Post by greenhert on Sept 30, 2023 14:34:59 GMT
North Cotswolds is a new seat that will be created for the next election, and will consist of the Stroud wards of Bisley, Hardwicke, Minchinhampton and Painswick & Upton, the Tewkesbury wards of Badgerton, Brockworth East, Brockworth West, Churchdown Brookfield with Hucclecote, Churchdown St John's, and Shurdlington, and the Cotswold wards of Blockley, Bourton Vale, Bourton Village, Campden & Vale, Chedworth & Churn Valley, Coln Valley, Ermin, Fosseridge, Morton East, Moreton West, Northleach, Sandywell, Stow, and The Rissingtons, donated by the constituencies of Stroud, Tewkesbury, and the to-be-abolished The Cotswolds. Unlike most of the new seats created in the 2023 review, it does not resemble any historic constituency.
North Cotswolds covers the lion's share of the beautiful and scenic Cotswolds area of Gloucestershire geographically, as well as the Gloucester/Cheltenham satellite towns of Brockworth & Churchdown. The Cotswolds are famous for stately homes, getaways for the well-heeled, historic buildings, and beautiful nature spots, and the North Cotswolds constituency exemplifies these virtues to a T. This constituency contains some of the highest house prices outside the South East and arguably in all of non-London England, with the average being as high as £430,000, 35% higher than the average UK house price. The only significant settlement officially designated as a town in this constituency is Moreton-in-Marsh, which also contains the only mainline railway station in the constituency (Chipping Campden's station closed in 1966) and is famous for running the UK's largest one-day agriculture show. Even then, Moreton-in-Marsh is half the size of the largest village in this constituency, Churchdown, sandwiched conveniently in between Gloucester & Cheltenham and alongside its neighbour Brockworth acting as a buffer zone. The Stroud district villages in this constituency are very similar to the rest of it-wealthy, containing wide access to green space but with next-to-no public transport- and importantly markedly different from the bohemian town of Stroud to the south, and the middling city of Gloucester to the north.
If you expected North Cotswolds to be a notionally safe Conservative seat given what I have said above, you would be absolutely correct-its notional majority is listed as high as 19,411, and being of a rural and wealthy nature the Conservative vote will be hard to shift here. Whilst the Liberal Democrats will be the clear challengers here just as they were in The Cotswolds and are in Tewkesbury, they have no realistic prospects of winning this seat especially since most of their best areas in the Cotswolds and Tewkesbury districts are outside this constituency.
North Cotswolds covers the lion's share of the beautiful and scenic Cotswolds area of Gloucestershire geographically, as well as the Gloucester/Cheltenham satellite towns of Brockworth & Churchdown. The Cotswolds are famous for stately homes, getaways for the well-heeled, historic buildings, and beautiful nature spots, and the North Cotswolds constituency exemplifies these virtues to a T. This constituency contains some of the highest house prices outside the South East and arguably in all of non-London England, with the average being as high as £430,000, 35% higher than the average UK house price. The only significant settlement officially designated as a town in this constituency is Moreton-in-Marsh, which also contains the only mainline railway station in the constituency (Chipping Campden's station closed in 1966) and is famous for running the UK's largest one-day agriculture show. Even then, Moreton-in-Marsh is half the size of the largest village in this constituency, Churchdown, sandwiched conveniently in between Gloucester & Cheltenham and alongside its neighbour Brockworth acting as a buffer zone. The Stroud district villages in this constituency are very similar to the rest of it-wealthy, containing wide access to green space but with next-to-no public transport- and importantly markedly different from the bohemian town of Stroud to the south, and the middling city of Gloucester to the north.
If you expected North Cotswolds to be a notionally safe Conservative seat given what I have said above, you would be absolutely correct-its notional majority is listed as high as 19,411, and being of a rural and wealthy nature the Conservative vote will be hard to shift here. Whilst the Liberal Democrats will be the clear challengers here just as they were in The Cotswolds and are in Tewkesbury, they have no realistic prospects of winning this seat especially since most of their best areas in the Cotswolds and Tewkesbury districts are outside this constituency.
