At the 3rd consultation stage of the Boundary Commission in November last year, the Commission was proposing considerable changes to our current Wiltshire Associations, as well as the creation of a new Constituency - Melksham and Devizes. In their latest proposal, the DCCA, would lose Devizes to this new Association and gain a few other Wards such as Amesbury, Till Valley, Wroughton and Wichelstowe, Ridgeway and part of Chiseldon and Lawn. We would become the East Wiltshire Association.
The Boundary Commission now has until the 30th June 2023 to come back with their final proposals which will then take effect at the next General Election, which has to be held by end January 2025.
CCHQ has instructed all Conservative Associations to prepare themselves for these changes now, on the basis that apart from a few small tweaks, the final proposal will closely reflect what they have already proposed. To this end they invited all sitting Conservative MP’s to decide by mid-December which seats they would like to be considered for and asked all the new proposed Associations to set up Selection Councils – as per the party rules and guidelines.
Selection Councils were set up for both the new East Wiltshire Association and for the Melksham and Devizes Association and that East Wiltshire has adopted Danny Kruger to be their candidate at the next General Election and Melksham and Devizes has adopted Michelle Donelan to be their candidate. The revised Chippenham Association will be organizing a selection process for their candidate over the next few months.
Once the Boundary Commission has submitted their final proposal by the end of June, the process will commence to actually set up these new Associations in the 2nd half of this year. We will keep everyone informed on this process in due course, in the meanwhile we will all be working to make sure any transition happens as smoothly as possible.