The Leader of Cornwall Council, John Pollard, has confirmed his total opposition to the creation of a cross border ’Devonwall’ constituency between Cornwall and Devon and has written to the Government criticising the ’inequitable and unlawful’ proposal.

Put forward by the Parliamentary Boundary Commission for England, the proposal would see the towns of Launceston and Bude joined together with Bideford – creating a new constituency crossing the historic border between Cornwall and Devon for the first time in Cornwall’s history.

’We believe there is a serious legal and constitutional conflict between the provisions of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, which requires MP’s to represent the same number of electors, and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities,’ said Mr Pollard.

’The Government’s recognition of the Cornish as a national minority under the Framework Convention in 2014 came after the Act came into force and we are arguing that the Act needs amending to address this conflict.’

Mr Pollard said he would be meeting group leaders at the end of the month to determine the Council’s strategy to oppose the proposal.

This would include mounting a robust defence of the Council’s position at the Boundary Commission consultation meetings scheduled for November in Exeter and Truro.