A major shake up is on the cards at a West Cumbrian council.

Allerdale council could see nine of its 31 wards and seven councillors scrapped after a Government review.

The changes aim to even up the number of voters represented by each councillor.

The proposals are set out in a consultation document released by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

In the Workington area three councillors would be lost as the 19 seats currently serving the town, Seaton, Harrington and Clifton would drop to 16.

Northside would move out of St Michael's ward and form a new area with Seaton.

Salterbeck would move out of the Moss Bay ward to join Harrington, in a ward represented by three councillors.

Moorclose and Moss Bay would combine in a three-member ward, while St John's would go from having three seats to two.

Stainburn and Clifton would join to become one ward represented by two councillors.

Winscales would move out of Harrington into Stainburn and Clifton ward.

The commission rejected a proposal by the council's Labour group to transfer Greysouthen from the Dalton ward, which covers parishes towards Cockermouth, and group it with Stainburn, Workington.

In the Maryport area, the single-seat Flimby ward would be scrapped with the town instead covered by two wards, Maryport North and Maryport South, each with three councillors.

Maryport Town Council requested that the existing wards be retained by the commission said the need to reduce councillor numbers meant this was not possible.

The commission also threw out a Labour suggestion that Keswick should be split into two wards.

The separate Crummock and Derwent Valley wards, each represented by one councillor, would be replaced by a new single seat.

Embleton would move out of Crummock ward into Cockermouth's All Saints.

The single-seat Marsh and Wampool wards would be combined into one ward with two members.

Waver, Wharrels and Holme wards would be scrapped and the areas in them moved into other wards.

A new Silloth and Solway Coast ward would be created with three seats, while the Aspatria ward would see its area grow to the north.

Woodside parish, currently in the Waver ward, would move to a new combined ward with Wigton, with three councillors.

Changes are also planned to the boundaries of wards being retained.

Allerdale council had previously suggested the 56-member council should be dropped to 48.

However, the commission said the 48-seat system made it difficult to divide Workington wards without grouping the town centre with a surrounding rural ward.

Minor changes were made to create the suggested 49-seat proposal.

The number of adults in Allerdale is expected to grow by more than 2,000 by 2022, rising from 75,638 last year to 77,836.

The average number of voters per councillor is set to rise from 1,544 to 1,588. The commission aims to keep each ward within 10 per cent of that figure.

The commission said its main considerations were balancing out the number of voters per councillor, reflecting community identity in wards and providing effective and convenient local government.

The public consultation runs until April 3. The commission will then consider all responses before publishing final recommendations on June 6.

For full details visit www.lgbce.org.uk/current-reviews/north-west/cumbria/allerdale