KATE OSBORNE: Have your say on proposed electoral boundary changes

But what I do know, is that the previous proposals were to impact heavily on the Jarrow constituency – from gaining more wards from the neighbouring Gateshead area, to losing the Cleadon and East Boldon ward to South Shields.

I’m immensely proud to represent the Jarrow constituency and so I was naturally, extremely interested to learn of the new parliamentary constituency boundary proposals published earlier this week on the latest Boundary Review.

Inside the latest review, one of the big changes for the Jarrow constituency is the possibility of the renaming of the constituency to “Jarrow and Sunderland West”. Some will welcome this, whilst others will not.

The new revised constituency would include three wards from Sunderland – Redhill, Castle, and St. Anne’s.

However, Cleadon and East Boldon would become part of the South Shields constituency and the wards of Pelaw & Heworth and Wardley & Leam Lane would also become part of Gateshead.

The Jarrow constituency does not just cover the historic town of Jarrow it covers a much wider area, covering both South Tyneside and Gateshead local authorities. There’s Jarrow, Hebburn, the Boldons, Cleadon, parts of Gateshead, and also a very, very small part of South Shields!

According to the Boundary Commission for England, these initial proposals to redraw constituencies across the country is to ensure that they are more equally balanced in terms of voter numbers.

In total, the number of North East MPs will reduce from 29 seats in Westminster to 27.

The Boundary Commission said that only six of the North East’s current constituencies are within the permitted electorate range, 21 constituencies currently fall below the 5% limit and the electorates of just two constituencies are above the 5% limit.

The North East region comprises 1,952,999 electors, giving it a mathematical entitlement to 26.61 constituencies.

The Boundary Commission are inviting the public to view and provide feedback on the proposed boundaries as part of an eight-week consultation process. There are two further rounds of public consultation.

I strongly encourage all of my constituents to visit www.bcereviews.org.uk to view maps showing the proposed new boundaries and engage in the consultation before it closes on 2nd August 2021.