FOREST MP Mark Harper says he approves of new boundary proposals to change the Forest of Dean parliamentary constituency's name back to 'West Gloucestershire'.

The Boundary Commission for England (BCE) published its revised proposals for Parliamentary constituency boundaries in England last week.

Mr Harper, who has been heavily involved in Government plans to redraw constitutional boundaries, said: "I thank the Boundary Commission for England for their work in revising their initial proposals. Their detailed report shows that they have considered all of the comments made about their initial proposals before publishing their revised proposals.

"More equally sized constituencies are important so that every vote across the country carries the same weight.

"I thank the BCE for taking the sensible decision to rename the expanded Forest of Dean constituency 'West Gloucestershire'. I proposed this in my submission to the BCE last year, and the suggestion received cross-party supp­ort. West Glou­cester­­shire is a more accurate description of a constituency that would contain areas from Forest of Dean District Council, Tewkesbury Borough Council and Gloucester City Council.

"Foresters are rightly proud of the name 'Forest of Dean', and the term should be reserved for use by those associated with the historic Forest of Dean itself, and not used as a general catch-all term for other parts of the county."