Post by John Chanin on May 7, 2022 15:06:24 GMT
Aylesbury is a large town with a population of 75,000 and accounts for two-thirds of the seat named after it. It sits at an important junction where the road up the Vale of Aylesbury meets the main road through the Chilterns (and also the railway and the Grand Union canal). It is the county town of Buckinghamshire with a large shopping centre, a new theatre by the canal, and plenty of public sector workers. In popular culture it is probably best known for the Aylesbury duck - a large white domestic breed of uncertain origin which was widely bred in the area from the 1700s.
The town has grown rapidly in size since the 1960s, and as a result most of the housing is post-war, and it is still expanding at a rapid rate. To the south west of the town is the slightly detached area of Stoke Mandeville, famous for its hospital specialising in spinal injuries, which supposedly was involved in the creation of the Paralympics. The Southcourt area to the north has a lot of council housing and is very working class with the lowest educational qualifications, and the highest number of routine workers, and Walton Court and Gatehouse to the west is more of the same. On the north side of the town by the river Thame there is more social housing plus extensive new estates, where rapid development continues. Bedgrove east of the A41 is considerably up market, almost wholly owner-occupied and with a high level of managerial workers. The area inside the ring road, which contains the town centre is the older part of town, and is also mostly middle-class, although with high levels of private renting, and there are more council estates in Elmhurst alongside the ring road in the north. And to the north-east there are more extensive new developments, currently sprawling outside the old boundaries into Buckingham constituency. Aylesbury has a substantial Asian population of around 10% concentrated in the north of the town, and overall is only 80% white. In summary Aylesbury is not a particularly high status town. Politically the working class areas used to vote Labour and the middle-class ones Conservative, but at local level most of the town now votes Liberal Democrat.
The remaining third of the seat is divided into two parts. To the immediate south of the town is a rural part of the vale, running down to the Chiltern escarpment. In the middle of this area is the small town of Wendover, on the north side of the Tring gap through the hills. Wendover, now bypassed by the A41, has a population of 7500, and the rural area around is similar to the rest of rural Buckinghamshire - white, well educated with 50% managerial workers, and very Conservative. In total there are 15,000 voters in this section.
A look at the map shows the constituency has a very strange shape, with a narrow neck south of Wendover leading to a promontory to the south west. This follows the ridge of the Chilterns above the vale, all the way down to Stokenchurch on the M40 with its famous radio tower perched on the escarpment edge, visible for miles around.There are another 15,000 voters here scattered among small villages, like Lacey Green above Princes Risborough, and Great Hampden, in a sparsely populated area. The Hughenden valley in the far south looks to Wycombe. This area is extremely prosperous and up market, and is monolithically Conservative.
The rural third of the constituency ensures that it is safely Conservative, whatever the results in the town. The long term MP here, David Lidington, was replaced in 2019 by Rob Butler, locally born, and previously a lobbyist after a spell as a TV presenter.
Buckinghamshire is entitled to an extra seat as a result of the population growth in the town and the continuing expansion of Milton Keynes. The Boundary Commission proposals remove the whole of the Chiltern ridge section plus Wendover to a new rather incoherent mid-Buckinghamshire seat. In exchange it gets a smaller rural area to the north-east around Wing, with its extension into the Chilterns at Ivinghoe Beacon. This substitutes one anomalous hilly region for another, and will make no difference to the seat politically.
Census data: owner-occupied 70% (207/573 in England & Wales), private rented 15% (249th), social rented 13% (364th).
:White 86%, Black 3%, South Asian 6%, Mixed 3%, Other 3%
: Managerial & professional 41% (138th), Routine & Semi-routine 24% (433rd)
: Degree level 30%(169th), No qualifications 33%(396th)
: Students 3% (400th), Over 65- 14% (442nd)
The town has grown rapidly in size since the 1960s, and as a result most of the housing is post-war, and it is still expanding at a rapid rate. To the south west of the town is the slightly detached area of Stoke Mandeville, famous for its hospital specialising in spinal injuries, which supposedly was involved in the creation of the Paralympics. The Southcourt area to the north has a lot of council housing and is very working class with the lowest educational qualifications, and the highest number of routine workers, and Walton Court and Gatehouse to the west is more of the same. On the north side of the town by the river Thame there is more social housing plus extensive new estates, where rapid development continues. Bedgrove east of the A41 is considerably up market, almost wholly owner-occupied and with a high level of managerial workers. The area inside the ring road, which contains the town centre is the older part of town, and is also mostly middle-class, although with high levels of private renting, and there are more council estates in Elmhurst alongside the ring road in the north. And to the north-east there are more extensive new developments, currently sprawling outside the old boundaries into Buckingham constituency. Aylesbury has a substantial Asian population of around 10% concentrated in the north of the town, and overall is only 80% white. In summary Aylesbury is not a particularly high status town. Politically the working class areas used to vote Labour and the middle-class ones Conservative, but at local level most of the town now votes Liberal Democrat.
The remaining third of the seat is divided into two parts. To the immediate south of the town is a rural part of the vale, running down to the Chiltern escarpment. In the middle of this area is the small town of Wendover, on the north side of the Tring gap through the hills. Wendover, now bypassed by the A41, has a population of 7500, and the rural area around is similar to the rest of rural Buckinghamshire - white, well educated with 50% managerial workers, and very Conservative. In total there are 15,000 voters in this section.
A look at the map shows the constituency has a very strange shape, with a narrow neck south of Wendover leading to a promontory to the south west. This follows the ridge of the Chilterns above the vale, all the way down to Stokenchurch on the M40 with its famous radio tower perched on the escarpment edge, visible for miles around.There are another 15,000 voters here scattered among small villages, like Lacey Green above Princes Risborough, and Great Hampden, in a sparsely populated area. The Hughenden valley in the far south looks to Wycombe. This area is extremely prosperous and up market, and is monolithically Conservative.
The rural third of the constituency ensures that it is safely Conservative, whatever the results in the town. The long term MP here, David Lidington, was replaced in 2019 by Rob Butler, locally born, and previously a lobbyist after a spell as a TV presenter.
Buckinghamshire is entitled to an extra seat as a result of the population growth in the town and the continuing expansion of Milton Keynes. The Boundary Commission proposals remove the whole of the Chiltern ridge section plus Wendover to a new rather incoherent mid-Buckinghamshire seat. In exchange it gets a smaller rural area to the north-east around Wing, with its extension into the Chilterns at Ivinghoe Beacon. This substitutes one anomalous hilly region for another, and will make no difference to the seat politically.
Census data: owner-occupied 70% (207/573 in England & Wales), private rented 15% (249th), social rented 13% (364th).
:White 86%, Black 3%, South Asian 6%, Mixed 3%, Other 3%
: Managerial & professional 41% (138th), Routine & Semi-routine 24% (433rd)
: Degree level 30%(169th), No qualifications 33%(396th)
: Students 3% (400th), Over 65- 14% (442nd)
2010 | % | 2015 | % | 2017 | % | 2019 | % | |
Conservative | 27,736 | 52.2% | 28,083 | 50.7% | 32,313 | 55.0% | 32,737 | 54.0% |
Labour | 6,695 | 12.6% | 8,391 | 15.1% | 17,617 | 30.0% | 15,364 | 25.4% |
Liberal Democrat | 15,118 | 28.4% | 5,885 | 10.6% | 5,660 | 9.6% | 10,081 | 16.6% |
UKIP | 3,613 | 6.8% | 10,925 | 19.7% | 1,296 | 2.2% | ||
Green | 2,135 | 3.9% | 1,237 | 2.1% | 2,394 | 4.0% | ||
Others | 620 | 1.1% | ||||||
Majority | 12,618 | 23.7% | 17,158 | 31.0% | 14,696 | 25.0% | 17,373 | 28.7% |
