Another attempt at keeping Kent and Sussex separate:
SussexAll that's really needed is a small shift of electors from West to East and then a slight bit of rearranging. Most of the electorate deficit is in and around Brighton (presumably mostly a consequence of IER?), but all three West Sussex coastal seats are at the lower end of quota and thus it makes sense to leave them unchanged. Instead I've elected to switch East Grinstead into an East Sussex seat.
Hastings & Rye (71672) - unchanged
Bexhill & Battle (71903) - gains Mayfield, loses Pevensey & Westham
Eastbourne (74670) - unchanged, bar very minor realignment to ward boundaries
Wealden (74337) - loses Mayfield and six wards round Hailsham, gains six wards around East Grinstead
Seaford & Hailsham (74644) - the successor to Lewes. Gains seven wards of Wealden district, loses Newhaven and Lewes town
Brighton Kemptown & Lewes (73502) - gains six wards from Lewes, including Newhaven and Lewes town, loses Queen's Park (Moulsecoomb & Bevendean would work instead, if preferred)
Brighton Pavilion (71566) - loses Regency, gains Queen's Park
Hove (74716) - gains Regency, no doubt somebody would suggest renaming it Brighton Hove
Arundel and South Downs (72650) - loses Wisborough Green, boundary with Worthing West realigned to ward boundaries. Which is odd, as initially I made no effort to do least change here
Mid Sussex (71764) - loses East Grinstead, gains three wards south and east of Crawley
Crawley (72827) - gains Rusper & Colgate
Horsham (71247) - loses four wards round Crawley, gains three wards in north of Chichester district
Chichester (71192) - loses Fernhurst and Plaistow
Bognor Regis & Littlehampton (72190) - unchanged
Worthing West (74210) - realigned to ward boundaries, otherwise unchanged
Worthing East & Shoreham (71723) - unchanged
Overall, I'm fairly pleased with this. I didn't manage to remove Mid Sussex's weird dumbbell (though you could do it by another small crossing of the county border), but otherwise I think these constituencies are actually a little more cohesive than the current ones. Seaford & Hailsham may not be to everybody's taste, but if you want to swap Lewes and Seaford then you have to include Woodingdean with the former, which is getting fairly ugly.
KentA seat has to be lost here, so rather than beginning with the existing seats I began with groups of local authorities. Shepway and Tunbridge Wells can both stand alone; Dartford, Gravesham and Sevenoaks combine for 3; you can get five out of Maidstone, Tonbridge and Medway; and it's just about possible to assign 6 to the remainder, though it is a little tight. That implies that the abolished seat is Faversham & Mid Kent, and that is indeed what happens.
Gravesham (75299) - gains Swanscombe from Dartford
Dartford (76602) - loses Dartford, gains Ash & New Ash Green from Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks (76623) - the rest of Sevenoaks district
Tunbridge Wells (76380) - the entirety of the district
Maidstone (76000) - loses the Tunbridge wards, gains Shepway North, Shepway South and Park Wood. Name changed as there's not much of the Weald in here
Tonbridge & Malling (76132) - loses the ugly arm into Sevenoaks, gains four wards covering Snodland and Larkfield
Rochester & Strood (76532) - loses River, gains Walderslade
Gillingham & Rainham (74631) - gains River
Chatham, Aylesford & Mid Kent (77494) - the successor to Chatham & Aylesford. Loses Walderslade in Medway and four wards covering Snodland and Larkfield in Tonbridge & Malling, gains 10 wards in Maidstone from Mid Kent
Sittingbourne & Sheppey (77766) - gains East Downs
Ashford (76865) - loses Downs North, Downs West and Wye
Canterbury & Faversham (78400) - the successor to Canterbury. Loses five wards around Whitstable, gains five wards in Swale from Faversham & Mid Kent, three wards in Ashford from Ashford and one (Saxon Shore) from Folkestone & Hythe, gains Herne & Bloomfield and the remainder of Sturry from Thanet North
Thanet West & Whitstable (75738) - the successor to Thanet North. In Canterbury, loses Herne & Bloomfield and its part of Sturry but gains five wards around Whitstable, in Thanet loses Dane Valley, Salmestone and Margate Central
Thanet East (76908) - the successor to Thanet South. Loses Little Stour & Ashstone, gains Dane Valley, Salmestone and Margate Central. I'm tempted to call this Margate & Ramsgate, though the western portion of the former is outside the seat
Dover (78385) - gains Little Stour & Ashstone
Folkestone & Hythe (77333) - lose Saxon Shore, becomes co-extensive with Shepway district
Mostly this works, though a couple of the seats are ugly. The most obvious problem is Chatham, Aylesford & Mid Kent, though I can't see that this is very much less coherent than Faversham & Mid Kent. The shape of Ashford is also pretty ugly but a) a neater shape would excise Boughton Aluph & Eastwell, which includes part of Ashford proper and b) it's still as bad as the arm on Tonbridge & Malling is now. The inclusion of Herne & Bloomfield in Canterbury is also suboptimal, though now I come to think about it you could probably swap it for Seasalter.
