Post by andrewp on Sept 30, 2023 9:31:48 GMT
Plymouth Sutton and Devonport is the southern of the 2 parliamentary constituencies formed wholly of wards from within the Plymouth City Council area. This is the central city seat and it includes the whole of the City Centre, and most of the famous landmarks in the city, the Hoe- a green space on the seafront where Sir Francis Drake allegedly played Bowls whilst waiting to sail out with the fleet to tackle the Spanish Armada- the Citadel and the Dockyards. This constituency could be called Plymouth Central or Plymouth South, but the boundary Commission decided to keep 2 historic names in the constituency name.
This seat was created in 2010, and rather than being the merger of the Devonport and Sutton constituencies it was actually the 1997-2010 version of Plymouth Sutton with the Devonport area itself added from the previous seat of that name. Although curiously, compared to the 1974-97 constituency boundaries in Plymouth, when the name Plymouth appeared in 3 constituency titles, this seat is the successor to Plymouth Drake rather than Sutton OR Devonport.
The city sits between the mouths of the River Tamar and the Devon Cornwall county boundary to the West and the River Plym to the East. The natural harbour meant that it was a good site for Dockyards to be developed in the 18th Century for the import of grain, timber and coal. Plymouth became a naval city- During the first world war the dockyards at Devonport were developed and then during the second world war Devonport was the headquarters of Western Approaches command, and it was that that made the city a target for the Luftwaffe. In a series of 59 raids, most of the city centre, and 4000 houses, were destroyed in the Plymouth Blitz.
The city centre was rebuilt in an unsympathetic 1960’s architecture, although in recent years parts of the centre have been improved and updated. It was in part of the city centre and no doubt as part of a, perhaps ill advised, attempt to improve and update the area that the major local issue that affected the local elections in Plymouth in 2023 took place. In March the city council which then had a minority Conservative political administration, cut down 110 trees in Armada Way in the City Centre, leading to a local outrage and a high court injunction being sought and secured by a group seeking to save the few remaining trees. This event was perhaps the major factor in a disastrous Conservative local election performance in the City where the party won just 1 of the 19 wards and none in this constituency. The issue had perhaps less direct electoral effect in the wards in this constituency than elsewhere in the City though as Labour had already completed their first ever clean sweep of the wards here in 2022 by winning the 2 owner occupied usually Conservative wards of Peverell and Compton. Compton ward contains the best residential areas of the city and had remained Conservative even in 1995, but Labour won for the first time ever in 2022 and followed it up with another gain in 2023 aided by workers at the many public sector institutions choosing to live in the leafiest suburb of the city. Compton and Peverell are quite leafy by Plymouth standards, however there aren’t a lot of leafy suburbs in Plymouth- it’s quite a bleak hilly city. Compton and Peverell have shifted towards Labour in the last decade, and from these being the best areas in the City proper for the Conservatives, there are currently better prospects for the party in the less middle class areas of the City’s northern Moor View constituency.
This is a constituency with a young age profile and a lot of students. Plymouth polytechnic, in the constituency, gained University status in 1992 and has grown since then. It now has 20,000 students, with about 15000 of them living in this constituency, placing this well within the top 50 constituencies nationwide for the number of students. It ranks 27th in the country for people aged 16-25 and is in the lower quartile for people aged over 65.
Boundary changes in Plymouth in the current review are minor. This constituency is slightly over quota, whilst Plymouth Moor View is under quota and this is solved by splitting Peverall ward and moving about 4000 voters near Home Park football ground from this constituency into Moor View. This might add a couple of hundred to the notional Labour majority here but has no significant political impact.
When this seat was created in 2010, it had a notional Labour majority of 4,400. Conservative Oliver Colville defeated Sutton incumbent Linda Gilroy by 1100 vote that year in what was quite a tight 3-way battle with the Liberal Democrats only 3000 behind Labour. Colville then held on by 523 in 2015, but was swept away in 2017, by Labour’s Luke Pollard by nearly 7000 votes. This is the sort of seat where the Liberal Democrats would have attracted the votes of a lot of students, whose votes then would have transferred to Labour.
It is probably worth noting that the Conservatives achieved a higher share of the vote in losing in 2017 (40%) and 2019 (39%) than they had in winning in 2010 ( 34%) and 2015 ( 38%) There was a small 2.3% swing to the Conservatives in 2019, so Pollard held on by 4757. Ann Widdecombe, who lives in retirement in Devon was the Brexit Party candidate but could only attract 5.5% of the vote. This now looks like a seat that Labour will normally win although the Conservatives did still poll 40% in 2019 and despite the student population, perhaps there is still a plausible glimmer of hope for the Conservatives that during a future Labour government, an option to the left of Labour becomes attractive again to students and the public sector here allowing the Conservatives to become highly competitive again.
This seat was created in 2010, and rather than being the merger of the Devonport and Sutton constituencies it was actually the 1997-2010 version of Plymouth Sutton with the Devonport area itself added from the previous seat of that name. Although curiously, compared to the 1974-97 constituency boundaries in Plymouth, when the name Plymouth appeared in 3 constituency titles, this seat is the successor to Plymouth Drake rather than Sutton OR Devonport.
The city sits between the mouths of the River Tamar and the Devon Cornwall county boundary to the West and the River Plym to the East. The natural harbour meant that it was a good site for Dockyards to be developed in the 18th Century for the import of grain, timber and coal. Plymouth became a naval city- During the first world war the dockyards at Devonport were developed and then during the second world war Devonport was the headquarters of Western Approaches command, and it was that that made the city a target for the Luftwaffe. In a series of 59 raids, most of the city centre, and 4000 houses, were destroyed in the Plymouth Blitz.
The city centre was rebuilt in an unsympathetic 1960’s architecture, although in recent years parts of the centre have been improved and updated. It was in part of the city centre and no doubt as part of a, perhaps ill advised, attempt to improve and update the area that the major local issue that affected the local elections in Plymouth in 2023 took place. In March the city council which then had a minority Conservative political administration, cut down 110 trees in Armada Way in the City Centre, leading to a local outrage and a high court injunction being sought and secured by a group seeking to save the few remaining trees. This event was perhaps the major factor in a disastrous Conservative local election performance in the City where the party won just 1 of the 19 wards and none in this constituency. The issue had perhaps less direct electoral effect in the wards in this constituency than elsewhere in the City though as Labour had already completed their first ever clean sweep of the wards here in 2022 by winning the 2 owner occupied usually Conservative wards of Peverell and Compton. Compton ward contains the best residential areas of the city and had remained Conservative even in 1995, but Labour won for the first time ever in 2022 and followed it up with another gain in 2023 aided by workers at the many public sector institutions choosing to live in the leafiest suburb of the city. Compton and Peverell are quite leafy by Plymouth standards, however there aren’t a lot of leafy suburbs in Plymouth- it’s quite a bleak hilly city. Compton and Peverell have shifted towards Labour in the last decade, and from these being the best areas in the City proper for the Conservatives, there are currently better prospects for the party in the less middle class areas of the City’s northern Moor View constituency.
This is a constituency with a young age profile and a lot of students. Plymouth polytechnic, in the constituency, gained University status in 1992 and has grown since then. It now has 20,000 students, with about 15000 of them living in this constituency, placing this well within the top 50 constituencies nationwide for the number of students. It ranks 27th in the country for people aged 16-25 and is in the lower quartile for people aged over 65.
Boundary changes in Plymouth in the current review are minor. This constituency is slightly over quota, whilst Plymouth Moor View is under quota and this is solved by splitting Peverall ward and moving about 4000 voters near Home Park football ground from this constituency into Moor View. This might add a couple of hundred to the notional Labour majority here but has no significant political impact.
When this seat was created in 2010, it had a notional Labour majority of 4,400. Conservative Oliver Colville defeated Sutton incumbent Linda Gilroy by 1100 vote that year in what was quite a tight 3-way battle with the Liberal Democrats only 3000 behind Labour. Colville then held on by 523 in 2015, but was swept away in 2017, by Labour’s Luke Pollard by nearly 7000 votes. This is the sort of seat where the Liberal Democrats would have attracted the votes of a lot of students, whose votes then would have transferred to Labour.
It is probably worth noting that the Conservatives achieved a higher share of the vote in losing in 2017 (40%) and 2019 (39%) than they had in winning in 2010 ( 34%) and 2015 ( 38%) There was a small 2.3% swing to the Conservatives in 2019, so Pollard held on by 4757. Ann Widdecombe, who lives in retirement in Devon was the Brexit Party candidate but could only attract 5.5% of the vote. This now looks like a seat that Labour will normally win although the Conservatives did still poll 40% in 2019 and despite the student population, perhaps there is still a plausible glimmer of hope for the Conservatives that during a future Labour government, an option to the left of Labour becomes attractive again to students and the public sector here allowing the Conservatives to become highly competitive again.
