Walkden and Little Hulton could become a part of Bolton for parliamentary purposes as boundry lines are redrawn.
The Boundary Commission has published its final proposals to redrawn parliamentary constituencies.
The move has no affect on Bolton Council, only MPs constituencies.
And people are being invited to have their say.
The Boundary Commission undertook an independent review of all constituencies in England as requested by Parliament.
The number of electors within each constituency currently varies widely due to population changes since the last boundary review.
The 2023 Boundary Review is seeking to rebalance the number of electors each MP represents, resulting in significant change to the existing constituency map.
Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi’s constituency would be the subject to the most upheaval.
Three wards would be added in the shape of Walkden North and Walkden South and Little Hulton, all of which would be moving out of Worsley and Eccles South.
The constituency would hence be known as Bolton South and Walkden, and would lose Little Lever and Darcy Lever to Mark Logan’s Bolton North East Ward.
Hulton, which is also currently under Ms Qureshi’s umbrella, would move over to Chris Green’s Bolton West constituency.
The final change would see Atherton being moved out of Mr Green’s ward and into Leigh, which would hence be known as Leigh and Atherton.
Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South spoke at the Manchester public hearing on the subject.
The Boundary Commission’s report notes: “In both her statement and written evidence she called for the existing Worsley and Eccles South constituency to remain unchanged, stating that it was unsuitable to include the Walkden area of Salford in a constituency with Bolton.”
Astley Bridge councillor and chair of Bolton Council’s planning committee Cllr John Walsh has been present at hearing throughout process. He spoke out in opposition to Ms Keeley’s comments and in support of the Commission’s initial proposals, highlighting links between Farnworth in Bolton and Little Hulton.
He told The Bolton News: “The boundary between Little Hulton and Farnworth and Walkden and Farnworth is not particularly great.
“There are very good road links and there are plenty of children who attend St James School in Farnworth who live in Walkden and Little Hulton.”
Cllr Walsh added that he thinks that all of the proposals put forward by the Commission in the Bolton area are sensible, particularly taking Atherton out of Bolton West and reuniting the town under one constituency.
Under the current configuration, Atherton is split down the middle.
“Townships should always be kept together,” Cllr Walsh said.
He added: “Bolton West therefore had to gain another and Hulton was the obvious one. There is a great affinity for Hulton in Westhoughton, as the who Hulton Park situation has shown.”
As part of the review, the number of constituencies in England will increase from 533 to 543.
The Commission has taken into consideration over 45,000 comments from members of the public in order to come up with the latest revision of its proposed constituency map.
It is now inviting more comments for the final time.
The proposal would see a number of changes to the parliamentary constituencies in the borough.
To view the proposals put forward and to have your say, visit - www.bcereviews.org.uk.
If you have a story or something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at lewis.finney@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @lewisfinney18
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