Plans to redraw the political map of Wales will see Wrexham constituency expanded and the removal of Clwyd South

Plans to redraw the political map of Wales will impact both Wrexham constituencies in a move that would see residents of Ruabon represented by the same Member of Parliament as Welshpool.

Plans have been published today by the Boundary Commission for Wales, an independent organisation responsible for reviewing Parliamentary constituency boundaries in Wales.

The proposals – which would take effect at the next general election – significantly alter constituencies across Wales and would see the number of Welsh MP’s in Westminster reduced by around 20 per cent.

There are currently 40 constituencies in Wales, the number of electors in the current constituencies ranges from 42,657 in Arfon to 78,238 in Cardiff South and Penarth.

Under the plans, the number of constituencies in Wales will reduce to 32 with the number of electors increasing to between 69,724 and 77,062 in each electoral seat.

Two north-east Wales constituencies Clwyd South and Vale of Clwyd could be cut, a move which would impact the Wrexham constituency and Flintshire constituencies of Alyn and Deeside and Delyn

They would be expanded under the proposals with electoral wards from both Wrexham and Denbighshire added on.

As part of the plans large sections of the existing Clwyd South constituency would be merged into Wrexham, which is currently represented by Conservative MP Sarah Atherton.

Wrexham is described as “currently below the statutory requirements in respect of the size of the electorate”.

However under the proposals the the constituency would have 75,596 electors.

This will see areas currently represented by Clwyd South MP Simon Baynes, such as Bronington, Overton, Ponciau and Rhos, included in a larger Wrexham constituency.

Proposals for Clwyd South would see the removal of the existing constituency, with some areas being included in Flintshire wards.

The Commission says it has “considered several options” as part of the review and proposes to combine the whole of the existing Alyn and Deeside constituency with electoral wards from the existing Clwyd South and Delyn constituencies.

Proposals would see two wards in the County of Wrexham, Brymbo and Minera forming part of the existing Clwyd South constituency, and the Argoed, Leeswood and New Brighton electoral wards from the existing Delyn constituency added to Alyn and Deeside.

The addition of these five wards would see the number of voters increase in Alyn and Deeside to 74,144 from 65,183.

The Commission said it is “of the view that these areas are well connected to the existing Alyn and Deeside constituency by transport links, and are similar in character. The Commission is of the view that the proposed arrangement creates a cohesive constituency.”

The proposals would also see the likes of Penycae and Ruabon being represented by the same MP as large parts of Powys in a new constituency called Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr.

In its report the Boundary Commission says: “The existing Montgomeryshire and Clwyd South constituencies are currently below the statutory requirements in respect of the size of the electorate.

“The Commission considered several options, and proposes to combine the existing Montgomeryshire constituency and the electoral wards to the north to include electoral wards from the existing Clwyd South constituency to meet the statutory electorate range.

“The Commission considers that including electoral wards from the existing Clwyd South constituency would combine areas that are similar in nature and share similar rural characteristics.

“The Commission is of the view that the proposed arrangement would combine the existing Montgomeryshire constituency with an area that would consist of the southern electoral wards of the former Glyndŵr district council area.”

This constituency would have 72,363 electors.

The proposals were initially put forward by the Conservative UK government in 2012, members of the public will be able to have their say on proposed boundary changes during an 8-week consultation.

The Commission said: “We will be particularly interested to hear from people about the extent to which the proposals reflect the local ties in the area, and if people disagree with our proposals, how they think they should be amended.”

“There are two further rounds of public consultation.”