Post by John Chanin on Apr 2, 2020 19:20:44 GMT
Epping (or Waltham) Forest was one of the medieval royal forests reserved for hunting by the king and his associates. The best known remnant of historical times (apart from a few earthworks) is the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge, which is actually just outside the constituency in Chingford. Quite a lot of the forest still remains - there are small remnants extending into London as far as Forest Gate, but most of it is in this constituency. Of course there are few residents in the forest, but the leafy village of High Beech contains the Visitors Centre and a fine pub, and is crammed with day trippers from London on a summer weekend.
The constituency consists of most of the Epping Forest District , which extends to the north of London on the east bank of the river Lea. The District is too large for a seat of its own, and the northern and eastern rural parts are hived off to Harlow, and Brentwood constituencies. What is left is essentially urban and can be divided into 4 parts. Largest is the Buckhurst Hill/Loughton/Debden area which is geographically a part of London, with the urban area being continuous from Woodford in the borough of Redbridge. This is very nearly half the seat. Also essentially London is Chigwell which sits on the other side of the river Roding just to the north of Ilford. Waltham Abbey is just across the river Lea from Enfield and Waltham Cross and is an ancient settlement reputed to be the burial place of Harald Godwinson and first mentioned in the reign of Cnut. Lastly there is the market town of Epping, one of the most distant reaches of the London Underground, and the terminus of the Central Line. The only other settlement is the quasi-rural village of Theydon Bois (Boyes not Bwa) which sits between Loughton and Epping.
This is a classic outer London suburban seat, thoroughly middle-class for the most part, although there is a large post-war overspill council estate at Debden, on the far northern end of the conurbation. However like most such low-rise peripheral estates it has mostly been sold off and is owner-occupied these days. Waltham Abbey also has a fair amount of rented housing and is more working class than the rest of the seat. Chigwell is reputationally the home of London gangsters made good (with the bodies buried in the forest), and certainly contains many large detached houses. Like most London suburbs it is white, but not as much as it used to be, as people move out from the inner city.
As a constituency it was created in 1974. The enormous Epping constituency was split between new Chingford and Harlow seats, with the small central area around Epping and Waltham Abbey linked with Chigwell, which had formerly been part of the Woodford constituency. There have only been minor changes since. Locally the area is solidly Conservative. The former Labour vote in Loughton and Debden has faded away, and they have no presence in Waltham Abbey either. There has never been much Liberal Democrat support here (although they cling to one of the Epping wards). Loughton has developed a hegemonic Residents party which wins every seat on the local council, but not enough to threaten Conservative control. This doesn’t carry over to national elections, where this is another extremely safe Conservative seat, held since 1997 by Eleanor Laing, now the deputy Speaker. The previous MP was Steve Norris who fought Ken Livingstone in the first London mayoral election.
The Boundary Commission is now proposing to leave this seat completely unchanged.
Census data: owner-occupied 72% (175/573 in England & Wales), private rented 11% (451st), social rented 16% (275th).
:White 89%, Black 2%, Asian 4%, Mixed 2%, Other 2%
: Managerial & professional 40% (156th), Routine & Semi-routine 21% (493rd)
: Degree 26% (273rd), Minimal qualifications 39% (206th)
: Students 3.4% (257th), Over 65 17% (246th)
The constituency consists of most of the Epping Forest District , which extends to the north of London on the east bank of the river Lea. The District is too large for a seat of its own, and the northern and eastern rural parts are hived off to Harlow, and Brentwood constituencies. What is left is essentially urban and can be divided into 4 parts. Largest is the Buckhurst Hill/Loughton/Debden area which is geographically a part of London, with the urban area being continuous from Woodford in the borough of Redbridge. This is very nearly half the seat. Also essentially London is Chigwell which sits on the other side of the river Roding just to the north of Ilford. Waltham Abbey is just across the river Lea from Enfield and Waltham Cross and is an ancient settlement reputed to be the burial place of Harald Godwinson and first mentioned in the reign of Cnut. Lastly there is the market town of Epping, one of the most distant reaches of the London Underground, and the terminus of the Central Line. The only other settlement is the quasi-rural village of Theydon Bois (Boyes not Bwa) which sits between Loughton and Epping.
This is a classic outer London suburban seat, thoroughly middle-class for the most part, although there is a large post-war overspill council estate at Debden, on the far northern end of the conurbation. However like most such low-rise peripheral estates it has mostly been sold off and is owner-occupied these days. Waltham Abbey also has a fair amount of rented housing and is more working class than the rest of the seat. Chigwell is reputationally the home of London gangsters made good (with the bodies buried in the forest), and certainly contains many large detached houses. Like most London suburbs it is white, but not as much as it used to be, as people move out from the inner city.
As a constituency it was created in 1974. The enormous Epping constituency was split between new Chingford and Harlow seats, with the small central area around Epping and Waltham Abbey linked with Chigwell, which had formerly been part of the Woodford constituency. There have only been minor changes since. Locally the area is solidly Conservative. The former Labour vote in Loughton and Debden has faded away, and they have no presence in Waltham Abbey either. There has never been much Liberal Democrat support here (although they cling to one of the Epping wards). Loughton has developed a hegemonic Residents party which wins every seat on the local council, but not enough to threaten Conservative control. This doesn’t carry over to national elections, where this is another extremely safe Conservative seat, held since 1997 by Eleanor Laing, now the deputy Speaker. The previous MP was Steve Norris who fought Ken Livingstone in the first London mayoral election.
The Boundary Commission is now proposing to leave this seat completely unchanged.
Census data: owner-occupied 72% (175/573 in England & Wales), private rented 11% (451st), social rented 16% (275th).
:White 89%, Black 2%, Asian 4%, Mixed 2%, Other 2%
: Managerial & professional 40% (156th), Routine & Semi-routine 21% (493rd)
: Degree 26% (273rd), Minimal qualifications 39% (206th)
: Students 3.4% (257th), Over 65 17% (246th)
2010 | % | 2015 | % | 2017 | % | 2019 | % | |
Conservative | 25,148 | 54.0% | 27,027 | 54.8% | 31,462 | 62.0% | 32,364 | 64.4% |
Labour | 6,641 | 14.3% | 7,962 | 16.1% | 13,219 | 26.0% | 10,191 | 20.3% |
Liberal Democrat | 10,017 | 21.5% | 3,448 | 7.0% | 2,884 | 5.7% | 5,387 | 10.7% |
UKIP | 1,852 | 4.0% | 9,049 | 18.3% | 1,871 | 3.7% | ||
Green | 659 | 1.4% | 1,782 | 3.6% | 1,233 | 2.4% | 1,975 | 3.9% |
Others | 2,267 | 4.9% | 80 | 0.2% | 110 | 0.2% | 351 | 0.7% |
Majority | 15,131 | 32.5% | 17,978 | 36.4% | 18,243 | 35.9% | 22,173 | 44.1% |
