Post by sirbenjamin on May 17, 2022 0:26:21 GMT
In recent years, boundary reviews in London have mostly resulted in elegant and satisfactory arrangements even when boroughs are too large or too small for a whole number of seats. This has been achieved by pairing local authorities and awarding a joint entitlement while keeping the actual cross-borough seats to a minimum.
Dating from 1997, Erith & Thamesmead is one such cross-borough creation, comprising wards from Bexley and Greenwich and leaving them enough for two whole seats each, which is as neat as it gets. (At least until the next review where things will become increasingly messy and complicated, though a tri-borough grouping of Greenwich, Bexley and Bromley is far from the worst proposal). It is also a fairly rare example of a seat that straddles the border of the 1889-1965 county of London (or, in modern terms, the statutory Inner London-Outer London border).
The constituency runs along the length of the Thames for around seven miles, but there are no road or rail connections to the other side of the river - the nearest being the DLR and Crossrail rail tunnels to the West and the Dartford crossing to the East. So, while Bexley and Greenwich are neighbourly enough to share a seat, Newham, Barking & Dagenham and Havering are relatively inaccessible, despite their watery proximity.
The largely planned community of Thamesmead, which spans both Greenwich and Bexley, is a strangely isolated place, lacking in facilities and transport connections, and was for some years considered a failed project. Built largely on former marshland in the 1960s it was originally intended to house more than 100,000 residents but development proved to be far slower than that, the focus (and the proposed Jubilee Line) switched to Docklands, and Thamesmead arguably became a bit of a white elephant. It is not as deprived as it once was, but the population is still under half the original target, at around 41,000.
On the Western edge of the Thamesmead area are three prisons (including the notorious Belmarsh) and the adjacent Woolwich Crown Court, which perhaps don't make for the most warming of welcomes to those visiting the area. My jury service at the Crown Court included trials involving a cage fighter and a transgender sexual assault case, which perhaps makes the place sound more exciting and dramatic than it is.
The riverside areas sloping Eastwardly towards Erith remain somewhat underdeveloped, with nature reserves sitting slightly incongruously alongside relatively heavy industry, mirroring Rainham on the opposite side, despite the twain ne'er meeting. Erith is home to a number of wholesale food suppliers, including the ubiquitous Frymax who provide oils to chip shops everywhere. Further inland, Abbey Wood - terminus of the Southern branch of Crossrail - and Belvedere are more typically suburban and less ethnically mixed than Thamesmead. The seat also includes some of Plumstead, often cited as the home of six-time world Snooker champion Steve Davis, though he actually grew up in Abbey Wood.
By some notional calculations the seat was only marginally Labour when created, though it has never seen a close contest. Nadhim Zahawi stood in the inaugural battle in 1997 and was beaten badly, polling only 20.2% of the vote.
Underpopulated though it may be, there are probably enough Labour voters in Thamesmead and the surrounding area to ensure ongoing representation here with little trouble, though the Conservatives came surprisingly close in 2019, reducing the majority to under 4,000. This may well have been a reflection of the Bexley parts of the seat being considerably more Brexity than London as a whole, but also the loss of any 'incumbancy bonus' as Teresa Pearce stood down after nine years and Abena Oppong-Asare became the new MP.
The Labour vote isn't confined to Thamesmead; Belvedere and Erith also vote that way locally, and it perhaps strange that West Heath - the most densely residential ward in the seat - is the only one to reliably elect Conservative councillors, though neighbouring Northumberland Heath has also done so in the recent past.
Initial boundary proposals would see the seat carelessly lose this pair of Heaths and gain extra territory in Greenwich around Plumstead and Shooters Hill, making it considerably safer for Labour.
This is a part of London that is quite easily forgotten, possibly even for its residents, and the difference in visitor/tourist numbers between this seat and Greenwich & Woolwich next door must be one of the biggest gulfs between neighbouring seats, if such a metric has ever been quantified.
Dating from 1997, Erith & Thamesmead is one such cross-borough creation, comprising wards from Bexley and Greenwich and leaving them enough for two whole seats each, which is as neat as it gets. (At least until the next review where things will become increasingly messy and complicated, though a tri-borough grouping of Greenwich, Bexley and Bromley is far from the worst proposal). It is also a fairly rare example of a seat that straddles the border of the 1889-1965 county of London (or, in modern terms, the statutory Inner London-Outer London border).
The constituency runs along the length of the Thames for around seven miles, but there are no road or rail connections to the other side of the river - the nearest being the DLR and Crossrail rail tunnels to the West and the Dartford crossing to the East. So, while Bexley and Greenwich are neighbourly enough to share a seat, Newham, Barking & Dagenham and Havering are relatively inaccessible, despite their watery proximity.
The largely planned community of Thamesmead, which spans both Greenwich and Bexley, is a strangely isolated place, lacking in facilities and transport connections, and was for some years considered a failed project. Built largely on former marshland in the 1960s it was originally intended to house more than 100,000 residents but development proved to be far slower than that, the focus (and the proposed Jubilee Line) switched to Docklands, and Thamesmead arguably became a bit of a white elephant. It is not as deprived as it once was, but the population is still under half the original target, at around 41,000.
On the Western edge of the Thamesmead area are three prisons (including the notorious Belmarsh) and the adjacent Woolwich Crown Court, which perhaps don't make for the most warming of welcomes to those visiting the area. My jury service at the Crown Court included trials involving a cage fighter and a transgender sexual assault case, which perhaps makes the place sound more exciting and dramatic than it is.
The riverside areas sloping Eastwardly towards Erith remain somewhat underdeveloped, with nature reserves sitting slightly incongruously alongside relatively heavy industry, mirroring Rainham on the opposite side, despite the twain ne'er meeting. Erith is home to a number of wholesale food suppliers, including the ubiquitous Frymax who provide oils to chip shops everywhere. Further inland, Abbey Wood - terminus of the Southern branch of Crossrail - and Belvedere are more typically suburban and less ethnically mixed than Thamesmead. The seat also includes some of Plumstead, often cited as the home of six-time world Snooker champion Steve Davis, though he actually grew up in Abbey Wood.
By some notional calculations the seat was only marginally Labour when created, though it has never seen a close contest. Nadhim Zahawi stood in the inaugural battle in 1997 and was beaten badly, polling only 20.2% of the vote.
Underpopulated though it may be, there are probably enough Labour voters in Thamesmead and the surrounding area to ensure ongoing representation here with little trouble, though the Conservatives came surprisingly close in 2019, reducing the majority to under 4,000. This may well have been a reflection of the Bexley parts of the seat being considerably more Brexity than London as a whole, but also the loss of any 'incumbancy bonus' as Teresa Pearce stood down after nine years and Abena Oppong-Asare became the new MP.
The Labour vote isn't confined to Thamesmead; Belvedere and Erith also vote that way locally, and it perhaps strange that West Heath - the most densely residential ward in the seat - is the only one to reliably elect Conservative councillors, though neighbouring Northumberland Heath has also done so in the recent past.
Initial boundary proposals would see the seat carelessly lose this pair of Heaths and gain extra territory in Greenwich around Plumstead and Shooters Hill, making it considerably safer for Labour.
This is a part of London that is quite easily forgotten, possibly even for its residents, and the difference in visitor/tourist numbers between this seat and Greenwich & Woolwich next door must be one of the biggest gulfs between neighbouring seats, if such a metric has ever been quantified.
