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UK Parliament - Rossendale & Darwen

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> United Kingdom > England > North West > North West > Rossendale & Darwen

Office

Parliament

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

April 19, 2005 - 12:00pm

Polls Open

May 05, 2005 - 01:00am

Polls Close

May 05, 2005 - 05:00pm

Term Start

May 17, 2005 - 12:00pm

Term End

May 17, 2010 - 11:00am

Contributor

Wishful Thinking

Last Modified

Wishful Thinking June 22, 2005 11:33pm

Data Sources

[Link]

Description

Rossendale and Darwen is in the south east portion of Lancashire, an area of moorland and valleys containing small towns of terraced housing (47% of household stock). The main settlements are Bacup, Darwen, Rawtensall and Whitworth, all of which grew up during the industrial revolution and relied on a thriving textile industry. That industry is now defunct and the constituency is largely relying on increased tourism and as a commuter base to Manchester. Darwen, however, still has an industrial base with jobs in engineering and in the manufacture of plastics paint and wallpaper. Unemployment is around the national average and 25% of those in jobs still work in manufacturing. But, in common with other parts of the county, owner occupation is high at 75%. Rossendale and Darwen is part of one of the nine areas getting special regeneration funding. Rossendale and Darwen was one of the most marginal constituencies after the 1992 election when Labour's Janet Anderson defeated the sitting Tory, David Trippier, by 120 votes. The old seat of Rossendale had been Labour from 1945-70 but then began to shift inexorably towards the Tories. Labour regained it briefly in October 1974 by 203 votes but Tripper won it back in 1979. Labour gained it in 1992. Janet Anderson saw her majority soar to almost 11,000 five years later (following favourable boundary changes) but drop back in 2001 to just under 5,000.