PLANS to reshape the region’s Parliamentary constituencies were greeted with incredulity and dismay yesterday.

One councillor denounced the Boundary Commission’s plans as “an attack on democracy”.

Click here to view an interactive map showing the boundaries before and after

In particular, there was hostility towards the creation of a 1,600 square-mile seat in the west of County Durham.

It will be called Consett and Barnard Castle, and will run from the edge of Darlington through Teesdale and Weardale, to Haltwhistle in Northumberland.

John Hodgson, of Ebchester, near Consett, said: “It would be far too big. We just wouldn’t see the MP. As for including Haltwhistle, I think it is ridiculous. What were they thinking? Have they lost the plot?”

Yvonne Hankin, from Barnard Castle, said: “I know nothing about Consett. I have never been there. How would an MP get all the way around everybody?”

The Northern Echo reported yesterday how the politically-independent commission plans to reduce the number of MPs by 50 to save £12m a year. This means radically redrawing all constituency boundaries.

The enlargement of places such as Darlington and Durham City appeared yesterday to be making sense, but there was dismay in the planned Sedgefield and Yarm constituency, which will take in Newton Aycliffe.

But the greatest concern was about the constituency to the west of the county.

James Rowlandson, Conservative county councillor for Barnard Castle East, said: “I can’t see any common thread. It seems like they have drawn a line around a mishmash of places.

“Barnard Castle didn’t have much common ground with Bishop Auckland, but we knew that people would travel there.

“This doesn’t seem to quite work somehow. It seems disappointing to me. It is very strange.”

Councillor Richard Bell, of Barnard Castle and leader of Durham County Council’s Conservatives, said: “There is some logic in putting the Durham Dales together. However, it’s a very long way from Hutton Magna in the south of Teesdale up to Haltwhistle in the north.

“I am somewhat surprised. I think before the Conservative party takes an official view on this we would need to study it in context with other seats proposed in County Durham and Northumberland.”

Councillor Tony Cooke, mayor of Barnard Castle, said: “I am extremely concerned. Links between Barnard Castle and Consett are tenuous. The sheer size will make it difficult for the MP to represent Teesdale to the standard expected by residents.

I think it could cause some problems.”

Helen Goodman, the Bishop Auckland MP who will lose Barnard Castle from her constituency, said: “The new MP will be bound to have their office in Consett as it has the biggest population, and people in Teesdale will be an hour away by car, and there are no public transport links.

“From a community point of view, it does not make sense.”

Pat Glass, the North-West Durham MP who would be likely to be Labour’s candidate in the new seat, said she would be presenting alternative proposals to the commission.

She said: “Crook and Tow Law have been moved out of North-West Durham into Bishop Auckland, and Teesdale has been moved from Bishop Auckland into the new constituency. Why disrupt all these communities where there are absolutely no historical, transport, social links at all?”

However, former Derwentside District Council leader Alex Watson said: “The proposals in many ways do make sense. With IT and video conferencing, you can be in touch face-to-face, if need be, with your MP – even if he or she resides in London.”

Mr Watson, a Labour party member, said he supported the cut in the number of MPs from 650 to 600, and last night Conservative MP James Wharton repeated his support for that principle.

The Stockton South MP said: “The proposals seem to have created a number of marginal constituencies in the south of the region which could upset the traditional political balance.”

He seems likely to contest the new Sedgefield and Yarm seat against Labour’s Phil Wilson, whose existing Sedgefield seat will alter dramatically.

Mr Wilson said: “The constituency will join Shildon with Yarm, go across the Tees, take in three boroughs and so has few community links.”

Labour county councillor Mike Dixon, who represents Newton Aycliffe, said: “It is an attack on democracy. It will cut across boundaries and put together areas with no link to each other.”

The Independent mayor of Yarm, Jason Hadlow, said: “The A66 will become the new Hadrian’s Wall. There is only one Tory stronghold on the north side of the divide and that is in Hexham, but on the south side it is a different story.

"In Yarm it is going to be like being in a frontier town being pulled in both directions.”

Councillor John Robinson, the Labour member for Sedgefield on Durham County Council, said: “I think it is a case of someone sat in an office in London and they have thought ‘we’ll do this and that without going anywhere near the North’.”