Post by John Chanin on Apr 16, 2021 10:32:35 GMT
This was a new seat created in 1997, taking most of its territory from Stafford, but also sections from Newcastle and Staffordshire Moorlands. It is therefore something of a bits left over seat, extending over 3 local districts. What it is however, is uniformly prosperous, and uniformly Conservative, although there are 4 distinct parts to it. Firstly there is the rural west alongside the Shropshire border. This is pleasant partly wooded rolling agricultural country, with nothing more than villages, although Eccleshall, despite a population of less than 5000, has the amenities of a town. The other larger villages in the area have quite a lot of new development - Gnosall to the south and Loggerheads to the north. This area accounts for about a quarter of the seat. Secondly there is the small market town of Stone itself, halfway between Stafford and Stoke, which has a population of about 15,000, and its immediate hinterland. The southern part of Stone is a little down market of the Stafford District section of the seat, with a lower proportion of managerial workers, and more people with minimal qualifications than with degrees, and there is some council housing here. The town sits on the upper valley of the river Trent and the associated Trent & Mersey canal, and the seat extends southwards along the Trent valley , with some quite remote farming country away from the river towards Uttoxeter. This section also accounts for about a quarter of the seat. The third part of the seat is in the orbit of Stoke. It would not be too ungenerous to call Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook actual suburbs of the city. Madeley and Barlaston are pleasant commuter villages close to the city edge (the Wedgwood museum in Barlaston is on the border with Stoke). There is also much genuine countryside, with farms and small rural villages, both at the southern end of Newcastle District and between Stone and Stoke. This section accounts for about a third of the seat. The final section of the seat is in Staffordshire Moorlands District and consists of the market town of Cheadle, and a small rural area to the south on the way to Uttoxeter. Cheadle has a population of about 12,000, and is mainly a commuter town these days, but has a JCB factory, and provides staff to Alton Towers, which is just outside the constituency. Cheadle has the highest level of routine workers, and the lowest proportion of people with degrees in the seat, but is as Conservative as the rest of it, although electing independents to the local District Council. This area is hillier as befits the foothills of the Peak District. This section accounts for about a fifth of the seat.
Overall the seat is very safely Conservative, although not ultra-safe. There are a few Labour votes in the towns and the Stoke fringes, and Labour can occasionally elect a councillor in Madeley. There are no current Liberal Democrat councillors either. The MP here is long-serving Bill Cash, patron of the anti-EU movement, who was originally elected for Stafford in a by-election in 1984, and moved to the new Stone seat in 1997.
I noted on the original profile that this seat was likely to be altered out of all recognition at the boundary review, and this is indeed the case. The Boundary Commission has had considerable difficulty in reorganizing Staffordshire into sensible seats that fall within the required limits, and the proposed new seat which will continue the name of Stone is not one of them. The only part of the new Stone & Great Wyrley seat that was in the old Stone seat is the town itself, with around 15,000 voters. The western end of the old seat goes to Stafford. The northern end goes mostly into an expanded Stoke South and the town of Cheadle is returned to Staffordshire Moorlands. The new seat links Stone with the northern half of South Staffordshire District - Great Wyrley, Cheslyn Hay, Penkridge, and surrounding villages. In order to link the two parts a section of the Trent Valley between Stafford and Cannock is removed from Stafford to this seat. The new seat will bear no relation to any previous seat, is a very strange shape, and links two areas with nothing in common, but it does permit other Staffordshire seats to remain recognisably similar to now. It will be safely Conservative as there are few Labour votes anywhere to be seen in the area.
Census data: Owner-occupied 79% (29/573 in England & Wales), private rented 10% (508th), social rented 9% (532nd).
: White 98%, Black 0%, South Asian 0%, Mixed 1%, Other 0%
: Managerial & professional 40% (167th), Routine & Semi-routine 26% (397th)
: Degree level 30%(160th), Minimal qualifications 34%(343rd)
: Students 2.8% (387th), Over 65: 21% (77th)
Overall the seat is very safely Conservative, although not ultra-safe. There are a few Labour votes in the towns and the Stoke fringes, and Labour can occasionally elect a councillor in Madeley. There are no current Liberal Democrat councillors either. The MP here is long-serving Bill Cash, patron of the anti-EU movement, who was originally elected for Stafford in a by-election in 1984, and moved to the new Stone seat in 1997.
I noted on the original profile that this seat was likely to be altered out of all recognition at the boundary review, and this is indeed the case. The Boundary Commission has had considerable difficulty in reorganizing Staffordshire into sensible seats that fall within the required limits, and the proposed new seat which will continue the name of Stone is not one of them. The only part of the new Stone & Great Wyrley seat that was in the old Stone seat is the town itself, with around 15,000 voters. The western end of the old seat goes to Stafford. The northern end goes mostly into an expanded Stoke South and the town of Cheadle is returned to Staffordshire Moorlands. The new seat links Stone with the northern half of South Staffordshire District - Great Wyrley, Cheslyn Hay, Penkridge, and surrounding villages. In order to link the two parts a section of the Trent Valley between Stafford and Cannock is removed from Stafford to this seat. The new seat will bear no relation to any previous seat, is a very strange shape, and links two areas with nothing in common, but it does permit other Staffordshire seats to remain recognisably similar to now. It will be safely Conservative as there are few Labour votes anywhere to be seen in the area.
Census data: Owner-occupied 79% (29/573 in England & Wales), private rented 10% (508th), social rented 9% (532nd).
: White 98%, Black 0%, South Asian 0%, Mixed 1%, Other 0%
: Managerial & professional 40% (167th), Routine & Semi-routine 26% (397th)
: Degree level 30%(160th), Minimal qualifications 34%(343rd)
: Students 2.8% (387th), Over 65: 21% (77th)
2010 | % | 2015 | % | 2017 | % | 2019 | % | |
Conservative | 23,890 | 50.6% | 25,733 | 54.7% | 31,614 | 63.2% | 31,687 | 63.6% |
Labour | 9,770 | 20.7% | 9,483 | 20.2% | 14,119 | 28.2% | 11,742 | 23.6% |
Liberal Democrat | 10,598 | 22.4% | 2,473 | 5.3% | 2,222 | 4.4% | 4,412 | 8.9% |
UKIP | 2,481 | 5.3% | 7,620 | 16.2% | 1,370 | 2.7% | ||
Green | 490 | 1.0% | 1,191 | 2.5% | 707 | 1.4% | 2,002 | 4.0% |
Others | 531 | 1.1% | ||||||
Majority | 13,292 | 28.1% | 16,250 | 34.6% | 17,495 | 35.0% | 19,945 | 40.0% |
