PEOPLE across Teesside are being asked for their views of proposals for new local electoral arrangements in their area.

The Boundary Committee for England is reviewing council ward boundaries in all areas of Teesside and it says there are areas where there are significant imbalances.

The committee suggests that the number of councillors in Middlesbrough should be reduced from 53 councillors representing 25 wards to 48 councillors covering 23 wards. It also says all but one of the ward boundaries should change to even out the number of electors councillors are representing.

In Stockton, the committee believes there should still be 55 councillors, but representing 26 wards instead of 30.

It also suggests there should be more councillors to represent Ingleby Barwick Parish Council.

In Redcar and Cleveland the report suggests the council should retain 59 councillors in 22 wards as at present, but the boundaries in 19 of the wards should be changed and these also affect the parish councils of Guisborough, Lockwood, Saltburn, Marske and New Marske and Skelton and Brotton.

But David Walsh, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said the report is flawed because it has got mixed up with the number of councillors in the Saltburn and St Germain's wards.

The committee recommends that Hartlepool should also have 47 councillors in 17 wards, as it does at the moment, but the boundaries for 15 of the wards should be changed.

This is mainly because councillors in Throston represent 32 per cent more electors than the borough average, while Owton, at the other extreme, represents 20 per cent fewer than average.

Pamela Gordon, chairman of the committee, said: "The aim of our review is to ensure that, as far as possible within each district, each person's vote should have the same value as another's without disrupting community identities.

"We are consulting until July 8 and I hope that all those affected by our proposals will tell us what they think about them."

The committee may change some of its proposals depending on the responses it receives during the consultation period and copies of the reports are available at www.boundarycommittee.org.uk, council offices and public libraries.

Alternatively, people can write to Boundary Committee for England, Trevelyan House, Great Peter Street, London, SW1P 2HW by July 8. Letters must be addressed to the Team Leader and the name of the relevant authority.