Post by John Chanin on May 15, 2020 16:05:44 GMT
Maldon is a small town that gives its name to a small District council, covering basically the valley of the river Blackwater and the peninsula between the Blackwater and the Crouch on the east coast of Essex. It is a very persistent name for a constituency, but it is far too small for a seat of its own, and has been linked with a variety of other areas. Prior to 1974 it was linked with Braintree and Witham. From 1974 to 1983 with Rayleigh. From 1983 to 1997 with Colchester, and subsequently with the eastern part of Chelmsford District. In 2010 the four northern rural wards were removed to form part of the new Witham seat. The larger half of the present seat is the rest of Maldon District. Half of this section is urban - the town of Maldon with Heybridge on the other side of the Blackwater. Maldon is an old town, and a port at the highest navigable point of the river. Heybridge is generally more modern. This is the most working class part of the seat, with over 40% having few or no qualifications, and there is a significant amount of council housing here, particularly in East Maldon ward which has voted Labour in the past. It is most famous for its table salt, but otherwise has little to distinguish it. The other half includes the yachting centre of Burnham on the Crouch, and a string of villages, including the terminus at Southminster of the strange branch railway line from Brentwood. This does however permit commuting to London. Out on the end of the peninsula is the Bradwell nuclear power station. Owner-occupation is very high, particularly in the rural wards to the west, but like many rural areas it isn’t terribly high in managerial jobs, or in people with higher education. What it is, is monolithically Conservative, although at the 2019 local elections dissatisfaction with the council led to the election of a lot of independents.
The smaller half of the seat comes from the rural east of Chelmsford District. This includes the almost wholly modern town of South Woodham on the Crouch which has a population of around 16,000, and accounts for a third of the Chelmsford section. It also has a station on the branch line into London, and is effectively another of the commuter towns of south Essex. As you would expect from this it is more middle-class than Maldon town. Runwell is basically part of Wickford and shares its demographics. The rest is rural villages such as the Hanningfields and Little Baddow, many very plush and up market with over 80% owner-occupation and over 40% in managerial jobs. The seat stretches a long way to the west where Margaretting is on the main A12 road between Brentwood and Chelmsford. The whole Chelmsford section is also very Conservative, with no spill over from the Liberal Democrat strength in Chelmsford town.
Putting all this together the statistics show that like the neighbouring south Essex seats it is very high in owner-occupation, and also in intermediate occupations, although not particularly well-educated . Politically it was the 4th safest Conservative seat in the country in 2019, and while it has never been outside the top 50 safest since it took on roughly its modern form, it has been getting ever safer. The MP is right-winger John Whittingdale, first elected in 1992 when he was only in his early 30s. His career never really took off, despite shadow cabinet posts, and he was Chair of the parliamentary Culture Committee, before briefly becoming a cabinet minister under Cameron.
The seat is within quota, but the Boundary Commission have added Galleywood, a suburb of Chelmsford with 4300 voters, in order to bring the latter seat down to size. This will make no difference to this very safe seat.
Census data: owner-occupied 80% (21/573 in England & Wales), private rented 10% (536th), social rented 9% (525th).
:White 97%, Black 0%, South Asian 0%, Mixed 1%, Other 1%
: Managerial & professional 38% (200th), Routine & Semi-routine 24% (437th)
: Degree level 24%(337th), No qualifications 38%(235th)
: Students 2.0% (547th), Over 65: 19% (164th)
The smaller half of the seat comes from the rural east of Chelmsford District. This includes the almost wholly modern town of South Woodham on the Crouch which has a population of around 16,000, and accounts for a third of the Chelmsford section. It also has a station on the branch line into London, and is effectively another of the commuter towns of south Essex. As you would expect from this it is more middle-class than Maldon town. Runwell is basically part of Wickford and shares its demographics. The rest is rural villages such as the Hanningfields and Little Baddow, many very plush and up market with over 80% owner-occupation and over 40% in managerial jobs. The seat stretches a long way to the west where Margaretting is on the main A12 road between Brentwood and Chelmsford. The whole Chelmsford section is also very Conservative, with no spill over from the Liberal Democrat strength in Chelmsford town.
Putting all this together the statistics show that like the neighbouring south Essex seats it is very high in owner-occupation, and also in intermediate occupations, although not particularly well-educated . Politically it was the 4th safest Conservative seat in the country in 2019, and while it has never been outside the top 50 safest since it took on roughly its modern form, it has been getting ever safer. The MP is right-winger John Whittingdale, first elected in 1992 when he was only in his early 30s. His career never really took off, despite shadow cabinet posts, and he was Chair of the parliamentary Culture Committee, before briefly becoming a cabinet minister under Cameron.
The seat is within quota, but the Boundary Commission have added Galleywood, a suburb of Chelmsford with 4300 voters, in order to bring the latter seat down to size. This will make no difference to this very safe seat.
Census data: owner-occupied 80% (21/573 in England & Wales), private rented 10% (536th), social rented 9% (525th).
:White 97%, Black 0%, South Asian 0%, Mixed 1%, Other 1%
: Managerial & professional 38% (200th), Routine & Semi-routine 24% (437th)
: Degree level 24%(337th), No qualifications 38%(235th)
: Students 2.0% (547th), Over 65: 19% (164th)
2010 | % | 2015 | % | 2017 | % | 2019 | % | |
Conservative | 28,661 | 59.8% | 29,112 | 60.6% | 34,111 | 67.9% | 36,304 | 72.0% |
Labour | 6,070 | 12.7% | 5,690 | 11.8% | 10,681 | 21.3% | 6,263 | 12.4% |
Liberal Democrat | 9,254 | 19.3% | 2,157 | 4.5% | 2,181 | 4.3% | 5,990 | 11.9% |
UKIP | 2,446 | 5.1% | 7,042 | 14.7% | 1,899 | 3.8% | ||
Green | 1,504 | 3.1% | 1,073 | 2.1% | 1,851 | 3.7% | ||
Others | 1,464 | 3.1% | 2,540 | 5.3% | 257 | 0.5% | ||
Majority | 19,407 | 40.5% | 22,070 | 45.9% | 23,430 | 46.7% | 30,041 | 59.6% |
