Post by doktorb🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ on Jul 6, 2023 9:34:26 GMT
Where is South Ribble?
To the south of the River Ribble, yes, but to what extent, how far, and with what exceptions? Formed in 1983, broadly carved out of Preston South and Fylde South, the seat was coterminous with the newly created borough council of the same name. Not quite Preston, formed as a medium-sized borough to the north of the Ribble; and not quite Chorley, where the market town was joined by an ample stretch of rural and semi-rural communities in three directions. The borough, and parliamentary seat, of South Ribble lands between these two: the rural sweep of the A59 corridor towards Clitheroe through Coupe Green and Samlesbury, the towns of Bamber Bridge and Lostock Hall, the larger town of Leyland (of Motors fame), and the flat plains of Longton and Hutton across to the River Douglas.
To the south of the River Ribble, yes, but to what extent, how far, and with what exceptions? Formed in 1983, broadly carved out of Preston South and Fylde South, the seat was coterminous with the newly created borough council of the same name. Not quite Preston, formed as a medium-sized borough to the north of the Ribble; and not quite Chorley, where the market town was joined by an ample stretch of rural and semi-rural communities in three directions. The borough, and parliamentary seat, of South Ribble lands between these two: the rural sweep of the A59 corridor towards Clitheroe through Coupe Green and Samlesbury, the towns of Bamber Bridge and Lostock Hall, the larger town of Leyland (of Motors fame), and the flat plains of Longton and Hutton across to the River Douglas.
As might befit a council area which lacks a natural identity or one single place as a central focus, the boundaries of parliamentary seats seem to happily carve up South Ribble to make up the numbers. In 1997, Bamber Bridge and Walton-le-Dale left for Preston, so the seat was taken into the fringes of Chorley's rural outcrop and the West Lancashire marsh towns of Hesketh Bank and Tarleton. In 2010 the seat barely changed, expanding a touch further south, as the eastern wards were put into the Ribble Valley constituency.
This seat is bellwether territory. It fell to the Conservatives in 1983, Labour in 1997, and has been held by the Tories since 2010. The local council has had, recently, moments of cuckoo-bananas tomfoolery. You could either embark on the cul-de-sac required to understand it, or just understand that is involves resignations, threatening behaviour, accusations, and disagreements. These local difficulties have not translated into Parliament election shifts away from the Conservatives, as often happens when voters are able to separate the local from the national. Not that SR is immune from moving with the tide, it is a bellwether after all: the Conservatives added 3% to its vote share in 2019, not out of sorts when compared to the local and national picture.
At council level, overall control has swung from Conservative to Labour almost in perfect synch with the national mood: Labour gained control in 1995 and relinquished in 2007. A significant amount of Labour's support currently sits outside the parliamentary seat: Bamber Bridge and Farington, for example. Leyland was predominately Tory in 2007 but in new boundaries in 2015 returned a majority of Labour councillors. In Penwortham, a small town to the north, Labour has been moderately strong in the residential areas of Middleforth and Kingsfold, and in 2019 took Charnock, a classic suburban ward of comfortable detached properties either side of a permanently traffic-jammed B-road into Lostock Hall. The Conservatives dominate the areas of South Ribble where the farmland and countryside take over: Much Hoole and Little Hoole, Longton and New Longton (in the constituency) and in the east/north-east, Samlesbury and Higher Walton (outside it).
The mills and factories may have gone but small-scale industry remains. Leyland Motors' legacy lives on although these days the vast footprint of the town's mechanical past is taken up by various housing estates ("Great Park Drive", "Parish Gardens", "Quins Croft"), cuboid industrial units, business parks, and still flying the flag (kind of) Leyland Trucks - A PACCAR COMPANY. By accident and design, Leyland sits on J28 of the M6 which means there are very easy links to the mammoth M6/M65/M61 interchange, although this currently sits in the Ribble Valley constituency. For some reason. You'll all be pleased to learn that Leyland is one of UK homes of Dr. Oetker, the largest exporter of frozen pizzas from the UK to Italy.
The railways thread through this seat, though the WCML doesn't stop. Local stoppers call at Leyland, and Croston; just missing out is Lostock Hall on the East Lancashire line.
The missing railway element is the Southport line from Preston, over the Ribble, to Longton, and into the 'marsh towns' towards the coast. Scant evidence of this line remains unless you count the massive traffic jams and scores of packed X2 buses.
From the next election, South Ribble takes on a peculiar looking shape. The distorted oblong comes from taking Charnock Richard from Chorley while losing anything to the west of the Douglas. This expands the seat further into rural and semi-rural Chorley, so from North to South this is a seat of great stretches of agricultural land, countryside and pockets of housing reliant on cars and very slashed back buses. Leyland and Penwortham are the real outliers here, great chunks of urban townships, with struggling high streets both.
Maybe the answer to "Where is South Ribble?" could be 'many places in middle England'. Here lies a little slice of so many demographics spread across the county, with patchy connectivity between each town, with a history of voting with the general mood of the country as a whole. It's here where governments are formed. The fight for 2024 may well begin at Charnock Richard Service Station off the M6 and not stop until Downing Street.
The railways thread through this seat, though the WCML doesn't stop. Local stoppers call at Leyland, and Croston; just missing out is Lostock Hall on the East Lancashire line.
The missing railway element is the Southport line from Preston, over the Ribble, to Longton, and into the 'marsh towns' towards the coast. Scant evidence of this line remains unless you count the massive traffic jams and scores of packed X2 buses.
From the next election, South Ribble takes on a peculiar looking shape. The distorted oblong comes from taking Charnock Richard from Chorley while losing anything to the west of the Douglas. This expands the seat further into rural and semi-rural Chorley, so from North to South this is a seat of great stretches of agricultural land, countryside and pockets of housing reliant on cars and very slashed back buses. Leyland and Penwortham are the real outliers here, great chunks of urban townships, with struggling high streets both.
Maybe the answer to "Where is South Ribble?" could be 'many places in middle England'. Here lies a little slice of so many demographics spread across the county, with patchy connectivity between each town, with a history of voting with the general mood of the country as a whole. It's here where governments are formed. The fight for 2024 may well begin at Charnock Richard Service Station off the M6 and not stop until Downing Street.
