Boundary backtrack for Hale and Ditton (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Boundary backtrack for Hale and Ditton

3:10pm Thursday 25th October 2012 in News

HALE and Ditton have been returned to the Halton parliamentary constituency.

Both villages had been removed from the Halton map under redrawn boundary lines published last year.

But the revised plan, published on Wednesday, had both wards back in the constituency.

The move is part of the Government’s plan to reduce the number of MPs in Westminster and the proposals would also see the seat renamed Widnes and Runcorn.

A plan to move Penketh and Cuerdley into the Widnes boundary has also been torn up while The Heath ward will move to a new Mersey Banks constituency and Daresbury will move to the Warrington South seat.

Alison Jones is chairman of Hale Parish Council which has been fighting the original changes announced last year.

She said: “As part of the existing Halton constituency, Hale is represented by an MP who knows the village and who holds regular surgeries where any resident may discuss issues with him.

“As part of the proposed Mersey Banks constituency, Hale would have been a very tiny part of a very large constituency, the vast majority of which would lie on the south bank of the river.”

The plans however are still unlikely to come to fruition, with a vote in the Houses of Parliament, likely to be next year, set to be blocked by the Liberal Democrats.