Aldridge-Brownhills
2010 Results:
Conservative: 22913 (59.31%)
Labour: 7647 (19.79%)
Liberal Democrat: 6833 (17.69%)
Green: 847 (2.19%)
Christian: 394 (1.02%)
Majority: 15266 (39.52%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Conservative: 17774 (48.1%)
Labour: 12062 (32.6%)
Liberal Democrat: 4579 (12.4%)
Other: 2561 (6.9%)
Majority: 5713 (15.5%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 18744 (47.4%)
Labour: 13237 (33.5%)
Liberal Democrat: 4862 (12.3%)
BNP: 1620 (4.1%)
UKIP: 1093 (2.8%)
Majority: 5507 (13.9%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 18974 (50.2%)
Labour: 15206 (40.2%)
Liberal Democrat: 3251 (8.6%)
Other: 379 (1%)
Majority: 3768 (10%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 21856 (47.1%)
Labour: 19330 (41.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 5184 (11.2%)
Majority: 2526 (5.4%)
Boundary changes: only the most minor boundary changes, with part of St Matthew`s ward and an insignificant sliver of Pheasey Park Farm transferring to
Profile: Aldridge-Brownhills is a seat of two halves – Aldridge is an affluent and highly Conservative dormitory town made up a middle-class suburbia while Brownhills to the North of the constituency is a former coal mining town which tends to vote Labour. The other commuter villages in the constituency also tend to be Tory, particularly Street, which borders on the rock solid Tory territory of Sutton Coldfield.
Current MP: Richard Shepherd(Conservative) born 1942, Aberdeen Educated at Isleworth Grammar and the LSE. Unmarried. Is the director of a food retail business and a former member of Lloyds. Shepherd started out in politics as an assistant to Sir Teddy Taylor. He stood himself in Nottingham East in 1974 and was successfully elected for Aldridge-Brownhills in 1979 (the same election that Teddy Taylor lost Glasgow Cathcart). He is an independently minded libertarian, a long term supporter of freedom of information and a Euro-sceptic. He was one of the 8 Conservative MPs who had the whip withdrawn from them under the Major government for rebelling over Europe. In 2000 he unsuccessfully stood as Commons speaker, being nominated by Martin Bell (more information at They work for you)
Richard Shepherd(Conservative) born 1942, Aberdeen Educated at Isleworth Grammar and the LSE. Unmarried. Is the director of a food retail business and a former member of Lloyds. Shepherd started out in politics as an assistant to Sir Teddy Taylor. He stood himself in Nottingham East in 1974 and was successfully elected for Aldridge-Brownhills in 1979 (the same election that Teddy Taylor lost Glasgow Cathcart). He is an independently minded libertarian, a long term supporter of freedom of information and a Euro-sceptic. He was one of the 8 Conservative MPs who had the whip withdrawn from them under the Major government for rebelling over Europe. In 2000 he unsuccessfully stood as Commons speaker, being nominated by Martin Bell (more information at They work for you)
Ashiq Hussain (Labour) Derby councillor 1997-2004. Awarded the MBE for services to Derby 2004.
Ian Jenkins (Liberal Democrat)
Karl Macnaughton (Green) Born 1975, Solihull. Educated at Park Hall School and Wolverhampton University.Sue Gray (Christian Party) 2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 74224
Male: 48.6%
Female: 51.4%
Under 18: 21.5%
Over 60: 24.7%
Born outside UK: 2.8%
White: 96.6%
Black: 0.5%
Asian: 1.9%
Mixed: 0.7%
Other: 0.3%
Christian: 81.5%
Sikh: 0.9%
Full time students: 1.9%
Graduates 16-74: 12.9%
No Qualifications 16-74: 36.9%
Owner-Occupied: 77.4%
Social Housing: 17.7% (Council: 16%, Housing Ass.: 1.7%)
Privately Rented: 2.5%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 9.7%
I can see why Pelsall would be pretty Conservative in recent years.
It looks like a slightly separate community – perhaps away from some of the demographic change of the larger urban areas – including some of the better estates/sold estates.
There is some open country, near a canal.
But it is a very dramatic swing. In the 1980s I thought it was Pelsall which was the only reliably Labour area in Aldridge Brownhills – a bit like Hainault in Ilford North.
I don’t think there’s a single ward in Richmond where the Tories polled 71% – even now.
Brownhills and Rushall-Shelfield have to be the most Labour leaning wards demographically in this seat. I’m still surprised both the Aldridge wards are safe Tory. Parts of the town are very deprived.
This seat was just referred to Aldridge in Decision ’79
If the Tories are in a strong position in 2015 (which is if )
then they could be getting about 63-64% here
if Richard Shepherd stands,
given the way the Lib Dem vote looks like it’s melting away.
Why is it called Aldridge Brownhills anyway? Sometimes with a hyphon in the middle.
Why not Aldridge and Brownhills?
It was the same situation with Ruislip-Northwood, but I can’t think of any other examples.
Welwyn Hatfield is another example, though without a hyphen
Yes of course I’d forgotten about Welwyn and Hatfield.
Then, I have always been confused about whether Welwyn and Welwyn Garden City were the same or whether they were different places.
Odd though that down the ages there are so few examples of that sort of constituency name (putting two seperate place names together as though to form a new single place name). Welwyn Hatfield of course even has a borough that does the same thing!
Well that is why the constituency is so named as it is named for the borough, although originally the constituency predated the creation of the borough and was called Welwyn & Hatfield (the constituency was first used in election in 1974 and the borough created in 1973, but of course the constituency boundaries first used in 1974 were actually drawn up in the late 60s before the borough came into being). In the cases of Ruislip Northwood and Aldridge Brownhills these were also the names of the respective UDs which covered the areas before the former was merged into HIllingdon and the latter into Walsall. Aldridge-Brownhills was a very shortlived Urban district of course, which only existed from 1966 to 1974, but of course this covered the time when the constituency boundaries were drawn up
“I have always been confused about whether Welwyn and Welwyn Garden City were the same or whether they were different places.”
Welwyn is the old village, which was there before the garden city was built. It is 2-3 miles to the north of the garden city, separated by a lot of green land, and at a guess has a population of 2-3000.
The garden city was built a couple of miles south of Welwyn village in the 1920s/30s and of course is much much bigger….I would estimate 30 thousand people at least today. Interestingly the tremendous growth in new housing in recent years has almost all been in the garden city, with the old village remaining pretty untouched.
More like 50 thousand
Yes I guess so if you count all the recent overspill.
There isn’t actually that much separation between the garden city and Hatfield now.