THE Boundary Commission for Wales' final recommendations for re-drawing the lines of Wales' parliamentary constituencies were laid before parliament today, with the number of Welsh MPs proposed to be cut from 40 to 29.

The cuts are part of a national drive to reduce the total number of MPs from 650 to 600.

In the commission's final report, existing boundaries have in many cases been re-drawn to even out the number of voters in each constituency to between 71,000 and 78,500.

Other constituencies would be scrapped entirely, and their voters redistributed among neighbouring constituencies.

Islwyn is one of the constituencies recommended for dissolution, with its 53,000-strong electorate absorbed into the reformed constituencies of Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, and Caerphilly.

The commission's report noted that the current MP for Islwyn, Chris Evans, had supported an alternative arrangement put forward by Argoed Community Council, but this proposal, the commission concluded, "split principal council areas and broke local ties".

The commission, the report read, noted the alternative proposals supported by Mr Evans "were opposed by five of the members of parliament for existing constituencies which would be affected by the alternative proposals" and that "the four political parties with representation at Westminster supported the initial proposals."

In Newport, the commission's final recommendations include merging the two existing constituencies – Newport West (60,000 voters) and Newport East (54,000 voters) – into one centralised constituency named Newport, which would then lose some of the wards on the city's outskirts.

In the east of the city, this would mean people living in electoral wards like Caldicot Castle, Langstone and Llanwern would belong to the constituency of Monmouthshire.

From Newport West, the ward of Caerleon would become part of the Torfaen constituency.

The wards of Graig and Rogerstone would be absorbed by the bigger Caerphilly constituency.

The report noted residents of both Caerleon and Rogerstone had raised concerns the ward would no longer be in a Newport constituency, but the commission found including either ward would increase the size of the Newport constituency beyond what was deemed acceptable, according to rules laid out in the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011.

In that legislation, the size of each constituency's electorate must be within five per cent of a quota set at national level.

That means much of the re-drawing of boundary lines has been done to redistribute voters into roughly even constituencies.

The mostly rural seat of Monmouth, despite being one of the largest constituencies by area in Wales, contained just 63,000 voters, meaning the commission's proposed Monmouthshire seat would involve the absorption of wards on Severnside which are part of the county of Monmouthshire, and also wards traditionally aligned with Newport, such as Llanwern – a move called "eminently sensible" in the commission's report.

MPs will now vote on the recommendations.