​People in the Bath area could find themselves in a new Parliamentary seat again at the next General Election.

Hundreds of voters were affected by a boundary shake-up which came into force at this year’s election, with the creation of the new North East Somerset seat now held by Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The new coalition Government’s electoral reform plans could see further change as ministers aim to even up the size of Parliamentary constituencies.

The Government wants to introduce legislation for a series of electoral reforms, with a referendum next May on changing the Westminster voting system from first past the post to the Alternative Vote (AV), where candidates are ranked in order of preference.

The coalition's Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill - a key component of the coalition deal between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats - also includes proposals to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600 and to create constituencies of equal size across the UK.

New constituencies would be set within five per cent of a target quota of registered voters which has been put at 75,000. This means that those seats with fewer than 71,500 voters or more than 78,800 would be likely to see their boundaries redrawn.

Both the Bath and North East Somerset seats have an electoral shortfall with 65,992 and 68,024 registered voters respectively, while Chippenham has 71,870.

Despite backing voting reform, Labour opposes the proposals, arguing that the constituency changes would benefit the Conservatives at the expense of Labour, and have branded the process gerrymandering.

The Conservatives complain the current boundaries require them to win more votes than Labour to gain the same number of MPs, because, on average, Tory seats have more constituents.

The changes which came into force at this year’s poll saw areas such as Batheaston - which had been part of Liberal Democrat Don Foster’s Bath seat - moved into North East Somerset.

If the plans get through Parliament, the new seats would be created by 2013 and used in the 2015 general election.

Meanwhile, Bath and North East Somerset Council is carrying out its annual canvass to update the electoral roll, in line with a process which sees local authorities in Britain delivering electoral registration forms to every home.

If all the details on the form are correct, people can now choose to confirm their registration by freephone, the internet, or text messaging and will not need to return the form.

If changes need to be made, people are asked to add anyone who should be registered and is not on the list and cross out anyone who no longer lives there, before returning it as soon as possible and ideally before September 14.

B&NES has reminded people they are not automatically registered if they pay council tax or have registered previously.