BOUNDARY changes which could have split Ellesmere Port and Neston into three constituencies have hit the rails.

Ellesmere Port and Neston MP Andrew Miller welcomed news of a major blow to the plans.

After Conservative backbenchers blocked moves to reform the House of Lords, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg vowed to vote against plans for boundary changes.

The Deputy Prime Minister said he would instruct his MPs to vote against the bill to cut the number of MPs by redrawing constituency boundaries for the 2015 election.

Labour MP Mr Miller said: “The announcement cannot be seen as anything other than a humiliation for the coalition and a clear demonstration of the Prime Minister’s weakness. The Conservatives’ approach to constitutional reform is now in tatters.

“As far as the proposed boundary changes are concerned, if the announcement means that we will preserve a constituency that keeps Ellesmere Port together and retains the historic link with Neston then it is clearly to be welcomed.

“However, the question has to be asked, if Nick Clegg now agrees with me that the process for redrawing the boundaries was fundamentally flawed, why did he support it in the first place?”

The proposed changes, based on the former Cheshire County Council divisions, would signal the end of the 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.