A SHAKE-UP of constituency boundaries in the region could see one county's political map completely redrawn.

While in County Durham and Darlington the proposed changes take account of new district and borough ward boundaries and are likely to be minor, North Yorkshire's constituency map is set to be radically changed, with one political area completely disappearing and another to be split into two.

Only the Scarborough and Whitby constituency will remain unchanged under the sweeping reorganisation proposed by the Boundary Commission.

The Vale of York seat, currently held by Tory Ann McIntosh, would be eaten up by neighbouring constituencies, while City of York would be divided into two seats.

The changes have been designed to make parliamentary representation of the county's population fairer.

North Yorkshire currently has seven seats- not including York - but its population should entitle it to only 6.27 seats.

Following the review it could have only six.

The City of York, which has been a separate unitary authority since 1995, currently has one seat, but would be given two under the new plans.

The Vale of York wards of Bedale, Crakehall, Leeming and Tanfield would become part of the Richmondshire seat while Easingwold, Helperby, Huby with Sutton, Shipton, Sowerby, Stillington, Thirsk, Thorntons, Tollerton, Topcliffe, White Horse and Whitestonecliffe would transfer to the Ryedale seat.

The new York seats would consisted of Central Borough seat circled by an Outer County constituency, made up of thirteen wards.

In practice, the County Durham changes will affect only a relatively few people. In some areas there is no change and in others there is a slight change to tidy up the boundaries between Darlington and Sedgefield.

The exception in County Durham is Hutton Henry, near Peterlee, which is part of Sedgefield constituency. Once the wards are reorganised, it will have 575 Easington voters and 753 in Sedgefield.

But because the electorate in the Easington seat has been falling for some years, it was felt necessary to relocate the ward in that constituency.

The overall effect of the changes is a transfer of 1,446 electors between seats.

Formal publication of the commission's proposals will be made on May 23 in local newspapers.

Widespread consultation will be carried out and changes are not expected to be in place until after the next general election.

Last night Miss McIntosh, whose seat was formed after a shake-up of parliamentary boundaries ahead of the 1997 General Election, said the latest proposals had not come as a surprise.