The Commission have not adopted the recommendations contained in the report submitted to them by the Assistant Commissioner, Miss Frances Patterson QC, who considered the written representations made to the Commission and the views expressed at the public inquiry held between 27th June and 5th July 2005.

The Boundary Commission has just released the final recommendations of the Parliamentary Constituency Review. The Commission has decided to reject the Assistant Commissioner’s recommendation that West Yorkshire should retain twenty-three constituencies and they confirm their allocation of twenty-two constituencies to the county.

This means that the Normanton Constituency will disappear and Pontefract Constituency will be renamed as Normanton and Pontefract County Constituency. Normanton and Pontefract Constituency will have a population of 78,641 and will cover seven of the Wakefield Council Wards, these being; Airedale and Ferry Fryston, Altofts and Whitwood, Castleford Central and Glasshoughton, Knottingley, Normanton, Pontefract North and Pontefract South.

As with their provisional recommendations, the Commission are statutorily required to consider representations made about their revised recommendations for the Borough of Kirklees and the Cities of Leeds and Wakefield within one month of local publication on 19th January 2006.

Representations about the revised recommendations should be addressed to The Boundary Commission for England, PO Box 31060, London, SW1V 2FF, or faxed to 020 7533 5176, or emailed to chris.ault@ons.gov.uk