THE parish of Buckland Monachorum is be returned to the West Devon and Torridge parliamentary constituency, according to recommendations published by the Boundary Commission.

The parish became part of a newly formed South West Devon constituency, fought for the first time in the May 1997 general election.

The Boundary Commission is presently examining the make up of constituencies, in an attempt to even out the number of electors in each constituency.

South West Devon MP Gary Streeter said the Commission?s proposal concerning his constituency was not surprising.

Mr Streeter said: ?This is what we were expecting. I am sad to lose this tiny sliver of West Devon ? tiny but important and full of lovely people, so I will be sad to lose them.

?Of course, the changes won?t be in time for the next general election, so I will still beaver away on their behalf in the meantime.

?My own personal view is we could do with fewer members of parliament and I think we could look after 100,000 constituents rather than 70,000, although we might need a bit more secretarial help.

?We had this number of MPs when we ran an empire, which we don?t now, and we?ve also had devolution. Given the formula that the Boundary Commission had to work with, what they?ve come up with isn?t so daft.?

West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett said he welcomed the fact that Buckland would be returned to his constituency.

?It?s entirely sensible, because it?s part of West Devon borough,? said Mr Burnett. But he also felt, like Mr Streeter, that there were still far too many MPs.

?We are getting an additional MP in Devon because of the considerable growth in population, but adjustments are not being made for other areas. Every MP should have something like 100,000 electors, with about 20,000 under-18s ? that would mean about 500 MPs, which would be about right and would serve as example to the public sector as to how you can shrink bureaucracy and administration,? he said.

The biggest changes affecting the West Devon and Torridge constituency lie to the north of Tavistock.

Under the recommendations, the wards of Chagford, Drewsteignton, Exbourne, Hatherleigh, Lew Valley, North Tawton, Okehampton East, Okehampton West and South Tawton would be chopped out of Mr Burnett?s constituency. They would form part of a new Central Devon seat, which would also includes wards from the west of Exeter and from Teignbridge and Mid Devon districts.

Mr Burnett has objected strongly to these recommendations, as has the mayor of West Devon on behalf of the borough council, on grounds of the huge differences between urban and rural wards.

The commission is accepting representations on these recommendations until July 10.