Penistone and Stocksbridge
2010 Results:
Conservative: 14516 (31.21%)
Labour: 17565 (37.76%)
Liberal Democrat: 9800 (21.07%)
BNP: 2207 (4.74%)
UKIP: 1936 (4.16%)
English Democrat: 492 (1.06%)
Majority: 3049 (6.55%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 19074 (47%)
Liberal Democrat: 10225 (25.2%)
Conservative: 9331 (23%)
Other: 1960 (4.8%)
Majority: 8849 (21.8%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 6890 (15%)
Labour: 23477 (51.2%)
Liberal Democrat: 12234 (26.7%)
BNP: 2010 (4.4%)
UKIP: 1273 (2.8%)
Majority: 11243 (24.5%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 7801 (18.3%)
Labour: 24170 (56.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 9601 (22.6%)
UKIP: 964 (2.3%)
Majority: 14569 (34.3%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 7707 (14.5%)
Labour: 30150 (56.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 13699 (25.8%)
Referendum: 1468 (2.8%)
Majority: 16451 (31%)
Boundary changes:
Profile: By the standards of South Yorkshire, one of Labour`s most reliable bedrocks in England, this is almost marginal. Labour have below 50% of the vote, no councillors in the seat and it is only an almost even divide of opposition support between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats that prevents this appearing much closer.
The seat covers the north-western suburbs of Sheffield and the steel town of Stocksbridge – set north-west of Sheffield on the edge of the moors. The northern part of the seat drawn from the Borough of Barnsley covers the rural villages in the foothills of the pennines around the market town of Penistone and, to the east, the former mining village of Dodworth. Most of the seat is made up of traditional industrial areas, loyal to Labour, though with the decline of coal and steel and the old allegiences that went with it, there is more new build housing and commuters into Sheffield and Barnsley.
In the southern part of the seat, drawn from the dismembered Sheffield Hillsborough, the Liberal Democrats are the main challengers to Labour and perform strongly at the local level. In the northern part of the seat, transferred from Barnsley West and Penistone, Penistone itself has tended to be a good area for the Conservatives – at least, by the low standards of Tories in South Yorkshire. The future of this seat will largely depend on whether one of the parties can successfully position themselves as the alternative to Labour in this seat.
Current MP: Angela Smith(Labour) (more information at They work for you)
Spencer Pitfield (Conservative) born in Kent. Educated in South Africa and received a doctorate in performance practice from Sheffield University. Music teacher. Hertsmere borough councillor 2001-2008. Contested Sheffield Hallam in 2005.Angela Smith(Labour) (more information at They work for you)
Ian Cuthbertson (Liberal Democrat) born West Yorkshire. Educated at Bradford Grammar School and Bradford University. York councillor 2003-2007. Contested Dewsbury 2001, Selby 2005.
Grant French (UKIP)Paul James (BNP) Paul McEnhill (English Democrat)2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 84584
Male: 48.7%
Female: 51.3%
Under 18: 20.8%
Over 60: 22.3%
Born outside UK: 2.1%
White: 98.4%
Black: 0.2%
Asian: 0.7%
Mixed: 0.5%
Other: 0.2%
Christian: 80.2%
Full time students: 2.1%
Graduates 16-74: 16.8%
No Qualifications 16-74: 31.3%
Owner-Occupied: 75.6%
Social Housing: 18.5% (Council: 17.5%, Housing Ass.: 1.1%)
Privately Rented: 3.8%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 5%
Spitalfields being a ward in Tower Hamlets.
On a rather trivial point of information, Spencer Pitfield was elected to Hertsmere councilin 2000, not 2001 as stated above
Spencer Pitfield will be standing down from the Council, next May. He has relocated to Sheffield.
“Also, the council can grant an absent member ‘leave of absence’ if they have a good excuse, typically ill health.”
IIRC a Dartford councillor was given leave of absence in the last session – there was a husband and wife team on the council who were both seriously ill (the husband died early this year) and I think the council voted to disregard the 6 month rule during an absence for treatment.
But he is still a Councilor in Hertfordshire…. The other parites should be all over this.
His house in Sheffield is in Whirlow (if I’m not mistaken). That’s one of the nice areas in the posh Sheffield Hallam constituency.
Local people will not like a Southern Councillor who now lives in the posh south west end of Sheffield.
So, with Angela Smith not officially announced as Labour candidate for Penistone & Stocksbridge, and with the announcement that Richard Caborn is to step down at the next election – I think Ms Smith will prefer the Central seat than this one…
Tony
To the best of my knowledge Angela Smith was selected sometime ago to figth this seat
It’s interesting that the Conservatives have chosen a candidate from the Sheffield portion of the constituency rather than the part from Barnsley which is a Conservative stronghold. I would have thought selecting someone who knew the area and had experience of electoral success would be better than this rather odd sounding outsider.
Incidentally I would never have expected to write the words Barnsly and Conservative stronghold in the same sentance without the word not also being there.
Errrrr. hardly a stronghold. Both marginal wards which have swung to the Tories in line with national swing – but by no means impregnable.
The simple fact that there was not a local candidate for the local party to pick from. There were three candidates at the final selection. One was from Dorset and was intent on driving up to campaign, the other was from North Yorkshire and then there was Spencer who atleast lives in Sheffield. The Local Party did a bad job in picking candidates.
The Penistone wards are Conservative strongholds compared to anywhere else in Barnsley or Sheffield although not of course compared to say Macclesfield.
I would disagree that there still marginal as there has been a long term demographic move to the Conservatives in the Penistone area with the traditional Labour vote there fading away and many commuters to Leeds or Sheffield moving into new developments near the M1. With this demographic change likely to continue and little likelihood of the Labour party getting another leader with Tony Blair’s cross-party appeal the Penistone area might never be won by Labour again.
Michael
Did none of the Conservative councillors in Penistone try to become the parliamentary candidate?
Depends what you mean by Penistone area – there is no long-term demographic trend to the Tories on the eastern front of the new constituency, which accounts by far for the largest part of the electorate. The Tory vote there averages at around 15%!
The Tories are living in dreamland if they think they can gain any headway with this one. Too many people remember the damage inflicted on Barnsley and Sheffield by a government which seemed hell bent on destroying the bedrock of the local economy – coal and steel.
Richard,
Sorry can’t agree with you at all here. Sheffield and Leeds are hardly Tory Strongholds are they. Sheffield has 1 Tory Councillor and she stands a good chance of losing her seat. In fact in both South Yorks and West Yorks the Tories only have the 1 parliamentary seat, Pudsey. So the 2 cities are hardly hot beds of Toryism.
You also seem to forget that two thirds of this seat is in Sheffield, which does not vote Tory in any large numbers. Any anti labour vote has gone to the Liberals, and that won’t change anytime soon. While rural Penistone may vote Tory the truth is the urban areas of Stocksbridge, High Green, Chapeltown, Ecclesfield, Parson Cross and Dodworth are still Strong labour areas and will in my estimation remain so for some years to come.
Surly if the Tories want to win a seat in South Yorks they should be concentrating on Hallam, which has the demographics you say are moving into Penistone. Yet here the Tory vote has collapsed with no sign of it reviving.
Penistone has always had a Tory streak running through it, even in the days of the old Penistone Seat pre 1983. However, it does not spread that far from the rural areas and gets very soft as you move towards Barnsley. My best guess is that this seat will remain red. Us South Yorkshire Folk have long memories and it will be a long time before the Tories are forgiven for damage they did to both Barnsley and Sheffield.
Not sure what you mean by the ‘eastern front’ here as the constituency divides into a Barnsley north and a Sheffield south. If you mean the Stocksbridge area then the Conservatives have done badly in local elections as they have done throughout Sheffield. Large parts of the LD vote (who hold all the Sheffield area wards) will however actually be natural Conservative voters.
‘The Penistone area’ meant the two Penistone wards, East and West. Not Dodworth ward, although the Conservatives also do better there than they do in the rest of Barnsley and where Labour got less than 30% of the vote in May (the winner being from the Barnsley Independent group).
As to coal and steel – the steelworkers strike was in 1980 and the miners in 1984-5. A whole generation ago (and in industries where life expectation was lower than average) which is why I referred to the traditional Labour vote as fading away. As these industries effectively no longer exist (what help did they get from this Labour government incidentally?) the old union dominated political mindset has gone as well, thus making future generations more independent minded politically and so more open to other parties.