A shake-up of a number of Copeland’s parish councils has been approved.

Three parishes – Beckermet with Thornhill, Parton and Seascale – will see a reduction in councillor numbers from 2019, while in Egremont, a merger of the town council’s boundaries has been agreed with the number of wards falling from four to two.

The proposals, which were approved at a meeting of Copeland’s full council last week, mean Beckermet with Thornhill will have space for 12 councillors instead of 14, Parton will have 11 (from 13) and Seascale will drop from 12 to just eight.

A decision to reduce the number of wards in Egremont means that instead of four wards (north, south, central and east) there will be two wards with five councillors each. There will be no reduction in numbers.

The changes will come into force on April 1, 2019, in time for the next round of parish council elections in May 2019.

Public consultation was launched in December and ran until February.