New proposals from The Boundary Commision for England have revealed major changes for the parliamentary constituency of Copeland from 2023.

The proposals will see the current constituencies of Workington and Copeland, merged into a 'Whitehaven and Workington' constituency from the next election.

The new Whitehaven and Workington constituency that would contain the entirety of Copeland borough, aside from the two wards Black Combe & Scafell, and Millom, which will move into the Barrow and Furness.

The new proposals would also include both the Crummock & Derwent Valley and Keswick wards, which are part of the existing Copeland constituency.

A report from the Boundary Commision said: "During their site visit the Assistant Commissioners observed Whitehaven and Workington to be well connected towns with a similar character, and therefore considered that there was justification for their inclusion in a constituency together.

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"The proposed name would reference both towns – as the clear population centres – arranged alphabetically, as they are of a comparable size.

"We agree with these recommendations and therefore propose a Whitehaven and Workington constituency as described."

The boundaries differ to proposals earlier in the process which would have seen Sellafield nuclear site split across two constituencies.

The commision believed that the new proposals are a 'demonstrable' improvement for community ties across Cumbria and will accurately reflect 'reprentations and evidence' received during the process.

The report said: "We consider that our revised proposals for Cumbria accurately reflect the significant numbers and nature of the representations and evidence received, with a demonstrable improvement to community ties in the South Lakeland area in particular.

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"While our revised proposals for Cumbria may initially seem to be worse than the initial proposals with regard to local government boundaries, we are conscious of the incoming unitary authorities for Cumbria, which will replace the current authorities.

"This will mitigate these concerns to a large extent."

Trudy Harrison, MP for Copeland, said: “The Parliamentary boundary review presents some interesting proposals for Cumbria.

“As the Member of Parliament for Copeland, I will continue to represent and work for all my constituents.

“I have plenty of work to focus on in the remaining two years of this Parliament and that is exactly what I shall be doing.”

A third and final consultation on the new map of revised constituency proposals is open now until 5 December.

The public are invited to view and comment on the new map at: https://www.bcereviews.org.uk/.