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Post by 🏴☠️ Neath West 🏴☠️ on May 15, 2020 17:54:48 GMT
Mayals is a terrific bit of gerrymandering. The only ward of Mumbles community not in the Gower constituency... It would make more sense to stick Clydach into Swansea East and then an East ward into West.
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Post by andrewp on Apr 3, 2021 13:07:51 GMT
An entry for Swansea West to replace the original deleted profile.
In common with many cities in Great Britain, the Western half of the second city of Wales contains most of its choice residential areas and is the more affluent of the two seats covering the city. It has historically also been the more marginal and more electorally interesting of the 2 seats.
This seat includes the City Centre, which given Swansea’s prominence as one of the ports for the Welsh Mining industry, became the target for a Blitz in 1941. The city centre was largely destroyed and rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s. This constituency also includes the University, built post war on a beautifully located campus on the sea front. Near the University, and also on the sea front is St Helens sports ground, the traditional home of Swansea Rugby Club and second home of Glamorgan county cricket club.
This seat has remained unchanged in the last two boundary reviews and thus has been fought on the current boundaries since 1983. In that year, the boundaries were tweaked so that a minor area in the City Centre was gained from Swansea East, but more politically significantly the Conservative voting Mumbles area was transferred to the Gower constituency. In 1979, Labour had held Swansea West by 401 votes, the net effect of those boundary changes were calculated to be worth about 3000 to Labour, and more than likely cost the Conservatives a gain here in 1983.
The university makes this quite a young constituency which has the 17th highest proportion of 16-24 year olds in the UK . It is more ethnically diverse than the Welsh average, with the biggest non white group being 5.8% of the population who are Asian. The presence of City Centre flats and university accommodation make this constituency only 54% owner occupied. Fully 42.3% of adults in this constituency are not economically active, ranking it 4th in the UK on that measure, and the constituency ranks 15th in the UK for the number of full time students.
The strongest wards for Labour are Castle, which covers the City Centre, Townhill which is a council estate set on a windy cliff directly above the city centre and the more peripheral Cockett ward, which is based on the industrial settlements of Fforest fach and Waunarlwydd.
The old traditional West End is in Uplands and Sketty wards. Uplands was the childhood home of the famous Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and as an area near the University has become more bohemian as the home to many of the students. Uplands split its council representation between Labour and an ex Lib Dem splinter group in 2017. Sketty is, along with the Mumbles, the most desirable residential area in Swansea and a former Conservative stronghold that drifted towards the Liberal Democrats over the last 25 years. Sketty is one of only two 5 member council wards in the whole of the UK ( the other is in Swansea too) and in 2017 managed to elect 2 Lib Dems, 2 Conservatives and one Labour councillor.
Moving further out towards the Gower, the remaining four wards have a less City feel. Killay and Dunvant are villages that have become part of the urban sprawl. Killay and Dunvant are pleasant suburbs and would vote narrowly Labour at general elections.
The final, and most Conservative, ward is Mayals situated on the way to the Mumbles. This is a affluent coastal suburb and is a safe Conservative ward at local elections.
This seat was a marginal between Labour and the Conservatives from 1945 until the 1980s. The Conservatives only won once in 1959, but the Labour majority was rarely above 5,000. Long serving Labour MP Alan Williams gained the seat back for Labour in 1964 and sat in the House of Commons for 46 years until retirement in 2010. In Williams’ last election in 2005, he suffered a 9% swing to the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems also had considerable strength at local level at that time and in 2008 17 of the 25 councillors elected in this constituency were Liberal Democrats. Williams retired before the 2010 election, and his successor as Labour candidate was former Croydon Central MP Geraint Davies. In his initial election Davies crept home by 504 votes over the Liberal Democrats. The subsequent collapse of the Liberal Democrats has meant that the Conservatives have once again finished second in elections since 2015. In 2019, there was a small 3% swing to the Conservatives, but Davies majority in this traditional marginal is a comfortable looking 8000, and in a seat which voted 57% remain, this is now a safer Labour seat than traditional South Wales Labour strongholds like Neath and Islwyn.
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Post by Penddu on Apr 3, 2021 18:24:58 GMT
Personal anecdote - Alan Williams was once engaged to my mother (before I was born). True fact.
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Post by where2travel on Apr 3, 2021 18:50:07 GMT
Sketty is the only 5 member council ward in the whole of the UK Isn't Morriston another (also in Swansea)? |
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Post by andrewp on Apr 3, 2021 19:00:46 GMT
Sketty is the only 5 member council ward in the whole of the UK Isn't Morriston another (also in Swansea)? Yes you’re right. I mistakenly thought Morriston had gone down to 4. I will edit. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2021 19:13:25 GMT
Why is there a difference between England and Wales in the number of cllrs per ward? The LGBCE refuses to raw any ward larger then 3 members but Wales seems to have a few 4-member wards and a couple of 5-member ones
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Post by Penddu on Apr 4, 2021 10:45:17 GMT
Why is there a difference between England and Wales in the number of cllrs per ward? The LGBCE refuses to raw any ward larger then 3 members but Wales seems to have a few 4-member wards and a couple of 5-member ones Because it favours the establishment - ie the Labour party |
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Post by Penddu on Apr 4, 2021 10:46:55 GMT
Personal anecdote - Alan Williams was once engaged to my mother (before I was born). True fact. I shudder when I think I could have had a Labour MP as my father...the shame... the embarrassment... |
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Post by Robert Waller on Apr 10, 2021 11:11:28 GMT
2011 Census
Owner-occupied 54.3% 551/650
Private rented 21.0% 108/650
Social rented 22.6% 156/650
White 89.4% 448/650
Black 1.4% 213/650
Asian 5.8% 190/650
Managerial & professional 25.6%
Routine & Semi-routine 21.9%
Economically inactive 42.3% 4/650
Degree level 27.9% 242/650
No qualifications 20.9% 417/650
Students 24.7% 15/650
Age 65+ 17.2% 282/650
2021 Census
Owner occupied 53.6% 471/573
Private rented 23.8% 132/573
Social rented 22.7% 102/573
White 85.5%
Black 2.0%
Asian 7.5%
Managerial & professional 28.0% 400/573
Routine & Semi-routine 21.5% 375/573
Degree level 35.0% 200/573
No qualifications 17.4% 315/573
Students 19.5% 25/573
General Election 2019: Swansea West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Co-op Geraint Davies 18,493 51.6 -8.2
Conservative James Price 10,377 29.0 -2.3
Liberal Democrats Michael O'Carroll 2,993 8.4 +5.0
Plaid Cymru Gwyn Williams 1,984 5.5 +1.4
Brexit Party Peter Hopkins 1,983 5.5 N/A
Lab Majority 8,116 22.6 -5.9
Turnout 35,830 62.8 -2.7
Registered electors 57,078
Labour Co-op hold
Swing 2.9 Lab to C
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