The third periodic review of Westminster constituencies was undertaken in the United Kingdom between 1976 and 1983 by the four boundary commissions. The reviews took account of the major local government reorganisations that had become effective in 1974, and resulted in significant changes to the electoral map. The previous 635 seats were replaced with 650 constituencies, of which 90% were newly created or significantly revised. The new boundaries were first used for the 1983 general election.
Review process Under the terms of the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1958, the boundary commissions were required to present their final recommendations between 10 and 15 years after the submission of their previous reports. As the final reports for the second periodic review had been submitted between April and June 1969, the final reports for the Third Review were due to be submitted no later than June 1984. Accordingly, the English Commission had commenced their review in March 1976, anticipating that its review would take three years and would be complicated by the level of change to the local government boundaries. In the event, the review took over six years, mainly as a result of delays to the work of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. The Scottish and Welsh commissions commenced their reviews in February 1978 and February 1981 respectively, again experiencing problems with delays to local government boundary reviews. The process in Northern Ireland was delayed pending consideration of the province's representation by a Speaker's Conference. This resulted in an increase from 12 to 17 seats, as enacted by the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1979.
The final reports were submitted as follows:
Northern Ireland - 27 October 1982 Wales - 21 January 1983 England - 1 February 1983 Scotland - 18 February 1983
Changes
England As a result of the creation of six metropolitan counties and three new non-metropolitan counties (Avon, Cleveland and Humberside - all now abolished), many existing constituencies now crossed county boundaries, with some lying in three or even four counties (e.g. Goole, formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire, included parts in Humberside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire; and Newton, formerly in Lancashire, straddled Greater Manchester, Merseyside and a reconfigured Cheshire). Given the ancient tradition that constituency boundaries ought not to cross county boundaries, the configuration of the constituencies was, consequently, radically changed – particularly in the North of England. Although there was a redistribution of the number of seats in London, the South and the Midlands, the overall disruption to the existing layout was more limited as these areas were less affected by the local government reorganisation.
The Review abolished many long-established constituencies, such as Abingdon, Bedford1, Clitheroe, Colchester1, Eye, Hastings, Kidderminster, Morpeth, Oxford, Paisley, Petersfield, Ripon, Rye, Totnes1 and Warrington, which had all been in existence since at least 1832.
1 These were re-established at subsequent reviews.
The summary of changes below highlights newly created constituencies in bold and abolished ones in italic. Continuing seats are in plain text.
Overall, the English Commission increased the number of seats by seven, from 516 to 523.
East Midlands (42 seats) Number of seats increased by three.
Derbyshire (10) Belper, Ilkeston and South East Derbyshire abolished and succeeded by South Derbyshire, Amber Valley and Erewash respectively. Remaining 7 constituencies retained with moderate changes (High Peak, West Derbyshire, North East Derbyshire, Chesterfield, Bolsover, Derby North and Derby South).
Leicestershire (9) North West Leicestershire created, comprising over half of Loughborough and a substantial part of Bosworth. To compensate, these two constituencies gained parts of the abolished seat of Melton, the majority of which was combined with the former county of Rutland to form Rutland and Melton. Blaby, Harborough, Leicester East, Leicester South and Leicester West were unchanged.
Lincolnshire (6) Changes to the county boundary and the absorption of the county of Rutland by Leicestershire lead to significant changes. Gainsborough, Horncastle, and Rutland and Stamford were abolished and replaced respectively with Gainsborough and Horncastle, East Lindsey, and Stamford and Spalding. Grantham and Holland with Boston both lost parts of their electorates, whilst Lincoln was expanded.
Northamptonshire (6) Corby created from substantial areas of Kettering and Wellingborough. Parts of the new town of Northampton in Daventry transferred to both Northampton North and Northampton South.
Nottinghamshire (11) Sherwood created from parts of Newark and Ashfield, resulting in major changes to these two continuing seats. Knock-on impacts also resulted in reduced electorates for Bassetlaw, Mansfield, Beeston (renamed Broxtowe), Carlton (renamed Gedling) and Rushcliffe. In the city of Nottingham, significant changes were made to Nottingham East and Nottingham North, with Nottingham South replacing Nottingham West.
Eastern (51 seats) Number of seats increased by six.
Bedfordshire (5) Although the number of seats was unchanged and boundary changes were moderate, only Mid Bedfordshire was retained as a constituency name. Bedford, South Bedfordshire, Luton East and Luton West were abolished and succeeded by North Bedfordshire, South West Bedfordshire, Luton South and North Luton respectively.
Cambridgeshire (6) Cambridgeshire was split into South East Cambridgeshire and South West Cambridgeshire, with the latter including a substantial part of Huntingdonshire - now formally named Huntingdon. Modest changes to Cambridge, Peterborough and Isle of Ely, which was renamed North East Cambridgeshire.
Essex (16) Two additional constituencies: Billericay comprised a significant part of Basildon, together with areas transferred from Thurrock; and Rochford was formed primarily from the abolished constituency of Maldon, together with parts of Chelmsford and South East Essex (consequently renamed Castle Point). Remaining parts of Maldon, combined with southern areas of the abolished constituency of Colchester, formed South Colchester and Maldon, and northern parts of Colchester formed North Colchester which also included areas transferred from Harwich. Other minor changes affected Harlow, Brentwood and Ongar, Chelmsford and Braintree. Epping Forest, Saffron Walden, Southend East and Southend West were unchanged.
Hertfordshire (10) East Hertfordshire was divided between the two new constituencies of Broxbourne, and Hertford and Stortford, with the town of Hertford being transferred to the latter from Hertford and Stevenage, the bulk of which formed the new seat of Stevenage. Varying degrees of change to the three retained seats of South West Hertfordshire, St Albans and Watford and four with changed names - Hitchin to North Hertfordshire; Welwyn and Hatfield to Welwyn Hatfield; Hemel Hempstead to West Hertfordshire; and South Hertfordshire to Hertsmere.
Norfolk (8) Mid Norfolk created from parts of North Norfolk, South West Norfolk and Yarmouth (now officially named Great Yarmouth). The knock-on impacts resulted in significant changes to the other retained seats of North West Norfolk, South Norfolk, Norwich North and Norwich South.
Suffolk (6) Three new seats of Central Suffolk, South Suffolk and Suffolk Coastal were created as a result of the abolition of Eye and Sudbury and Woodbridge and substantial reductions in the electorates of Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich. Lowestoft was renamed Waveney with only minor changes.
London (84 seats) Number of seats reduced by eight.
The Commission continued to consider each London Borough separately. Consequently, the following eight boroughs each lost one seat:
Camden - Hampstead gained the Highgate ward and was renamed Hampstead and Highgate. The remainder of St Pancras North was combined with Holborn and St Pancras South to form Holborn and St Pancras. Hackney - Hackney Central abolished and absorbed into Hackney North and Stoke Newington and Hackney South and Shoreditch. Haringey - The majority of Wood Green was combined with the bulk of Hornsey to form Hornsey and Wood Green. Remaining parts of both abolished constituencies were transferred to Tottenham. Harrow - Harrow Central abolished and absorbed into Harrow East and Harrow West. Islington - Islington Central abolished and absorbed into Islington North and Islington South and Finsbury. One ward transferred from the former to the latter. Lambeth - Lambeth Central abolished, with majority being added to Vauxhall and remainder split between Streatham and Norwood. Wandsworth - Battersea North and Battersea South abolished. All of the former and majority of the latter formed Battersea, with remainder of the latter being transferred to Tooting. Putney unchanged. Westminster - Paddington and St Marylebone abolished, with small parts of both constituencies being transferred to The City of London and Westminster South. Remaining areas of both seats combined to form Westminster North.
In Tower Hamlets the boundary between the two seats was realigned, with Bethnal Green and Stepney and Bow and Poplar replacing Bethnal Green and Bow and Stepney and Poplar.
Elsewhere, there were minor changes to make the size of the electorates more equal in 11 boroughs, resulting in four seats being renamed: Richmond (Surrey) to Richmond and Barnes; Bermondsey to Southwark and Bermondsey; Woolwich East to Woolwich; and Woolwich West to Eltham. There were also three name changes which did not involve any boundary changes: Sidcup to Old Bexley and Sidcup; Carshalton to Carshalton and Wallington; and Hammersmith North to Hammersmith.
North East (30 seats) Number of seats reduced by one.
Cleveland (6) Stockton, Thornaby and Cleveland and Whitby were succeeded by Stockton North, Stockton South and Langbaurgh respectively, albeit with major changes to all three, resulting in a significant knock-on impact to the continuing seat of Middlesbrough. Hartlepool and Redcar were largely unchanged.
Durham (7) Chester-le-Street was abolished, with the majority of the seat being included in the new constituency of North Durham and parts in Blaydon, and Houghton and Washington in Tyne and Wear. Consett was also abolished, with its contents being divided between North Durham and a much altered North West Durham. Sedgefield was re-established, taking parts from the four continuing constituencies of North West Durham, City of Durham, Easington and Bishop Auckland. Darlington was unchanged.
Northumberland (4) Wansbeck was re-established (albeit with significantly different boundaries to previous versions), largely replacing Morpeth. An altered Blyth constituency was renamed Blyth Valley. Berwick-upon-Tweed (expanded) and Hexham (reduced in size) were retained.
Tyne and Wear (13) A new constituency spanning the River Tyne, named Tyne Bridge, was created from parts of six existing seats, including the majority of Gateshead West (abolished) and Newcastle upon Tyne Central. The existing seat of Newcastle upon Tyne North now effectively became a completely reconfigured Newcastle upon Tyne Central, and a new version of Newcastle upon Tyne North (with no parts in common with the old version) largely replaced the abolished constituency of Newcastle upon Tyne West. Houghton-le-Spring was succeeded by Houghton and Washington. Tynemouth, Wallsend, Blaydon, Gateshead East, Jarrow, South Shields, Sunderland North and Sunderland South were all retained with varying degrees of change.
North West (79 seats) Number of seats reduced by three.
Cheshire (10)