Burnley Council backs plan to redraw constituency boundaries

Council leader Afrasiab Anwar said keeping "all our borough wards within the same constituency" was "a positive"

Burnley Council has backed plans to redraw the borough's parliamentary seat.

The Boundary Commission has proposed moving two districts from neighbouring Pendle into Burnley, but has dropped a plan to bring Bacup into the seat.

The plan is part of a wider project to change constituency boundaries to ensure seats have roughly the same number of voters.

A public consultation on the national plans closes on 5 December.

The commission had originally proposed creating a Burnley and Bacup seat, but revised the plans to see the existing Burnley constituency, which is currently represented by Conservative MP Antony Higginbotham, enlarged to include the Pendle wards of Brierfield East and Clover Hill and Brierfield West and Reedley.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said a council vote on the new proposals was split, but the Labour-led authority had asked chief executive Mick Cartledge to write to the commission and express support for the changes.

Council leader Afrasiab Anwar said keeping "all our borough wards within the same constituency" was "a positive" and there were "existing community, transport and cultural links with Brierfield and Reedley".

He added that it was "a much better proposal than the previous version".

The boundary changes are due to be finalised in July.