Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough
Apr 2, 2020 12:06:21 GMT
Delighted Of Tunbridge Wells likes this
Post by YL on Apr 2, 2020 12:06:21 GMT
This constituency covers most of north Sheffield. Much of it (large areas of Southey, Firth Park and Shiregreen & Brightside wards, and bits of the other wards as well) consists of inter-war council housing in so-called cottage estates; there is some pioneering housing of this type in parts of Wincobank dating from around 1907. Between the main cottage estate belt and the city centre is an area of older development, covering most of Burngreave ward and parts of Firth Park and Shiregreen & Brightside (including Brightside itself), which is a fairly classic inner city area. Both the cottage estate belt and the Burngreave area have high deprivation levels, and this is the most deprived Sheffield constituency and the twelfth most deprived in England. The proportion with higher education qualifications is well below average and that with no qualifications well above.
Hillsborough, in the west of the consituency, is more mixed socially and is rather less deprived and more educated, reaching average levels. It has some council estates of a similar design to those further east, but there is also a lot of private housing of various sizes from the late Victorian period and early 20th century, which the convenient tram service has helped to make popular with those working in central Sheffield. It is of course best known for its football stadium, which surprisingly was not in Hillsborough ward until 2004 and as a result has been in the Brightside constituency for longer than most of Hillsborough.
Hillsborough shares with much of the cottage estate belt a largely white population, but the inner city belt is very diverse, with Burngreave ward having the lowest white population in Sheffield. As a result in the constituency as a whole the white population is below average and the black and Asian populations above average. The constituency was nearly 15% Muslim according to the 2011 census.
Sheffield Brightside was created in 1885, when the Sheffield parliamentary borough was divided into five. It lasted under that name until 2010, when Hillsborough ward was added when its eponymous constituency was dismembered (the largest part actually going into Penistone & Stocksbridge). In spite of the name change, this is clearly a successor to Brightside, not to Hillsborough. As such it has been Labour since 1935, and except for 1931 since 1922. David Blunkett was MP for many years; when he retired he was succeeded by Harry Harpham, who sadly died less than a year after being elected, with his widow Gill Furniss winning the resulting by-election. Although her share of the vote fell by more than average in 2019 it remained well over 50% and this is still a safe Labour seat.
The Labour dominance largely extends to local level as well. Hillsborough (not of course in the constituency until recently) was often the main exception; until the 1970s it voted Tory more often than not (though the boundaries would be a bit different from today's) and during the Lib Dems' two strongest periods in Sheffield (the mid to late 1990s and around 2008) it voted for them. It's also recently developed a strong Green vote. Burngreave was one of those places which somehow voted Tory in 1968, but then the Liberals built up local strength and held the council seats for several years, but in recent years it has been monolithically Labour. UKIP have sometimes seemed the biggest threat to the Labour monopoly of council seats in the constituency, coming fairly close in Southey and Shiregreen & Brightside in 2014.
Hillsborough, in the west of the consituency, is more mixed socially and is rather less deprived and more educated, reaching average levels. It has some council estates of a similar design to those further east, but there is also a lot of private housing of various sizes from the late Victorian period and early 20th century, which the convenient tram service has helped to make popular with those working in central Sheffield. It is of course best known for its football stadium, which surprisingly was not in Hillsborough ward until 2004 and as a result has been in the Brightside constituency for longer than most of Hillsborough.
Hillsborough shares with much of the cottage estate belt a largely white population, but the inner city belt is very diverse, with Burngreave ward having the lowest white population in Sheffield. As a result in the constituency as a whole the white population is below average and the black and Asian populations above average. The constituency was nearly 15% Muslim according to the 2011 census.
Sheffield Brightside was created in 1885, when the Sheffield parliamentary borough was divided into five. It lasted under that name until 2010, when Hillsborough ward was added when its eponymous constituency was dismembered (the largest part actually going into Penistone & Stocksbridge). In spite of the name change, this is clearly a successor to Brightside, not to Hillsborough. As such it has been Labour since 1935, and except for 1931 since 1922. David Blunkett was MP for many years; when he retired he was succeeded by Harry Harpham, who sadly died less than a year after being elected, with his widow Gill Furniss winning the resulting by-election. Although her share of the vote fell by more than average in 2019 it remained well over 50% and this is still a safe Labour seat.
The Labour dominance largely extends to local level as well. Hillsborough (not of course in the constituency until recently) was often the main exception; until the 1970s it voted Tory more often than not (though the boundaries would be a bit different from today's) and during the Lib Dems' two strongest periods in Sheffield (the mid to late 1990s and around 2008) it voted for them. It's also recently developed a strong Green vote. Burngreave was one of those places which somehow voted Tory in 1968, but then the Liberals built up local strength and held the council seats for several years, but in recent years it has been monolithically Labour. UKIP have sometimes seemed the biggest threat to the Labour monopoly of council seats in the constituency, coming fairly close in Southey and Shiregreen & Brightside in 2014.