Blackpool North and Fleetwood
Jul 12, 2023 17:51:17 GMT
sirbenjamin, jeremyfennell, and 1 more like this
Post by doktorb🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ on Jul 12, 2023 17:51:17 GMT
This entry incorporates information from my original entry, and information provided by Pete Whitehead later in the thread.
It’s a modified return for Blackpool North and Fleetwood, coming back after the Commission created “…and Cleveleys” to run from 2010.
Let’s talk about ‘north of Blackpool’, as for 2023/4 the boundary has been drawn incredibly tight, further north than North Pier and the Tower, further north than the railway line into central Lancashire. This new seat takes only the Bispham, Norbreck and Anchorsholme areas from Blackpool, an electorate of 25,000, or around a third. This really isn’t truly “Blackpool North and…” at all, it’s more “Fleetwood and…” Stranger naming decisions have been made before, and have done again, and perhaps always will.
The residential areas around this part of coastal Lancashire are blending into one another. The Thornton-Cleveleys conurbation, Poulton-le-Flyde, and northern Blackpool are not quite ‘of each other’ though there are similarities. This is cosy, neat, of an age, suburban Lancashire, removed from the glitz of Blackpool’s golden mile, and tucked away from Fleetwood’s more industrial core. Thornton-Cleveleys perhaps repeats in the north what Lytham-St Anne’s does at the other side of the Fylde coast; blurring the line between ‘near neighbour’ and ‘the same place’. This is a predominately older constituency, nearly half are over 50, higher than Blackpool South by 5 percentage points.
“Bispham” features in the Domesday Book and predates Blackpool by hundreds of years. This “town within a town” is typical 30s-50s properties and returns Conservative councillors most years. No other party outside Labour or Conservatives break into local politics on Blackpool Council and amongst these wards, competition isn’t exactly electric.
Fleetwood, and Thornton-Cleveleys, can be close at local level, in their cases for the Wyre Borough council which also includes Garstang and the A6 corridor further inland. The changes to the constituency boundaries swap around 20,000 voters from central Blackpool for roughly the same numbers along the coast road and tram lines into the industrial, terraced-streets of Fleetwood. The more unambiguously Conservative-leaning areas are found in Thornton and the Carleton area which is more of an extension of Poulton-le-Fylde.
At County Council level, Cleveleys safely returned 2 Conservatives, and Fleetwood was divided between one Labour and one Tory; the Fleetwood ward of Park returned one of the few remaining UKIP councillors in 2019.
Time was that Fleetwood viciously resisted becoming part of Blackpool’s Unitary Authority, claiming that they were “not truly Blackpool people”. This far north, where the illuminations rarely twinkle, perhaps this isn’t very true. Fleetwood is perhaps the strongest area for Labour in the curiously constituted "Lancaster and Fleetwood", and aside from occasional UKIP victories, will form a considerable chunk of Labour votes at the next election. However, there are great swathes of Conservative wards buffeting the town, and perhaps the best place for the tide to turn will be South.
It’s a modified return for Blackpool North and Fleetwood, coming back after the Commission created “…and Cleveleys” to run from 2010.
Let’s talk about ‘north of Blackpool’, as for 2023/4 the boundary has been drawn incredibly tight, further north than North Pier and the Tower, further north than the railway line into central Lancashire. This new seat takes only the Bispham, Norbreck and Anchorsholme areas from Blackpool, an electorate of 25,000, or around a third. This really isn’t truly “Blackpool North and…” at all, it’s more “Fleetwood and…” Stranger naming decisions have been made before, and have done again, and perhaps always will.
The residential areas around this part of coastal Lancashire are blending into one another. The Thornton-Cleveleys conurbation, Poulton-le-Flyde, and northern Blackpool are not quite ‘of each other’ though there are similarities. This is cosy, neat, of an age, suburban Lancashire, removed from the glitz of Blackpool’s golden mile, and tucked away from Fleetwood’s more industrial core. Thornton-Cleveleys perhaps repeats in the north what Lytham-St Anne’s does at the other side of the Fylde coast; blurring the line between ‘near neighbour’ and ‘the same place’. This is a predominately older constituency, nearly half are over 50, higher than Blackpool South by 5 percentage points.
“Bispham” features in the Domesday Book and predates Blackpool by hundreds of years. This “town within a town” is typical 30s-50s properties and returns Conservative councillors most years. No other party outside Labour or Conservatives break into local politics on Blackpool Council and amongst these wards, competition isn’t exactly electric.
Fleetwood, and Thornton-Cleveleys, can be close at local level, in their cases for the Wyre Borough council which also includes Garstang and the A6 corridor further inland. The changes to the constituency boundaries swap around 20,000 voters from central Blackpool for roughly the same numbers along the coast road and tram lines into the industrial, terraced-streets of Fleetwood. The more unambiguously Conservative-leaning areas are found in Thornton and the Carleton area which is more of an extension of Poulton-le-Fylde.
At County Council level, Cleveleys safely returned 2 Conservatives, and Fleetwood was divided between one Labour and one Tory; the Fleetwood ward of Park returned one of the few remaining UKIP councillors in 2019.
Time was that Fleetwood viciously resisted becoming part of Blackpool’s Unitary Authority, claiming that they were “not truly Blackpool people”. This far north, where the illuminations rarely twinkle, perhaps this isn’t very true. Fleetwood is perhaps the strongest area for Labour in the curiously constituted "Lancaster and Fleetwood", and aside from occasional UKIP victories, will form a considerable chunk of Labour votes at the next election. However, there are great swathes of Conservative wards buffeting the town, and perhaps the best place for the tide to turn will be South.
