A NORTH-East authority is objecting to proposals to split a city constituency in five as part of a review to redraw Parliamentary boundaries.

Durham County Council is writing to the Boundary Commission of England (BCE) to object “in the strongest possible terms” to proposed changes being made as part of national review.

The proposals would see the existing City of Durham constituency split and combined with the Easington area, which would be split between three constituencies.

The authority’s Constitution Working Group (CWG) is planning to write to the BCE after the full council meets next week.

A draft letter says: “Members were highly critical of, and would object in the strongest possible terms, to the BCE revised proposals for the county area. It is noted with concern that we are not considering minor re-alignments here.

“The revised proposals are a complete across-the-board change to BCE’s initial proposals with significant changes for the electorate of the county.

“Members are particularly concerned with the proposals to divide the existing ‘City of Durham’ constituency between five revised constituencies and the existing ‘Easington’ constituency between three revised constituencies and three local authority areas.”

Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods said: “It just doesn’t make any sense to split a small city in that way – there are strong ties throughout the city. From a county point of view having its capital divided in that way doesn’t make any sense.”

The review, which is being carried out with the aim of reducing the number of MPs nationally from 650 to 600, has been ongoing for several years and a first set of proposals were altered following public consultation.

Under the proposals the number of constituencies in the North-East would reduce from 29 to 25.

The BCE is running a consultation on its proposals until December 11 and Parliament is due to make a decision on the plans next September.