THE Parliamentary seat of Coventry South would be combined with Kenilworth in revised proposals to change constituency boundaries published today.
The Boundary Commission is seeking the public’s views until December 11.
Coventry North west and Coventry North east- solid Labour seats – would remain.
The new Coventry South and Kenilworth constituency proposal could prove unpopular with some.
Kenilworth and Southam MP Jeremy Wright – the attorney general – enjoys a huge majority for the Conservatives.
JIm Cunningham has been Labour MP for Coventry South since the new seat was formed in 1997 – through a merger of the old Coventry South East and Coventry South West constituencies.
It has been a stable Labour seat, despite being targeted in the last three general elections by the Conservatives.
Under the new proposals, Southam would be moved into a new Rugby and Southam seat.
It would mean the second recent change for Kenilworth voters. They were lumped in with Rugby in the last decade until 2010, and had previously been part of a Warwick and Leamington constituency.
Some will argue the new arrangements would again twin unlikely bedfellows across county boundaries.
The number of Coventry and Warwickshire constituencies would reduce from 9 to 8.
Conservatives in government have sought to reduce the number of Parliamentary constituencies, and make them more even in terms of numbers of voters.
The Boundary Commission states on its website today: “By including Coventry and Warwickshire in a sub‑region, we have been able to minimise change across these two areas and have proposed a Coventry South and Kenilworth constituency, thereby allowing for all of the Warwick University campus to be included in one constituency.”
The proposal revises the Boundary Commission’s previous proposals. It notes there was public opposition to the earlier plan to move Meriden and Knowle in with Coventry South west.
There was also ‘widespread opposition’ in Warwick and Leamington to the earlier proposal for a new Warwick and Stratford constituency.
The Boundary Commission continues: “There were objections to the proposed division of the City of Coventry between constituencies.
“It was accepted that the electorate of the city was too small to allow for the retention of three constituencies, each wholly within the city boundary.
“We had included two Solihull wards (Knowle and Meriden) in our initial proposals for a Coventry West and Meriden constituency.”
The Conservative, Lib Dem and Green parties instead argued for Kenilworth to join with Coventy South.
Coventry stalwart MPs Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) and Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North west) had argued the case for bringing Bedworth into a Coventry constituency.
But the commissioners rule that would cause too much disruption to existing boundaries and too great a divergence for their previous proposals, notably in north Warwickshire.
