Fears have resurfaced the Ellesmere Port and Neston parliamentary seat could be sliced up under boundary changes by the Government.

The prospect emerged in Chester where Labour MP Chris Matheson claimed the Tory government aims to split his seat into two with parts of Ellesmere Port switched into the city.

Mr Matheson understands three year old proposals which were mothballed have been ‘dusted down and taken off the shelf’.

Under those changes to the 30-year-old constituency a Mersey Banks seat would take on most of Ellesmere Port including the old county areas of Grange and Rossmore, Sutton and Manor and Central and Westminster.

Where would the new constituency be?

But places such as Burton, Ness, Willaston, Elton, Mickle Trafford, Strawberry, Groves, most of Whitby and Great and Little Sutton to the west of the A41 would move into Chester.

At present Ellesmere Port, Neston and villages such as Burton, Parkgate, Willaston, Elton and Mickle Trafford are all included under an Ellesmere Port and Neston banner.

The Mersey Banks proposal included places such as Eastham, Bromborough, Frodsham and Helsby, Weaver and even Hale and Ditton across the Mersey.

In Great Sutton, the northern side of Green Lane in Ledsham and Manor ward would be in Chester but the other side of the road would be in Mersey Banks.

Neston, Parkgate and Little Neston would be in a new Hoylake and Neston constituency.

Concerns raised

A Facebook group, Keep Ellesmere Port Together, quickly attracted more than 800 members.

MP Justin Madders (Lab) said: “If the Conservatives try to use the same proposals that they did in 2013, the current constituency would be sliced into three in a way that makes no sense to anyone.

“After introducing changes that resulted in millions being removed from the electoral register, we have to conclude that they are trying to introduce these new boundaries for political advantage.

“Neston would be thrown in with parts of Wirral which has a different council, police force, fire service and clinical commissioning group.

“Parts of Ellesmere Port, including Whitby and Ledsham & Manor would apparently now be part of Chester including key parts of the town like the police station and Whitby Park.

“There is a danger that the building blocks used would be on old local authority boundaries from the days of the County Council that are long gone.

“Worst of all is the ‘Mersey Banks’ constituency which puts most of Ellesmere Port together with parts of the Wirral, Weaverham and even parts of Widnes across the Mersey.

“This would lead to the Mersey Banks constituency covering three local authority areas with no physical connection between one end of the constituency and the other.”

“A huge part of the job as an MP is building relationships with residents, community groups, business leaders and also with the NHS, councils, police and other public sector organisations.

“These changes would make that job almost impossible as in Mersey Banks you’d have to understand the needs of people living in completely different areas with very little in common as well as keeping in touch with three councils all with different programmes and approaches.

“Meanwhile, I would no longer be representing my own neighbours in Little Sutton.

"Any sense of a local representative would be destroyed by this.

“Another issue is that my office assists hundreds of constituents a month. These are often people who come to their MP because they need help that they cannot get anywhere else.

“With such a disparate constituency it would be difficult to hold surgeries that were accessible to all.”

He concluded: “I’ll be working as hard as I can to ensure that as many people as possible register to vote. These changes will be much harder for the Government to force through if the register represents the actual number of people living in the constituency.”

What do you make of the proposed boundary changes? Do you support them or disagree? Let us know in the comments below