Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2020 17:14:47 GMT
Where is South Ribble? To the south of the River Ribble, yes, but to what extent, how far, and with what exceptions? Formed in 1983, broadly carved out of Preston South and Fylde South, the seat was coterminous with the newly created borough council of the same name. Not quite Preston, formed as a medium-sized borough to the north of the Ribble; and not quite Chorley, where the market town was joined by an ample stretch of rural and semi-rural communities in three directions. The borough, and parliamentary seat, of South Ribble lands between these two: the rural sweep of the A59 corridor towards Clitheroe through Coupe Green and Samlesbury, the towns of Bamber Bridge and Lostock Hall, the larger town of Leyland (of Motors fame), and the flat plains of Longton and Hutton across to the River Douglas.
As might befit a council area which lacks a natural identity or one single place as a central focus, the boundaries of parliamentary seats seem to happily carve up South Ribble to make up the numbers. In 1997, Bamber Bridge and Walton-le-Dale left for Preston, so the seat was taken into the fringes of Chorley's rural outcrop and the West Lancashire marsh towns of Hesketh Bank and Tarleton. In 2010 the seat barely changed, expanding a touch further south, as the eastern wards were put into the Ribble Valley constituency.
This seat is bellwether territory. It fell to the Conservatives in 1983, Labour in 1997, and has been held by the Tories since 2010. The local council has had, recently, moments of cuckoo-bananas tomfoolery. You could either embark on the cul-de-sac required to understand it, or just understand that is involves resignations, threatening behaviour, accusations, and disagreements. These local difficulties have not translated into Parliament election shifts away from the Conservatives, as often happens when voters are able to separate the local from the national. Not that SR is immune from moving with the tide, it is a bellwether after all: the Conservatives added 3% to its vote share in 2019, not out of sorts when compared to the local and national picture.
At council level, overall control has swung from Conservative to Labour almost in perfect synch with the national mood: Labour gained control in 1995 and relinquished in 2007. A significant amount of Labour's support currently sits outside the parliamentary seat: Bamber Bridge and Farington, for example. Leyland was predominately Tory in 2007 but in new boundaries in 2015 returned a majority of Labour councillors. In Penwortham, a small town to the north, Labour has been moderately strong in the residential areas of Middleforth and Kingsfold, and in 2019 took Charnock, a classic suburban ward of comfortable detached properties either side of a permanently traffic-jammed B-road into Lostock Hall. The Conservatives dominate the areas of South Ribble where the farmland and countryside take over: Much Hoole and Little Hoole, Longton and New Longton (in the constituency) and in the east/north-east, Samlesbury and Higher Walton (outside it).
The mills and factories may have gone but small-scale industry remains. Leyland Motors' legacy lives on although these days the vast footprint of the town's mechanical past is taken up by various housing estates ("Great Park Drive", "Parish Gardens", "Quins Croft"), cuboid industrial units, business parks, and still flying the flag (kind of) Leyland Trucks - A PACCAR COMPANY. By accident and design, Leyland sits on J28 of the M6 which means there are very easy links to the mammoth M6/M65/M61 interchange, although this currently sits in the Ribble Valley constituency. For some reason. You'll all be pleased to learn that Leyland is one of UK homes of Dr. Oetker, the largest exporter of frozen pizzas from the UK to Italy.
As might befit a council area which lacks a natural identity or one single place as a central focus, the boundaries of parliamentary seats seem to happily carve up South Ribble to make up the numbers. In 1997, Bamber Bridge and Walton-le-Dale left for Preston, so the seat was taken into the fringes of Chorley's rural outcrop and the West Lancashire marsh towns of Hesketh Bank and Tarleton. In 2010 the seat barely changed, expanding a touch further south, as the eastern wards were put into the Ribble Valley constituency.
This seat is bellwether territory. It fell to the Conservatives in 1983, Labour in 1997, and has been held by the Tories since 2010. The local council has had, recently, moments of cuckoo-bananas tomfoolery. You could either embark on the cul-de-sac required to understand it, or just understand that is involves resignations, threatening behaviour, accusations, and disagreements. These local difficulties have not translated into Parliament election shifts away from the Conservatives, as often happens when voters are able to separate the local from the national. Not that SR is immune from moving with the tide, it is a bellwether after all: the Conservatives added 3% to its vote share in 2019, not out of sorts when compared to the local and national picture.
At council level, overall control has swung from Conservative to Labour almost in perfect synch with the national mood: Labour gained control in 1995 and relinquished in 2007. A significant amount of Labour's support currently sits outside the parliamentary seat: Bamber Bridge and Farington, for example. Leyland was predominately Tory in 2007 but in new boundaries in 2015 returned a majority of Labour councillors. In Penwortham, a small town to the north, Labour has been moderately strong in the residential areas of Middleforth and Kingsfold, and in 2019 took Charnock, a classic suburban ward of comfortable detached properties either side of a permanently traffic-jammed B-road into Lostock Hall. The Conservatives dominate the areas of South Ribble where the farmland and countryside take over: Much Hoole and Little Hoole, Longton and New Longton (in the constituency) and in the east/north-east, Samlesbury and Higher Walton (outside it).
The mills and factories may have gone but small-scale industry remains. Leyland Motors' legacy lives on although these days the vast footprint of the town's mechanical past is taken up by various housing estates ("Great Park Drive", "Parish Gardens", "Quins Croft"), cuboid industrial units, business parks, and still flying the flag (kind of) Leyland Trucks - A PACCAR COMPANY. By accident and design, Leyland sits on J28 of the M6 which means there are very easy links to the mammoth M6/M65/M61 interchange, although this currently sits in the Ribble Valley constituency. For some reason. You'll all be pleased to learn that Leyland is one of UK homes of Dr. Oetker, the largest exporter of frozen pizzas from the UK to Italy.
