Wells residents have only a few weeks to give their final thoughts on proposals for how the county will be carved up at the next general election.

The Boundary Commission for England (BCE) has so far held two rounds of public consultation on its proposals to redraw the parliamentary constituency boundaries ahead of the next general election, which must be held by January 2025. The previous round, which concluded on April 4, drew significant feedback from Somerset residents, as well as prompting disagreements between two of the county's Conservative MPs.

The BCE has now published its final proposals, which are out for a third round of public consultation until December 5 before being presented to parliament in the new year. The area covered by Somerset County Council is currently divided into five constituencies - Bridgwater and West Somerset, Somerton and Frome, Taunton Deane, Wells and Yeovil.

Four of these seats currently have Conservative MPs, with David Warburton representing Somerton and Frome as an independent, having had the whip withdrawn in April following allegations of sexual assault. Under the proposals, the total number of seats in the House of Commons will remain at 650 - but the number of constituencies in England will increase from 533 to 543.

The new boundaries are designed to make representation more equal, with each seat having a population of between 69,724 and 77,062 people.

WELLS AND MENDIP HILLS - expected constituents: 69,843

James Heappey has held the Wells seat since 2015 - but the new Wells constituency will bear little resemblance to the current one. While it still includes Axbridge, Cheddar, Shepton Mallet and Wells itself, the new constituency loses the coastal towns of Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge to the new Bridgwater seat.

Interestingly, the new constituency also includes Yatton and other settlements which currently form the eastern part of the Weston-super-Mare seat held by John Penrose since 2005. While the seat remains largely rural with an ageing population (characteristics which would traditionally point towards a Tory victory), the Lib Dems won heavily in this area at the May local elections - so things could get very interesting once a general election is called.

GLASTONBURY AND SOMERTON - expected population: 69,990

(Image: Boundary Commission for England)

The new Glastonbury and Somerton seat is being created out of most of the existing Somerton and Frome seats, including the towns of Castle Cary, Langport, Somerton and Wincanton (but not Bruton). It will also include the town of Glastonbury, the neighbouring village of Street, and the Ham Hill tourist attraction - much to the chagrin of Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh, who said the change "makes no sense".

On the basis of the unitary election results in May, the seat could be another potential battleground, with the Conservatives retaining support in Wincanton while losing ground to the Lib Dems in the western half of the proposed constituency. But with the Green party still retaining strong pockets of support - especially in Glastonbury - this may end up being a constituency where many of the more left-leaning parties end up competing for the same votes.

BCE secretary Tim Bowden said: " Last year we published our initial proposals for new constituency boundaries - our first go at what the map should look like. We are delighted with the huge number of comments from members of the public on our initial proposals, many which included valuable evidence about local communities.

"This is the culmination of months of analysis and we have revised nearly half of our initial proposals based on what people have told us. We now believe we are close to the best map of constituencies that can be achieved under the rules we are working to.

"However, we still want people to tell us what they think of this latest map before we submit our final recommendations to parliament next year. This is our final consultation and I encourage you to participate in the 2023 boundary review."

To view the proposed constituency boundaries in more detail and to leave your feedback, visit www.bcereviews.org.uk before December 5. The BCE will take any feedback on board when it writes its final report to the Speaker of the House of Commons (Lindsay Hoyle MP), which he will receive before July 1, 2023 .

If a general election is called before this date, it will be staged on the existing constituency boundaries, with the new boundaries being adopted for any subsequent general election.