THE current rift in the Coalition Government will probably have a welcome knock-on effect for thousands of people in Taunton Deane.

The fall-out between the Conservatives and the LibDems means proposals to transfer almost 10,000 voters into a different parliamentary constituency are now unlikely to proceed.

The news has been welcomed in Wiveliscombe, Bishops Lydeard and Milverton, which were due to transfer to the Bridgwater & West Somerset seat at the next General Election.

Taunton Deane MP Jeremy Browne and his LibDem colleagues are opposing Conservative-backed boundary changes in retaliation at Prime Minister David Cameron’s failure to back House of Lords reforms.

If the changes, drawn up to equalise the number of people in each constituency, had gone ahead Taunton Deane’s electorate would habe drop-ped from 82,882 to 73,455, and the total number of MPs at Westminster would have fallen by 50 to 600.

Mr Browne says he will vote against boundary changes, though he remains committed to the Coalition.

He said: “Taunton Deane’s a very coherent constituency with a strong identity.

“People in villages like Milverton, Bishops Lydeard and North Curry naturally look towards Taunton.

“There was some controversy about moving places like Wiveliscombe and Cotford St Luke into the Bridgwater constituency, so many people will be pleased to retain the existing Taunton Deane constituency.”

Bishops Lydeard parish councillor Mike Rigby said: “We’re certainly happy about not being lumped into Bridgwater, with which we have little in the way of community ties compared with Taunton.”

Milverton Parish Council’s Jenny Hoyle said: “Our connection as a par-ish is with Taunton. We’ve absolutely no links with Bridgwater.

“If the Parliamentary boundary reform didn’t go ahead we’d be abso-lutely delighted.”

Wiveliscombe Parish Council chairman Bryn Wilson said: “We have no connection with Bridgwater – all our connections are with Taunton Deane.

“People over in Bridgwater wouldn’t understand the problems a place like Wivey has.”