changes that have been proposed seem reasonable and I am glad that Worcester will continue to be represented by one MP.

“The addition of Norton and Whittington seems a pragmatic suggestion.

“Of course these changes won’t come into effect until the next election so it isn’t going to change anything now and it won’t affect the work that Worcestershire MPs do for the area.”

Mid Worcestershire’s Conservative MP Nigel Huddleston also said, when the new changes were proposed: “I would be delighted if it was possible for [Mid Worcestershire] to continue in its current form.

“However, I support the principle of fairer and more equal sized constituencies and recognise that this will inevitably involve some significant changes to constituency boundaries.

“The proposals are also subject to a parliamentary vote and there is no guarantee the proposed changes will go through. Whatever the outcome, I will continue to serve all my constituents equally right up to the next general election in May 2022.”

Harriet Baldwin, Conservative MP for West Worcestershire would also be affected, losing some of her southern wards and gaining areas of Herefordshire.

She said: “The Boundary Commission has suggested a number of changes for the West Midlands, losing six seats overall. I do think it's right that we reduce the cost of politics by reducing the number of MPs in the House of Commons and that constituencies should be equal in size, making MPs work even harder.”

To make a comment or criticism of the proposed changes visit the Boundary Commission’s website - https://www.bce2018.org.uk, enter your postcode in the box or select West Midlands from the drop-down menu and then click on the comment button.