Post by iainbhx on Jul 26, 2020 10:07:20 GMT
Wyre Forest which is named after the local authority has existed in two forms since 1983, either matching the boundaries of said authority (1983-1997,2010-present) or being minus the Rock area which was transferred to Leominster. However, the old Kidderminster Division or at least in it 1950 form, very closely resembled the Wyre Forest seat and can be said to have very much been its predecessor. As such, it has been represented by five Conservative, one Labour and one Health Concern MPs since 1950: Gerald Nabarro (undoubtedly the seat's most interesting MP), Tatton Brinton (of the carpet dynasty), Esmond Bulmer (of the cider dynasty), Anthony Coombs, David Lock, Richard Taylor and since 2010 - Mark Garnier.
The seat itself is fairly large, but the majority of the population are to be found in three towns - Kidderminster, Stourport-on-Severn and Bewdley. Kidderminster is roughly twice the size of Stourport and Stourport is around twice the size of Bewdley. Of course, that depends on definitions of the three towns and definitions are complicated, whilst not quite as complicated as Black Country definitions.
Kidderminster owes much to its favourable position, it is a Domesday Book town which was well positioned on the River Stour and also a hub for local roads, it developed as a market town and Kidderminster still had a livestock market into the 1990's after it was rebuilt in the 1950's. it also started to develop industries, mainly using the local water power, cloth and tanning were fairly common and this was boosted by Huguenot settlement after the Edict of Nantes and this developed into the Carpet trade where Kidderminster became one of the dominant British players with Brintons being the main employers, Brintons is still going in newer premises in one of the new Industrial estates on the Stourport Road. Sugar manufacture was also important to Kidderminster in the 20th Century with a large British Sugar plant on the Wilden Road, which is now being replaced by housing and another industrial/retail park. However as Kidderminster became better connected first by canal, then by railway and then by improved roads, it thrived in a way that the other two towns didn't. It has seen substantial growth often taking over some of those outlying Domesday settlements, Franche and Lower Habberley to a certain extent have resisted identification with Kiddy, but newer suburbs such as Hoobrook and Offmore have not. As well as the substantial retail offering on the fringes, central Kidderminster has, after some struggles remained a major shopping centre not just for Wyre Forest but for an expanded region around it, whilst the Penny Black is still the best place to fight a farmboy on a Saturday night. The train service and the A456 make Kiddy and attractive dormitory town for commuters (for Birmingham, Dudley and Worcester) and the affordability of housing and the station sees around 1.6 million users a year and could do with more than 200-odd car park places it has.
Stourport is the smaller, somewhat more down at heel version of Kidderminster, it too thrived during the era of the canals, but it was by-passed by the railway and when the railway did come to it, it was on the very quiet Severn Valley line with no direct connection to Kidderminster and onwards. It did, however, enable the Stourport Power Stations, which fed initially by local coal, kept a good few jobs in Stourport over the years. However, having increased in size rapidly in the 18th century, it stagnated in the 19th and 20th century although it developed somewhat as a resort, becoming popular with people coming for the day from Birmingham or the Black Country and also developing some caravan parks. If anything, Stourport is doing better now than it has for a while, with a lot of Kidderminster's new job opportunities being on the Stourport side.
Bewdley is the posh bit although including Wribbenhall is contentious in some Bewdley circles, a small pleasant market town, somewhat prone to flooding with an attractive Georgian centre, it has always been a small market town and has now grown with well off retirees and commuters. There are also a lot of static caravans in Bewdley & Rock ward, up to 10% of all dwellings and this is somewhat of a local issue.
The rest of the seat can be divided into the close orbiters of Kidderminster like Wolverley and Cookley which have substantial industrial heritages and more rural villages such as Rock, Blakedown or Chaddesley Corbett which have become very expensive places for the managerial classes of GroßBirmingham to take residence.
Wyre Forest is very, very white - just over 96% at the last census and that doesn't seem to have changed that much, there is a small Asian (mainly Bangladeshi) community in Broadwaters, the second most BAME ward is Wyre Forest Rural where the BAME residents will have a very different socio-economic profile. It skews older than the national average, it has a higher percentage of pensioners than the national average and a lower proportion of younger people between 18-35. A lot of people have moved into Wyre Forest, only 66% of its denizens come from there, around 10% come from the rest of Worcestershire, 10% from the West Midlands and the rest from the broader UK. Around 70% of people own their homes outright or have a mortgage and because the population is older, this is a fairly even split, around 14% of people are in social housing, mainly in Kidderminster and Stourport. Wyre Forest as a whole is fairly average in terms of income, not that many high earners but not that many low earners either, but there are some differences between the various wards. Over 40% of residents in Wyre Forest Rural have a household income over 50k a year, whilst in Lickhill very few earn low or high incomes, but over 50% have household incomes of 30-40k a year, the poorest ward is Hoobrook and Foley Park where over 50% have a household income under 20k a year. This is reflected in the multiple deprivation figures, Foley Park, especially the Rifle Range estate, Broadwaters, and Areley Kings are all amongst the 10% most multiply deprived areas.
Locally, politics has been complicated for many years and the council has been in No Overall Control more often than not, with some periods of Conservative dominance, one short period of Labour dominance and brief Health Concern reign of terror. There was a long period where the Liberals and then the Liberal Democrats were whilst not dominant, often running the council with Labour, but a combination of New Labour which did very well and a late split in the Mid-90's between the Liberals and the Liberal Democrats effectively did for the LibDems in Wyre Forest. The Conservatives have always been there and nearly always in some strength, but have often struggled in the Stourport wards in particular and in East Kidderminster. What has made the situation more complicated is the rise of Health Concern. Health Concern, now the Wyre Forest Independent Party, arose from the downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital and removal of services, particularly A&E, to the Alexandra Hospital in Redd Itch. Redditch isn't that accessible from Kiddy, the A448 wasn't that good back then (and still has its problems) and public transport provision was poor. Such was the wave of indignation, Health Concern took control of the council for a year, but proved to be disasterous at running it, they have remained a player in Wyre Forest politics but are no longer a major player although health provision remains an issue in the area, the Alexandra has had some troubles, there is substantial GP underprovisioning in the district and getting to the other side of Redditch remains difficult. As such, we have a situation where no party seems to stand a full slate in Wyre Forest, where seven different groups get over 9% of the vote and six of those are represented on the council. The effective demise of UKIP may help the Tories here, but I doubt if it will get any simpler. Things are a little simpler at the County Council level - where St Chads belongs to Fran Oborski and Stourport and St Georges & St Oswald are very marginal for the Tories and everything else is safer for them.
Of course at the Parliamentary level the seat has had its ructions as well. It is generally Conservative inclined and can be considered in normal years to be a banker for the the Blue Team. During the 80's, the Liberals threatened distantly and in 1997 Labour took the seat and would probably have held it in 2001 (and lost it in 2005) if it hadn't been for Health Concern. Health Concern took the seat very easily in 2001, the LibDems didn't stand and the Conservative and Labour vote plummeted to elect Dr Richard Taylor. He held the seat in 2005 fairly easily albeit with a rise in the Conservative vote but lost to the Tories in 2010 probably because the LibDem decided to stand in the seat. Whilst the LibDems found Dr Taylor cordial, Health Concern had by that time mutated into a fairly standard right-populist independent group. Since then Mark Garnier has increased his majority election on election and now has the largest one in the history of the seat. I don't think there should be any problems for the Conservatives in Wyre Forest at the Parliamentary level unless there is a landslide against them, but at the District level, I predict it will remain, ahem, interesting.
The seat itself is fairly large, but the majority of the population are to be found in three towns - Kidderminster, Stourport-on-Severn and Bewdley. Kidderminster is roughly twice the size of Stourport and Stourport is around twice the size of Bewdley. Of course, that depends on definitions of the three towns and definitions are complicated, whilst not quite as complicated as Black Country definitions.
Kidderminster owes much to its favourable position, it is a Domesday Book town which was well positioned on the River Stour and also a hub for local roads, it developed as a market town and Kidderminster still had a livestock market into the 1990's after it was rebuilt in the 1950's. it also started to develop industries, mainly using the local water power, cloth and tanning were fairly common and this was boosted by Huguenot settlement after the Edict of Nantes and this developed into the Carpet trade where Kidderminster became one of the dominant British players with Brintons being the main employers, Brintons is still going in newer premises in one of the new Industrial estates on the Stourport Road. Sugar manufacture was also important to Kidderminster in the 20th Century with a large British Sugar plant on the Wilden Road, which is now being replaced by housing and another industrial/retail park. However as Kidderminster became better connected first by canal, then by railway and then by improved roads, it thrived in a way that the other two towns didn't. It has seen substantial growth often taking over some of those outlying Domesday settlements, Franche and Lower Habberley to a certain extent have resisted identification with Kiddy, but newer suburbs such as Hoobrook and Offmore have not. As well as the substantial retail offering on the fringes, central Kidderminster has, after some struggles remained a major shopping centre not just for Wyre Forest but for an expanded region around it, whilst the Penny Black is still the best place to fight a farmboy on a Saturday night. The train service and the A456 make Kiddy and attractive dormitory town for commuters (for Birmingham, Dudley and Worcester) and the affordability of housing and the station sees around 1.6 million users a year and could do with more than 200-odd car park places it has.
Stourport is the smaller, somewhat more down at heel version of Kidderminster, it too thrived during the era of the canals, but it was by-passed by the railway and when the railway did come to it, it was on the very quiet Severn Valley line with no direct connection to Kidderminster and onwards. It did, however, enable the Stourport Power Stations, which fed initially by local coal, kept a good few jobs in Stourport over the years. However, having increased in size rapidly in the 18th century, it stagnated in the 19th and 20th century although it developed somewhat as a resort, becoming popular with people coming for the day from Birmingham or the Black Country and also developing some caravan parks. If anything, Stourport is doing better now than it has for a while, with a lot of Kidderminster's new job opportunities being on the Stourport side.
Bewdley is the posh bit although including Wribbenhall is contentious in some Bewdley circles, a small pleasant market town, somewhat prone to flooding with an attractive Georgian centre, it has always been a small market town and has now grown with well off retirees and commuters. There are also a lot of static caravans in Bewdley & Rock ward, up to 10% of all dwellings and this is somewhat of a local issue.
The rest of the seat can be divided into the close orbiters of Kidderminster like Wolverley and Cookley which have substantial industrial heritages and more rural villages such as Rock, Blakedown or Chaddesley Corbett which have become very expensive places for the managerial classes of GroßBirmingham to take residence.
Wyre Forest is very, very white - just over 96% at the last census and that doesn't seem to have changed that much, there is a small Asian (mainly Bangladeshi) community in Broadwaters, the second most BAME ward is Wyre Forest Rural where the BAME residents will have a very different socio-economic profile. It skews older than the national average, it has a higher percentage of pensioners than the national average and a lower proportion of younger people between 18-35. A lot of people have moved into Wyre Forest, only 66% of its denizens come from there, around 10% come from the rest of Worcestershire, 10% from the West Midlands and the rest from the broader UK. Around 70% of people own their homes outright or have a mortgage and because the population is older, this is a fairly even split, around 14% of people are in social housing, mainly in Kidderminster and Stourport. Wyre Forest as a whole is fairly average in terms of income, not that many high earners but not that many low earners either, but there are some differences between the various wards. Over 40% of residents in Wyre Forest Rural have a household income over 50k a year, whilst in Lickhill very few earn low or high incomes, but over 50% have household incomes of 30-40k a year, the poorest ward is Hoobrook and Foley Park where over 50% have a household income under 20k a year. This is reflected in the multiple deprivation figures, Foley Park, especially the Rifle Range estate, Broadwaters, and Areley Kings are all amongst the 10% most multiply deprived areas.
Locally, politics has been complicated for many years and the council has been in No Overall Control more often than not, with some periods of Conservative dominance, one short period of Labour dominance and brief Health Concern reign of terror. There was a long period where the Liberals and then the Liberal Democrats were whilst not dominant, often running the council with Labour, but a combination of New Labour which did very well and a late split in the Mid-90's between the Liberals and the Liberal Democrats effectively did for the LibDems in Wyre Forest. The Conservatives have always been there and nearly always in some strength, but have often struggled in the Stourport wards in particular and in East Kidderminster. What has made the situation more complicated is the rise of Health Concern. Health Concern, now the Wyre Forest Independent Party, arose from the downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital and removal of services, particularly A&E, to the Alexandra Hospital in Redd Itch. Redditch isn't that accessible from Kiddy, the A448 wasn't that good back then (and still has its problems) and public transport provision was poor. Such was the wave of indignation, Health Concern took control of the council for a year, but proved to be disasterous at running it, they have remained a player in Wyre Forest politics but are no longer a major player although health provision remains an issue in the area, the Alexandra has had some troubles, there is substantial GP underprovisioning in the district and getting to the other side of Redditch remains difficult. As such, we have a situation where no party seems to stand a full slate in Wyre Forest, where seven different groups get over 9% of the vote and six of those are represented on the council. The effective demise of UKIP may help the Tories here, but I doubt if it will get any simpler. Things are a little simpler at the County Council level - where St Chads belongs to Fran Oborski and Stourport and St Georges & St Oswald are very marginal for the Tories and everything else is safer for them.
Of course at the Parliamentary level the seat has had its ructions as well. It is generally Conservative inclined and can be considered in normal years to be a banker for the the Blue Team. During the 80's, the Liberals threatened distantly and in 1997 Labour took the seat and would probably have held it in 2001 (and lost it in 2005) if it hadn't been for Health Concern. Health Concern took the seat very easily in 2001, the LibDems didn't stand and the Conservative and Labour vote plummeted to elect Dr Richard Taylor. He held the seat in 2005 fairly easily albeit with a rise in the Conservative vote but lost to the Tories in 2010 probably because the LibDem decided to stand in the seat. Whilst the LibDems found Dr Taylor cordial, Health Concern had by that time mutated into a fairly standard right-populist independent group. Since then Mark Garnier has increased his majority election on election and now has the largest one in the history of the seat. I don't think there should be any problems for the Conservatives in Wyre Forest at the Parliamentary level unless there is a landslide against them, but at the District level, I predict it will remain, ahem, interesting.
