A LEADING Tory councillor has called for a new fight to stop the latest proposed Parliamentary boundary changes for East Lancashire.

The Boundary Commission review of House of Commons constituencies published yesterday still recommends a merger of the Pendle and Ribble Valley constituencies.

This leaves their Conservative MPs Andrew Stephenson and Nigel Evans fighting for the party nomination for the single new seat.

A renamed Hyndburn and Burnley also see changes to new boundaries in Padiham under the revised plans, which need Parliamentary approval before the new map is used for the 2020 General Election.

As dismay grew over the new political map, Ribble Valley council leader Ken Hind called for a last-ditch protest campaign to stop the change before the end of the final consultation on December 11.

Mr Stephenson is ‘deeply disappointed’ at the latest proposals and yesterday Burnley MP Julie Cooper said: “These changes are unnecessary and unwelcome.

"To split Burnley from part of Padiham is totally illogical. I will be fighting to maintain the status quo.”

Cllr Hind said: “The proposals issued for Lancashire are a mish-mash.

“There is no community of interest between Ribble Valley and Colne.

“The latter is part an urban constituency with a strong proud industrial heritage, Ribble Valley is rural.

“Lots of the villages in the Trough of Bowland would go into a new constituency which stretches from the foothills of Pendle Carnforth in the North.

“The proposal can only have been written by someone drawing lines on a map in Whitehall who had never seriously travelled from Rimmington to Carnforth.

"This is not the final result, we should protest loud and long in the last stages of public consultation at the break up of the Ribble Valley Borough into two Parliamentary constituencies.

“We should encourage areas like Rimmington, Gisburn, Chatburn and Downham to argue to be included in a Ribble Valley constituency as their connections are with Clitheroe.”

Blackburn MP Kate Hollern, who gains Fernhurst ward from a redrawn Rossendale and Darwen seat stretching into Haslingden, expressed concern at the new boundaries nationwide.

She said: “Electors in deprived areas will see a reduction in their representation at parliamentary level. This surely goes against the democratic principles of our country’