Tilehurst and Whitley will no longer be part of Reading Borough, under revised plans for parliamentary constituency boundary changes.

The proposals, published by the Boundary Commission for England yesterday (November 8), will see Tilehurst made part of a new ‘Mid Berkshire’ constituency.

Reading West and Reading East, currently represented by Conservative Alok Sharma and Matt Rodda, Labour, will cease to exist.

Reading Chronicle: Proposed Mid Berkshire boundariesProposed Mid Berkshire boundaries (Image: Boundary Commission for England)

Tim Bowden, Secretary to the Boundary Commission for England, said:  “Today we are announcing the publication of our revised proposals. Last year we published our initial proposals for new constituency boundaries – our first go at what the map should look like.

“We are delighted with the huge number of comments from members of the public on our initial proposals, many which included valuable evidence about local communities.

Today’s publication is the culmination of months of analysis and we have revised nearly half of our initial proposals based on what people have told us.

“We now believe we are close to the best map of constituencies that can be achieved under the rules we are working to.”

Under the plan, Whitley will become part of another new area, ‘Earley and Woodley’.

Reading will consist of the wards: Abbey; Battle; Caversham; Katesgrove; Mapledurham; Minster; Park; Peppard; Redlands; Southcote; and Thames.

Reading Chronicle: Proposed boundaries for Reading BoroughProposed boundaries for Reading Borough (Image: Boundary Commission for England)

The commission’s revised proposals sees the number of constituencies in England increasing from 533 to 543.

Conservative peer and elections expert Lord Hayward said the Tories are the main beneficiary of the changes.

“Broadly the Tories will gain five to 10 seats net because the new seats are in overwhelmingly Tory areas,” he said.

Seats will be redrawn so they have between 69,724 and 77,062 registered voters each.

The commission’s third and final consultation on a new electoral map is now open until December 5, with the final recommendations expected to be submitted to Parliament in July.

Mr Bowden said: “We still want people to tell us what they think of this latest map before we submit our final recommendations to Parliament next year.”