I SEE from last week’s issue that Lymm is destined to be cast out from Warrington South constituency and will be added to Tatton ie, Knutsford, Wilmslow, Alderley Edge and Handforth (Warrington Guardian, November 10).

The commission argued that ‘while Thelwall is an intrinsic part of Central Warrington it is separated from the rural market town of Lymm by empty land and the M6 motorway’.

The so-called empty land is a couple of hundred yards, while the gap on the other side looking to Tatton runs for miles. Rural?

With a huge amount of recent development and a population of more than 12,000, it is hardly that. Neither is it a market town. What price accuracy?

It was only a few years ago that the commissioners decided that council seats too should be redistributed. Lymm North and Thelwall was created, apparently because they were so geographically close.

Before that there were three Lymm councillors. They sat on Warrington Borough Council which neatly consisted of two parliamentary seats, Warrington North and South.

The whole ludicrous situation highlights the parlous state of our democracy.

We are the only country in Europe (apart from Belarus) which operates the blatantly unfair ‘first past the post’ system.

Lymm voters might as well give up now. In Warrington South our vote counted in a swing seat.

In Tatton? Forget it. Tory top five.

Older Lymm-ites may look back wistfully to the time of the Urban District Councils when places like Lymm took responsibility for their own affairs.

Better that than being pushed around the political map in the interests of nothing more than satisfying the statisticians.

ALAN WILLIAMS

LYMM