Post by bsjmcr on May 2, 2020 22:38:17 GMT
Nestled in the foothills of the Pennines with plenty of quality green space, bordering the Peak District, and once upon a time in Cheshire (before Greater Manchester was born in 1974), at first sight or if this was elsewhere in the country it would be a safe Conservative seat. Instead it covers two slightly gritty towns and as such has been more or less safely Labour since 1945. It covers the eastern half of the Tameside borough, and of course the river winds through this constituency.
The seat is known for retaining some industry though there was much deprivation after the loss of the predominant cotton industry. The proportion of people working in manufacturing is well above the regional and national average, at 14% compared to 10% and 8% for the North West and the country respectively. Reflecting this, the proportion of people with no qualifications is slightly lower than average, while the proportion of graduates is also slightly lower than the country as a whole. The two eponymous towns are proudly working class, and here many of the terraced houses are stone-clad rather than brick, which gives the area a more provincial feel. In these towns the centres of affluence are in Stalybridge South, which is Conservative on the council - being semi-rural, with some attractive countryside and undulating roads. There has also been an increase in house-building across the area, particularly several vast identikit estates of modern detached family houses for commuters wanting a quieter life facing the hills. Stalybridge has its own train station, and there is park-and-ride Metrolink at nearby Ashton.
In Hyde, the Werneth ward in the far south is often Conservative, again, made of desirable hilly housing. This is named after the somewhat inappropriately named 'Werneth Low' - which is actually a very nice hill to climb and offers great views of the city, some of the best I find, and not too labourious to find and climb - would highly recommend going at sunset. The other two Hyde wards are Godley, and Newton, both safely Labour. Godley Reservoir is home to Europe's largest floating solar farm, made of 12,000 panels, completed in 2016 at a cost of £3.5 million, producing 2.7GWh of energy annually, helping power the water treatment works.
Places other than the two named towns include part of Dukinfield, most of which is in Ashton UL, and Mossley in the far north, which has a very market town feel and even had its own constituency before 1950. That area includes another high viewpoint, Hartshead Pike, which almost gave its name to the name of the council before Tameside was chosen. In the far southwest is Longdendale, which is almost the Peak District as it's closer to Glossop than Manchester and includes Mottram. There is also the Hattersley estate, somewhat isolated and exposed in the middle of green fields, it was one of the many 'overspill estates' commissioned by Manchester City Council in the 1960's.
In terms of people associated with the area, Ricky Hatton would be the most famous, he was born raised in Hattersley. And although the artist LS Lowry will forever be associated with Salford, he actually retired to and died in Mottram - there is a statue of him sat on a bench there. Apart from them, unfortunately some of the other associations in the area make it somewhat chequered - Harold Shipman was a GP in Hyde, and more recently Mottram was the site of the tragic murder of two police officers.
Politics now - and it must be said the borough of Tameside takes great affection in its former representatives, or vice versa (or perhaps it's mutual). In Ashton there is a Lord Sheldon way, named after a former MP. In Stalybridge there is a Lord Pendry Square, named after the Labour MP from 1970-2001. He was replaced by Balliol Oxford-educated and not particularly local James Purnell, a former adviser to Tony Blair. Turnout at his first election in 2001 was a dismal 48%, in line with the inner-city seats of Manchester and Liverpool. He was comfortably re-elected in 2005 and was a minister and Culture Secretary, finally DWP Secretary until 2009 when he resigned to protest Gordon Brown and stood down in 2010 - there were also some expenses issues. He was replaced by Jonathan Reynolds who is originally from the North East and retains his accent, but his links to the area stem from his Manchester University education after which he became a Councillor for Longdendale. His first election though made the seat marginal at 2,744 votes, less than a third of his predecessor. The BNP also held their deposit at that election. Amicable and personable from what I hear, Reynolds very effectively built it up at the subsequent two elections to 8,000 in 2017. It tumbled to just under 3,000 at the latest election, but this is still a very good result for him given it is better than his 2010 tally and the crumbling of the Red Wall in other heavily leave voting seats (60% leave estimated here). Aside from his personal vote, some of this may be down to the somewhat odd choice of Conservative candidate - they actually managed to lose votes, and the Brexit Party took over 8% of the vote. Turnout is still yet to exceed 60%, this was last exceeded in '97. Funnily enough like his predecessor's last position, Mr Reynolds is now Shadow DWP Secretary, but he should be here to stay for a long time to come.
The seat is known for retaining some industry though there was much deprivation after the loss of the predominant cotton industry. The proportion of people working in manufacturing is well above the regional and national average, at 14% compared to 10% and 8% for the North West and the country respectively. Reflecting this, the proportion of people with no qualifications is slightly lower than average, while the proportion of graduates is also slightly lower than the country as a whole. The two eponymous towns are proudly working class, and here many of the terraced houses are stone-clad rather than brick, which gives the area a more provincial feel. In these towns the centres of affluence are in Stalybridge South, which is Conservative on the council - being semi-rural, with some attractive countryside and undulating roads. There has also been an increase in house-building across the area, particularly several vast identikit estates of modern detached family houses for commuters wanting a quieter life facing the hills. Stalybridge has its own train station, and there is park-and-ride Metrolink at nearby Ashton.
In Hyde, the Werneth ward in the far south is often Conservative, again, made of desirable hilly housing. This is named after the somewhat inappropriately named 'Werneth Low' - which is actually a very nice hill to climb and offers great views of the city, some of the best I find, and not too labourious to find and climb - would highly recommend going at sunset. The other two Hyde wards are Godley, and Newton, both safely Labour. Godley Reservoir is home to Europe's largest floating solar farm, made of 12,000 panels, completed in 2016 at a cost of £3.5 million, producing 2.7GWh of energy annually, helping power the water treatment works.
Places other than the two named towns include part of Dukinfield, most of which is in Ashton UL, and Mossley in the far north, which has a very market town feel and even had its own constituency before 1950. That area includes another high viewpoint, Hartshead Pike, which almost gave its name to the name of the council before Tameside was chosen. In the far southwest is Longdendale, which is almost the Peak District as it's closer to Glossop than Manchester and includes Mottram. There is also the Hattersley estate, somewhat isolated and exposed in the middle of green fields, it was one of the many 'overspill estates' commissioned by Manchester City Council in the 1960's.
In terms of people associated with the area, Ricky Hatton would be the most famous, he was born raised in Hattersley. And although the artist LS Lowry will forever be associated with Salford, he actually retired to and died in Mottram - there is a statue of him sat on a bench there. Apart from them, unfortunately some of the other associations in the area make it somewhat chequered - Harold Shipman was a GP in Hyde, and more recently Mottram was the site of the tragic murder of two police officers.
Politics now - and it must be said the borough of Tameside takes great affection in its former representatives, or vice versa (or perhaps it's mutual). In Ashton there is a Lord Sheldon way, named after a former MP. In Stalybridge there is a Lord Pendry Square, named after the Labour MP from 1970-2001. He was replaced by Balliol Oxford-educated and not particularly local James Purnell, a former adviser to Tony Blair. Turnout at his first election in 2001 was a dismal 48%, in line with the inner-city seats of Manchester and Liverpool. He was comfortably re-elected in 2005 and was a minister and Culture Secretary, finally DWP Secretary until 2009 when he resigned to protest Gordon Brown and stood down in 2010 - there were also some expenses issues. He was replaced by Jonathan Reynolds who is originally from the North East and retains his accent, but his links to the area stem from his Manchester University education after which he became a Councillor for Longdendale. His first election though made the seat marginal at 2,744 votes, less than a third of his predecessor. The BNP also held their deposit at that election. Amicable and personable from what I hear, Reynolds very effectively built it up at the subsequent two elections to 8,000 in 2017. It tumbled to just under 3,000 at the latest election, but this is still a very good result for him given it is better than his 2010 tally and the crumbling of the Red Wall in other heavily leave voting seats (60% leave estimated here). Aside from his personal vote, some of this may be down to the somewhat odd choice of Conservative candidate - they actually managed to lose votes, and the Brexit Party took over 8% of the vote. Turnout is still yet to exceed 60%, this was last exceeded in '97. Funnily enough like his predecessor's last position, Mr Reynolds is now Shadow DWP Secretary, but he should be here to stay for a long time to come.
