New boundaries for St Albans?

The Boundary Commission is changing the shape of hundreds of English constituencies, following the Government's decision to reduce the overall number of MPs.

For St Albans, the suggestion is that we take on two wards from Harpenden&Hitchin constituency - Sandridge and Redbourn. As you can see from the map above, the additional area is huge, but of course the Redbourn ward in particular is very sparsely populated. Nevertheless, this would add about 8000 voters to the St Albans constituency. Because these two extra wards generally vote Tory, the change would make it even more likely that St Albans returns a Tory MP in 2015.

You can read more about the proposals, and how to respond to them, here.