Let the great boundary rejig commence

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

I'm stuck in Blackburn now. If I keep Burnley and Accrington, which I want to keep because Pendle is such a nightmare, then that leaves chunks of Hyndburn in need of a partner. Rossendale is just too.....Daley......and I have plans to involve Bury.....so I'm stumped. How much of "Blackburn"  IS "Blackburn" ?

Everything that isn't Darwen AFAIK.

doktorb - split Blackburn up.  It's the solution to all your problems.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

Bolton, Salford and Wigan.  7.82 quotas.

First, the easy bit:
Wigan 75035.
Makerfield 73447.
Leigh 75330.  All unchanged.

The problem here is what to do with Bolton.  It's fairly clear to move the sink estate of Little Hulton into Bolton SE, but Bolton + Atherton + Little Hulton still isn't quite big enough for three seats.  Another 3000 voters have to be found from somewhere.  The options are:
(a) Move some more Salford territory into Bolton South East.  You can either draw a line through Walkden North ward (which is continuously built up) or chip off the area of Pendlebury ward outside the M60 (Clifton, although that's probably not large enough).  Or
(b) Cross the county boundary and move North Turton into Bolton North East.  I like this idea better; the county boundary between North and South Turton (Bromley Cross and Bradshaw wards) is pretty arbitrary, and North Turton is the other side of the moors from Darwen and Blackburn so it was a bit of a strange choice to throw it in with them administratively.  Also the Lancashire seat I had North Turton in (Blackburn and Darwen) can cope with having North Turton taken out.

Taking option (b) we have
Salford 81275-x.  Takes Broughton and Kersal back from Blackley and Broughton and loses Eccles and the western half of Swinton North (Wardley).
Eccles and Worsley 72728+x.  Gains Eccles and Wardley, reunifying Eccles in one seat.  Loses the sink estate of Little Hulton to Bolton SE.

Twenty wards in Bolton + Atherton + Little Hulton gives us 22 wards to divide between three seats, so two wards within Bolton will have to be split.

Bolton North East 70208+x.  Gains North Turton and 2000 voters from the northern part of Great Lever ward, which brings the whole of Bolton town centre into one seat.
Bolton West 71061+x.  Has to take about 2000 voters and no more out of Hulton ward.  Over Hulton is probably the best bet; if that's too large then draw a line through the built-up area south of Deane Road (which would mean that Deane is no longer split between seats).
Bolton South East 77942-x.  The rest, including Little Hulton.

[doktorb]

You see, I have caused myself no end of bother with Wigan.  I have a perfectly sized West Lancashire....but only if two wards are taken out and put into Wigan (this was when I thought the new Electoral Quota was going to be closer to 80,000).

So now I will have to cross Wigan with Bolton, using whole wards (I really am not confident or comfortable with splitting wards when I don't have the data). At the mo, Wigan, Makerfield, and Leigh, all have around 80,000 (Makerfield 82!)

If I find splitting wards unavoidable, then it opens up the question "Why didn't I split wards before".... I am not looking forward to sorting Gtr Manchester out at all!

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

The rest of Greater Manchester (Trafford, Manchester, Oldham, Tameside and Stockport) was the difficult bit to do.  This is the area that has to lose a seat and I was real trouble deciding what to do about Manchester Blackley in particular.

Oldham East and Saddleworth 72307-x.
Oldham West and Royton 72066+x.
I would have left these two alone, but Oldham West and Royton is a whole three voters outside tolerance.  Only a very small transfer is needed here; moving the boundary to the other side of a terrace or two should do it.

Hazel Grove 73150.
Takes Manor ward out of Stockport.

Stockport 82533-x.
Cheadle 71927+x.
Stockport moves north to take in the southern half of Denton and Reddish (the two Reddish wards plus Denton West).  This enables it to lose the western half of Davenport and Cale Green (the Adswood area) to Cheadle.  Apart from that Cheadle is unchanged.

Stalybridge and Hyde 78337.  Gains Dukinfield ward from Denton and Reddish, otherwise unchanged.
Ashton-under-Lyne 77338.  Ashton tends to get knocked about at boundary review time and this is no exception.  This Ashton gains the remainder of Denton and Audenshaw from Denton and Reddish.  To compensate for this, it loses Failsworth to...
Blackley and Failsworth 79748-x.  Charlestown, Cheetham, Crumpsall, Higher Blackley, Hulme, Moston, Failsworth East and Failsworth West.  This is slightly too large so the southern half of Cheetham ward (the area around Victoria Station and Strangeways Prison) will be shifted into Manchester Central.
Manchester Central 64542+x.  Ancoats/Clayton, Ardwick, Bradford, City Centre, Harpurhey, Miles Platting/Newton Heath and southern Cheetham as above.
Manchester Gorton 72891.  Fallowfield, the Gortons, Longsight, Moss Side, Rusholme, Whalley Range.
Manchester Withington 72685+x.  Burnage, Chorlton, Chorlton Park, Didsbury West, Levenshulme, Old Moat, Withington and the northern half of Didsbury East.

Unfortunately Sale has to be divided between three seats because of the numbers and geography of Trafford.

Wythenshawe and Sale East 77513-x.  Gains the southern half of Didsbury East; loses Brooklands.
Altrincham and Sale South 71845+x.  Gains Brooklands, loses half of Ashton upon Mersey.
Stretford and Urmston 77295-x.  The current seat plus the northern half of Ashton upon Mersey.

[afleitch]

Worth pointing out that rigidity to a quota produces seats similar to those originally proposed at the first Holyrood review where that Rule was taken to extremes (over that of community links, continuity etc). Indeed the Assistant Commissioner slammed the Commission for confering (on the need to have seats 'on quota') an importance that it did not have and that the legislation did not intend it to have.

Now of course, this legislation is being amended for Westminster reviews. I expect smug faces at the Boundary Comission for Scotland

[minionofmidas]

Blackley and Failsworth 79748-x.  Charlestown, Cheetham, Crumpsall, Higher Blackley, Hulme, Moston, Failsworth East and Failsworth West.  This is slightly too large so the southern half of Cheetham ward (the area around Victoria Station and Strangeways Prison) will be shifted into Manchester Central.
Manchester Central 64542+x.  Ancoats/Clayton, Ardwick, Bradford, City Centre, Harpurhey, Miles Platting/Newton Heath and southern Cheetham as above.

Which leaves you with just 152 persons' leeway. Better to see if you can identify some area in a neighboring seat that can also be put into one of these two.

[minionofmidas]

Greater Manchester 25.52 : Wigan 3.09, Bolton 2.59, Bury 1.87, Salford 2.15, Trafford 2.17, Manchester 4.43, Stockport 2.88, Tameside 2.17, Oldham 2.11, Rochdale 2.06
Lancashire 11.74 + Blackburn 1.34 + Blackpool 1.47 = 14.55
The huge obvious problems here are already being pondered by others, so I'll leave it for now.

Since we now have 26 seats for Greater Manchester (plus North Turton), we'll need just 14 seats for Lancaster (minus North Turton). Good luck.

3.93 4 Bury & Rochdale
3.09 3 Wigan (except your excluding one ward as at current, taking you to 2.95)
5.05 5 Stockport & Tameside
2.11 2 Oldham (except you treated part with Manchester, dropping this to just 1.90)
6.60 7 Manchester & Trafford (and part of Oldham, taking you to 6.81)
4.74 5 Bolton & Salford (and a wigan ward and a tiny part of Lancashire, taking you to 4.93 and your Lancashire total to 14.50)

Is Doktorb on track to 14 seats? If not, this may have be reworked, seeing as not only have we a 5% corridor, but we also have a fixed total of England-wide seats. (Or else I have to revisit London, see if I can eliminate a seat somewhere somehow. That's the third option.) But just off these figures... what I'd suggest trying for is finding some other, smaller Oldham area to drop into Manchester - although this part is optional; treat Salford with Manchester/Trafford instead of Bolton; draw some kind of Bolton N & Darwen monstrosity. [Actually looks at a map] Or possibly Bolton W and Bits of Chorley is actually slightly less monstrous? The reason I'm suggesting Bolton as the place to breach the county line is just that it's the only Greater Manchester Borough by it to need a partner; I understand it's geography doesn't really lend itself to the suggestion. So maybe breach both the Bolton-Wigan line (to a larger extent than it is now) and the Wigan-West Lancs line just as Doktorb said (or since the area he was saying is also apparently to small in and of itself, use that and North Turton, leaving you with 14 slightly less oversized, and thus now more obtainable, seats in Lancashire?

[doktorb]

I have not looked at my proposals today, but I may well need to cross Wigan-Bolton to sustain Wigan-West Lancs.

As it goes, my current state of play in Lancs is:

1) Lancaster and Morecambe
2) Valleys of Ribble and Lune
3) Fleetwood and Bispham
4) Blackpool
5) Fylde
6) Preston
7) South Ribble
West Lancashire
9) Chorley
10) Pendle and Burnley North
11) Burnley and Accrington

Which leaves me with

1) The whole of Blackburn borough
2) The whole of Rossendale borough
3) Most of Hyndburn borough

Out of which to get....3....seats? Or 4? I will begin again tomorrow....

[minionofmidas]

Actually looking through this thing on the detailed map now (will finally do the same with the proposed Lancs seats right after, I promise!), and
1) I understand the reasoning around Oldham / Failsworth. Consider that suggestion withdrawn.

Blackley and Failsworth 79748-x.  Charlestown, Cheetham, Crumpsall, Higher Blackley, Hulme, Moston, Failsworth East and Failsworth West.  This is slightly too large so the southern half of Cheetham ward (the area around Victoria Station and Strangeways Prison) will be shifted into Manchester Central.
Manchester Central 64542+x.  Ancoats/Clayton, Ardwick, Bradford, City Centre, Harpurhey, Miles Platting/Newton Heath and southern Cheetham as above.

You got Hulme and Harpurhey mixed up. As a result the populations are actually 80,420 and 63,870; although as the two constituencies share a ward anyways it doesn't actually change the game in any relevant ways.

[minionofmidas]

As it goes, my current state of play in Lancs is:

1) Lancaster and Morecambe
2) Valleys of Ribble and Lune
3) Fleetwood and Bispham
4) Blackpool
5) Fylde
6) Preston
7) South Ribble
West Lancashire
9) Chorley
10) Pendle and Burnley North
11) Burnley and Accrington

Which leaves me with

1) The whole of Blackburn borough
2) The whole of Rossendale borough
3) Most of Hyndburn borough

Out of which to get....3....seats? Or 4? I will begin again tomorrow....

Are you sure that's* all that's left? Even with the whole of Hyndburn, that's actually slightly too small for three seats.

*well that and a bit of W Lancs, we know that.

[minionofmidas]

Notes in teletype because too many quotes look messy.

Valleys of Ribble and Lune (74,761)
The borough of Ribble Valley, plus everything that isn't in the Lancaster and Morecambe seat I discribe below. Yes, I've checked Street View and Google Earth to confirm that there IS a single track country lane linking adjoining wards, so all is well.
74,671, actually; not that it matters in the slightest (or else we both have the same suming error for Lancaster... no wait, I never summed Lancaster, I summed the wards removed just to get an exact listing of which they were. All of the at all territorial wards 'cept Overton, btw, in case anyone's wondering. And it looks much prettier if you keep Overton ward with Lancaster & Morecambe.)

Lancaster and Morecambe (78,808)
The city of Lancaster, inc. its Uni, plus Morecambe and Heysham. Can't get more sensible than that.

Blackpool (74,074)
The existing Blackpool South, this has been extended up the Golden Mile to just miss out Bispham. If I were a Scottish Boundary Commissioner, I would call this "Blackpool South and West", but I'm not, so I won't.
Claremont and Warbreck added (what the description sounds like) is 74,283. As none of the other possible combos give 74,074, I have no idea what happened. Doesn't really matter, though.

Fleetwood and Bispham (72,765)
JUST in quota, but good God am I glad to see the back of this. Fleetwood, Cleveleys, and the eastern suburbs of Blackpool all the way down to Stanley Park.  I could see no other way to undo the tangle here, this works very well.
Yeah, maybe these kinds of errors just happen a lot with the way you work this? Maybe rely less on excel and more on scrap paper, it's what I swear by. (do smileys even work in teletype? I'll find out when I hit post.) I work it out at 74,673, defining Cleveleys as the part of Wyre in the current Blackpool N & Cleveleys and Fleetwood as the part of Wyre in the current Lancaster & Wyre 'cept the three rural wards. Very nicely drawn constituency, btw; I like it.

Fylde (76,339)
The borough plus Poulton-le-Fylde and Carleton. This has been my idea from the start, stop Fylde from being tagged onto Preston (or the other way round).  Yes, Wyre is split three ways but THERE IS NO OTHER CHOICE.
76,335... without Staina and Norcross wards. Much too large with them.

Wyre and Preston North (76,733)
It pains me to keep this seat, but I have no choice, the other combinations just would not work for me (I groaned out loud when I saw my Excel spreadsheet turn from "under quota blue" to "over quota red" when I tried adding Fylde to Preston).  Anyway, this is not quite the seat as we know it now, I've added Wyresdale ward, and the Pilling/Hambleton bits too, which I think are in Lancaster and Fleetwood now. Loses the connection with Poulton-le-Fylde, which wasn't really valid/legit anyway.
74,408 on my maths. I've assumed Lea (which you didn't list) and Ingol are here. (Hambleton is part of the ward called Preesall, which basically includes the two and some much smaller hamlets.) See also below at Fylde (figure includes Staina and Norcross). Now that I think of it... I guess that's what you meant by the ugly threeway split of Wyre, cause if it was just the rural parts I couldn't see what the problem was. I would suggest moving the four eastern rural Fylde wards (Newton, Medlar, Elswick, Singleton) here and Staina and Norcross to Fylde, giving 74,274 here and 76,469 in Fylde. And without any part of the urban part of Wyre, it might then be better called Preston N & Garstang (after the former RD). Though the Valley of the Wyre is still here, of course.

Preston (74,807)
The existing constituency, though it loses Ingol. I really wanted to Ingol, but its shape and size made other constructions very difficult. With Preston being so tiny (fewer than 55,000 voters I believe) I expand it to include the whole of Bamber Bridge, Walton-le-Dale, Salmlesbury and Coupe Green.  I know from my own experience that this is "commute to work" world so it's a feasable seat.
75,015. Should probably be renamed Preston South & Bamber Bridge.

South Ribble (76,429)
Regains Lostock Hall, Farington, Tardy Gate, a removal I never did agree with. Keeps only one ward from Chorley borough, and loses any links with West Lancs borough, so becomes far more compact than currently.
I have this as just 69,386, what am I doing wrong?

Pendle and Burnley North (78,931)
I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW. Just hold on. I didn't want to split Ribble Valley, the wards are too awkward, so I looked at the boroughs of the East, realised they were all fairly undersized, so have tried to work out what best to do by taking wards in-and-out, and this was the best result I could draw (for now). This takes three Burnley wards - Lanehead, Queensgate, and Daneshouse. I didn't go for Briercliffe, my first option, because that closed down options for other seats.

Burnley and Accrington (77,316)
The rest of the Burnley borough, all of it, plus Accrington ('cept Church ward, which I will assume looks towards Clayton-le-Moors........doesn't it?)
As far as Spring Hill and Baxenden, inclusive? That gives your pop. total.
I see the reasoning for the strange boundary in Burnley now; since Briercliffe is oversized, you could have used only two wards, and that would have forced a stranger split in Accrington as a knock-on.

I have a perfectly sized West Lancashire....but only if two wards are taken out and put into Wigan (this was when I thought the new Electoral Quota was going to be closer to 80,000).
Upholland and Brightington? That gives 76,497 for the resulting West Lancashire seat.

[minionofmidas]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

To which your reply is that there usually should be no need to split wards in a county/district council area because their wards are smaller, but that it is unavoidable in the Metros and some UAs.

[doktorb]

Ah, I've missed out Wyre and Preston North, so that's 12 with 3 bits left to play with

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

Greater Manchester 25.52 : Wigan 3.09, Bolton 2.59, Bury 1.87, Salford 2.15, Trafford 2.17, Manchester 4.43, Stockport 2.88, Tameside 2.17, Oldham 2.11, Rochdale 2.06
Lancashire 11.74 + Blackburn 1.34 + Blackpool 1.47 = 14.55
The huge obvious problems here are already being pondered by others, so I'll leave it for now.

Since we now have 26 seats for Greater Manchester (plus North Turton), we'll need just 14 seats for Lancaster (minus North Turton). Good luck.

3.93 4 Bury & Rochdale
3.09 3 Wigan (except your excluding one ward as at current, taking you to 2.95)
5.05 5 Stockport & Tameside
2.11 2 Oldham (except you treated part with Manchester, dropping this to just 1.90)
6.60 7 Manchester & Trafford (and part of Oldham, taking you to 6.81)
4.74 5 Bolton & Salford (and a wigan ward and a tiny part of Lancashire, taking you to 4.93 and your Lancashire total to 14.50)

Is Doktorb on track to 14 seats? If not, this may have be reworked, seeing as not only have we a 5% corridor, but we also have a fixed total of England-wide seats. (Or else I have to revisit London, see if I can eliminate a seat somewhere somehow. That's the third option.) But just off these figures... what I'd suggest trying for is finding some other, smaller Oldham area to drop into Manchester - although this part is optional; treat Salford with Manchester/Trafford instead of Bolton; draw some kind of Bolton N & Darwen monstrosity. [Actually looks at a map] Or possibly Bolton W and Bits of Chorley is actually slightly less monstrous? The reason I'm suggesting Bolton as the place to breach the county line is just that it's the only Greater Manchester Borough by it to need a partner; I understand it's geography doesn't really lend itself to the suggestion. So maybe breach both the Bolton-Wigan line (to a larger extent than it is now) and the Wigan-West Lancs line just as Doktorb said (or since the area he was saying is also apparently to small in and of itself, use that and North Turton, leaving you with 14 slightly less oversized, and thus now more obtainable, seats in Lancashire?

First off:

Bolton North and Darwen: HELL NO.  No way do I want my town to be associated with Darreners.

Bolton West and bits of Chorley is certainly plausible; the pre-1983 Westhoughton seat basically covered that sort of area.

Treating Salford with Manchester is already done.  Trafford can only be paired with Manchester because the boundary between Trafford and Salford is the Manchester Ship Canal, and the only fixed bridge over the canal here is the M60 one (the Barton High Level Bridge).

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

Oh, and you already have a proposal for Lancashire of course...

Had a go at Lancashire this morning and I think it's actually the easiest bit of the North West to do.  Throw in Sefton as well (as you have to to avoid splitting Formby) and you have 17.32 quotas.

As far as I can see Fleetwood and Blackpool do go into two if you're prepared to keep the current boundary between the Blackpool North and Wyre seats.  Move Fleetwood back into Blackpool North and move a couple of wards from Blackpool North into Blackpool South to even up the electorates.

So far I've ended up with:
Accrington and Blackburn North 77,911 (this is the 'bits and pieces' seat as Padiham is in there too)
Blackburn and Darwen 76,800
Blackpool North and Fleetwood 78,166
Blackpool South 74,144
Bootle 71,995 (unchanged, but I'll probably throw half a Liverpool ward in there at some point)
Burnley and Nelson 76,611
Chorley and Bamber Bridge 78,501 (also has a rural ward from Blackburn)
Colne and Clitheroe 78,171
Fylde 78,706 (expands north of Preston)
Lancaster and Morecambe 78,808
Preston 77,401 (all the urban wards except Ingol)
Rossendale and Oswaldtwistle 76,104
Sefton Central 77,202 (now includes the countryside west of Ormskirk)
South Ribble 79,239 (Penwortham, Leyland and Euxton)
Southport 78,531 (goes east to the River Douglas)
West Lancashire 77,504 (expands northeast as far as Coppull).
Wyre and Lunesdale 75,930

The rest of the NW will be more difficult.  Cumbria comes to 5.16 seats so it can have five seats of its own. The Wirral comes to 3.18 seats so it'll have to be moved in with Cheshire, but that leaves 25.57 seats for Greater Manchester, 13.52 seats for Cheshire + Wirral and 7.48 seats for Liverpool, Knowsley and St Helens (which is impossible with a 5% tolerance).  You'll have to combine those areas somehow, and the larger ward sizes in Cheshire and the mets will make it difficult to do. 

The only real problem with those proposals now is that Bootle is too small, so I'll have to throw half a Liverpool ward in.  Liverpool is something like 4.18 quotas so something has to give anyway.

[minionofmidas]

Ah, I've missed out Wyre and Preston North, so that's 12 with 3 bits left to play with

Ah, you also list a Chorley. And since one ward (which I assumed to mean Lostock) is in your undersized South Ribble already, Chorley is just 67,806.

[doktorb]

I have Chorley at 76,046 - using December figures?

[minionofmidas]

Rossendale & Darwen is a legal population currently; seems a waste to throw it away. My first idea (before even noticing it was legal already, lol) was to add the two Rossendale wards currently in Hyndburn constituency and maybe drop that one Blackburn with Darwen ward that looks from the overview map like it belongs with Blackburn, not Darwen. This is still legal - and makes Blackburn legal, too!
Alas, that one ward only looks like that from the overview map; that area is Lower Darwen (though it has a different name as a ward). And further, that leaves 35,051 people on the western side of Hyndburn locked off.
So no go that way, then.

I have Chorley at 76,046 - using December figures?

Yes, but the error was mine. I accidentally subtracted from the constituency rather than the borough figure.

Incidentally... Rossendale & the Hyndburn remnants is also a legal district, at 78,611.

[doktorb]

Ah, heh, no probs. I couldn't possibly use scraps of paper, Excel is cluttered enough as it is !

[minionofmidas]

Oh, and you already have a proposal for Lancashire of course...
Accrington and Blackburn North 77,911 (this is the 'bits and pieces' seat as Padiham is in there too)
Blackburn and Darwen 76,800
Blackpool North and Fleetwood 78,166
Blackpool South 74,144
Bootle 71,995 (unchanged, but I'll probably throw half a Liverpool ward in there at some point)
Burnley and Nelson 76,611
Chorley and Bamber Bridge 78,501 (also has a rural ward from Blackburn)
Colne and Clitheroe 78,171
Fylde 78,706 (expands north of Preston)
Lancaster and Morecambe 78,808
Preston 77,401 (all the urban wards except Ingol)
Rossendale and Oswaldtwistle 76,104
Sefton Central 77,202 (now includes the countryside west of Ormskirk)
South Ribble 79,239 (Penwortham, Leyland and Euxton)
Southport 78,531 (goes east to the River Douglas)
West Lancashire 77,504 (expands northeast as far as Coppull).
Wyre and Lunesdale 75,930

The rest of the NW will be more difficult.  Cumbria comes to 5.16 seats so it can have five seats of its own. The Wirral comes to 3.18 seats so it'll have to be moved in with Cheshire, but that leaves 25.57 seats for Greater Manchester, 13.52 seats for Cheshire + Wirral and 7.48 seats for Liverpool, Knowsley and St Helens (which is impossible with a 5% tolerance).  

(...)
The only real problem with those proposals now is that Bootle is too small, so I'll have to throw half a Liverpool ward in.  Liverpool is something like 4.18 quotas so something has to give anyway.

Cheshire/Wirral will have to be paired with Shropshire (I hate it but... there is nothing else that could possibly be done about Shropshire.)
You could pair Saint Helens with Wigan I guess... could you write this thingy up in a detailed format? Oh, and see if you can't throw a ward or half-a-ward to Bootle to the northward.

EDIT: Actually, I know just the area. The Molyneux ward is a rotten disgrace, consisting of a bit of Ragnull, a bit of Kirkby, all of Netherton which is built-up continuously to Liverpool through Litherland and Bootle, and empty land in between the three and to the north. So Netherton would go into Bootle, the rest would not.

[YL]

Yeah, I'm far too lazy to work out where Westmorland used to end.

The part of Westmorland in Eden district seems to be Long Marton, Kirkby Thore, Eamont and Askham wards, the part of Ullswater ward around the head of the lake (Glenridding and Patterdale), and everything in Eden to the south of those.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

Oh, and you already have a proposal for Lancashire of course...

(...)
The rest of the NW will be more difficult.  Cumbria comes to 5.16 seats so it can have five seats of its own. The Wirral comes to 3.18 seats so it'll have to be moved in with Cheshire, but that leaves 25.57 seats for Greater Manchester, 13.52 seats for Cheshire + Wirral and 7.48 seats for Liverpool, Knowsley and St Helens (which is impossible with a 5% tolerance). 

(...)
The only real problem with those proposals now is that Bootle is too small, so I'll have to throw half a Liverpool ward in.  Liverpool is something like 4.18 quotas so something has to give anyway.

Cheshire/Wirral will have to be paired with Shropshire (I hate it but... there is nothing else that could possibly be done about Shropshire.)
You could pair Saint Helens with Wigan I guess... could you write this thingy up in a detailed format? Oh, and see if you can't throw a ward or half-a-ward to Bootle to the northward.

EDIT: Actually, I know just the area. The Molyneux ward is a rotten disgrace, consisting of a bit of Ragnull, a bit of Kirkby, all of Netherton which is built-up continuously to Liverpool through Litherland and Bootle, and empty land in between the three and to the north. So Netherton would go into Bootle, the rest would not.

Sefton wards are just daft generally (although Netherton is a separate ward).  However, Molyneux, Park and Sudell wards basically constitute the town of Maghull and are worth keeping together.

Merseyside entitlements are 4.18 seats for Liverpool, 1.47 for Knowsley, 1.82 for St Helens, 2.74 for Sefton and 3.17 for the Wirral.

I've just had a look at this now and I've had a brainwave - the town of Widnes (everything in Halton north of the Mersey) is 0.61 quotas.  This quite neatly solves the problem of Liverpool + Knowsley + St Helens coming out to an impossible number; Liverpool + Knowsley + St Helens + Widnes is 8.08 quotas, and we can then form a new Runcorn constituency in Cheshire.

For the rest of Cheshire, Cheshire East is 3.81 quotas so could form 4 seats of its own but it would be very tight.  Cheshire West and Chester is 3.32, Runcorn 0.60, Warrington 1.98 so the two Warrington seats I will probably leave as they are.

So...

Bootle 83145-x.  The current seat plus half of Kirkdale ward from Liverpool.
Liverpool Walton 71246+x.  The current seat plus Kensington and Fairfield and the other half of Kirkdale ward.
Liverpool Central and Wavertree 72249.  Central, Greenbank, Picton, Princes Park, Riverside, St Michael's, Wavertree.  If this seems a bit small you could split Kirkdale three ways...
Liverpool West Derby 74356.  The current seat plus Old Swan.
Liverpool Garston 77468.  Allerton/Hunts Cross, Childwall, Church, Cressington, Mossley Hill, Speke/Garston, Woolton.
Knowsley 79271.
St Helens North 75866.
St Helens South and Whiston 78705.
All unchanged.
Widnes and Halewood 72208.  All the Halton wards north of the Mersey, plus the Halewood wards from Knowsley and Belle Vale ward from Liverpool.

Comments on Liverpool welcome as it's not a city I know that well.  Will write up my Lancashire proposals in detail tomorrow.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

Rossendale & Darwen is a legal population currently; seems a waste to throw it away. My first idea (before even noticing it was legal already, lol) was to add the two Rossendale wards currently in Hyndburn constituency and maybe drop that one Blackburn with Darwen ward that looks from the overview map like it belongs with Blackburn, not Darwen. This is still legal - and makes Blackburn legal, too!

Pretty much the only thing Rossendale and Darwen have in common is that they are small towns in deep valleys.  However, Rossendale looks south down the Irwell valley to Bury and Manchester (except for Bacup which hasn't yet realised there's a world outside Bacup), while Darwen looks north down its own valley to Blackburrn.  The seat as currently drawn doesn't have a road connection between the two towns, and doesn't even include the whole of Rossendale (part of Haslingden is in the Hyndburn seat).  It was a bad idea to combine the two in the first place, it's an abomination of a seat and I'm trying to get rid of it.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Just to add emphasis... the constituency as it was 1997-2010:

[doktorb]

I will look at this today. What's the figures for the borough of Blackburn with Darwen? If I can combine Rossendale with the  bits of Hyndburn left over, and create two seats out of BwD, I won't have to move into Gtr Manchester at all....