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Melksham to become a part of Trowbridge?

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2011-09-13 18:22:43 - Graham Ellis

Initial proposals for change have been made by the boundary commission for Parliamentary Constituencies in the South West - published in full [here].

As part of their pre-amble, they write:

"The South West region has been allocated 53 constituencies – a reduction of two from the current arrangement. Our proposals leave 14 of the 55 existing constituencies unchanged.

And in details concerning Wiltshire, they write:

"[we suggest that] ... the town of Shaftesbury and the surrounding area, are combined with the Wiltshire towns of Warminster and Westbury in a constituency that we propose is named Warminster and Shaftesbury. We consider that this is the most appropriate point at which to propose a cross-county constituency, due to the strong established communication links between these two towns and the surrounding area, specifically the north–south transit route of the A350.

"Due to the small electorate of the existing North Wiltshire constituency, we propose some change to the boundary. We propose that it extends south to incorporate the relatively large number of electors within Chippenham, rather than including the town of Calne as at present. Consequently, we propose that the constituency be named Chippenham.

"We propose that the towns of Melksham and Bradford-on-Avon, which are currently located in the Chippenham constituency, are included in our proposed Trowbridge constituency with the town of Trowbridge. There are strong geographic and communication links between the three towns.

"As the electorate of the existing Devizes constituency is too small, it is necessary to extend the boundary to incorporate the town of Calne and the surrounding area, which is in close proximity to the town of Devizes. It is proposed that the area surrounding Durrington, currently located in the Devizes constituency, is instead transferred to the Salisbury constituency in order to increase its electorate. Additionally, our proposed Salisbury constituency extends west to include the town of Tisbury. These communities are linked to the centre of Salisbury by the various transport links that extend from the city."

So what does that mean?

"Devizes" grows, getting Calne.

"North Wilts" grows and becomes "Chippenham", adding in the town of Chippenham.

"South West Wiltshire" is split in two. One part becomes "Warminster and Shaftesbury", taking in a chunk of Dorset. The other part becomes "Trowbridge", including Melksham and and Bradford-on-Avon.

So - let's see ...
• until 2010, Melksham was part of the Devizes consituency
• until 2015(?), Melksham is part of the Chippenham constituency
• from 2015, it's proposed that we'll be part of the Trowbridge consituency
Am I alone, or would the other good people of Melksham like some continuity too?