VOTERS have until Monday to make their views known on changes to the political landscape across Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

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.

The West Worcestershire constituency would be replaced by a new area called Malvern and Ledbury, which would constitute areas in Malvern Hills district and also include some areas of Herefordshire, including Bromyard and Ledbury.

This means the North Herefordshire constituency would cease to exist in its present form, with Ledbury being absorbed into the new Malvern and Ledbury constituency.

North Herefordshire MP Bill Wiggin called the changes "badly divisive" in a statement last year, but he added: "We should remain calm but determined until the end of the process remembering that the last set of proposed changes never materialised.”

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.

Worcester MP, Conservative Robin Walker was previously broadly supportive of the changes and said: “The changes that have been proposed seem reasonable. Of course these changes won’t come into effect until the next election so it isn’t going to change anything now."

Harriett Baldwin, Conservative MP for West Worcestershire 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.