Town councillors have given their views on a major shake-up of constituency boundaries along the Norfolk and Suffolk border.

The proposed Waveney Valley constituency includes Diss and Harleston in Norfolk and Eye, Bungay and Halesworth in Suffolk. 

The new Waveney Valley seat will encompass parts of Richard Bacon's South Norfolk seat, Peter Aldous' Waveney seat, Therese Coffey's Suffolk Coastal seat and Dan Poulter's Central Suffolk and North Ipswich seat. 

The proposal was discussed at a meeting of Bungay Town Council on Thursday.

Councillors had mixed feelings about the plan for the new Waveney Valley seat which has been proposed by the Boundary Commission. 

Beccles & Bungay Journal: Map displaying the new proposed Waveney Valley constituency Map displaying the new proposed Waveney Valley constituency (Image: Boundary Commission)Councillor Dave O’Neill said: “I do not think the proposed new constituency makes much sense. 

“The new Waveney Valley constituency stretches all the way to Stowmarket, which I cannot understand as the Waveney Valley doesn’t stretch that far.

"People from Bungay don't even tend to go to Diss.

"When you drive along the A143, Diss disappears."

Deputy mayor Frances Betts said: "Population statistics are messing up our area. 

“The people who have redrawn the new constituency have looked at this like a numbers game without consideration for the people.” 

The meeting heard positive opinions, with suggestions that Bungay could benefit from more government money as Lowestoft had been prioritised before.

Bungay mayor Tony Dawes said: “Originally, they said we would be going all the way to Bury St Edmunds, which seemed crazy. A sort of long, thin, constituency. That was awful.  

“This looks like an improvement. It may work.   

“We have got Earsham and Ditchingham right on our borders, on the other side of the Waveney, but Bungay is the service town for those communities.  

“It is where they come to shop, it is where they see the doctors.   

“So being in the same constituency makes a lot of sense from that point of view.” 

The motion that councillors ended up agreeing on was for members to respond to the most recent proposal individually rather than collectively as a council. 

This is the final round of the consultation on the proposal which is open until December 5.

Following this date, the final proposal will be published and put to Parliament for approval in July.