February 5, 2001 17:25: HUNDREDS of Bromley residents could be voting for a Lewisham MP if radical plans to change constituency boundaries are approved by the Government, in time for the general election of 2005/6.

The Boundary Commission for England is reviewing the way Parliamentary seats are distributed and is proposing to merge Penge and West Lewisham to create the Lewisham West and Penge constituency.

This means the three wards of Crystal Palace, Clock House, Penge and Cator in Bromley and Lewishams four wards of Bellingham, Forest Hill, Perry Vale and Sydenham will share a member of Parliament.

Bromley residents are being included in a Lewisham constituency so that an equal amount of voters can vote for each seat across the two boroughs and the proposals are set to be approved by the Home Office in 2005.

Constituencies in Bromley borough will consist of the Beckenham and Biggin Hill, Bromley and Chislehurst, and Orpington while Lewisham will boast the new constituency and its existing Lewisham Deptford and Lewisham East areas.

At the moment, Lewisham has just 58,345 average voters compared to 74,253 in Bromley which means there is a higher proportion of voters per seat in Bromley than there is nation-wide.

Boundary Commission for England spokesman Chris Ault said: "The reason is that Lewisham seats have a pretty low amount of voters compared to Bromley.

"This made it unfair to give Bromley and Lewisham boroughs three seats each so we decided to join these boroughs together to create a new seat. This means there are still six seats but they are all much closer in size as an average for the country.

"The commission is trying to cause as little disruption as possible but if the boroughs merge there is going to be some fairly major changes," he added.

A copy of the provisional recommendations and maps illustrating them are available at libraries in Beckenham, Biggin Hill, Bromley, Catford, Deptford, Lewisham and Orpington.

Nicola Skinner