THE removal of the Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency from England’s electoral map will be probed at a two-day hearing this week.

Labour councillors Justin Madders and David Robinson will submit a motion to the next full meeting of Cheshire West and Chester Council on Thursday against proposals to re-draw the constituency boundary map.

Opposition to the plans has grown ever since they were announced last month.

A Facebook group titled ‘Keep Ellesmere Port Together’ calling for the planned changes to be scrapped now has more than 800 concerned members.

The council motion reads: “This council is seriously concerned about the effects of the Government plans to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600, the result of which is to reduce local representation, diminish community identity and blur accountability.

“Cheshire West and Chester Council feels the reduction in the number of constituencies conflicts with the localism agenda, weakens local identity and makes effective parliamentary representation more difficult.”

An assistant commissioner from the Boundary Commission is due to sit at Chester’s Mollington Banastre Hotel on Thursday and Friday as part of a 12-week public consultation on proposals to reduce the parliamentary seats in the country.

MP Andrew Miller and borough Labour group leader Cllr Justin Madders along with St Paul's Labour councillor Ben Powell are among those listed to speak.

The proposed changes, based on the former Cheshire County Council divisions with which Cheshire West and Chester Council started life, could signal the end of the almost 40-year parliamentary relationship between Ellesmere Port and Neston.

Neston and Parkgate would join a new Hoylake and Neston seat while the rest of Ellesmere Port would be split putting areas such as Groves and Whitby and Ledsham and Willaston into Chester.

Central and Westminster, Grange and Rossmore and Sutton and Manor would be included in a new constituency called Mersey Banks which would include areas on the far side of the Mersey estuary.