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UK Parliament - Sittingbourne & Sheppey

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> United Kingdom > England > South East > South East > Sittingbourne & Sheppey

Office

Parliament

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

April 20, 2010 - 06:00pm

Polls Open

May 06, 2010 - 01:00am

Polls Close

May 06, 2010 - 04:00pm

Term Start

May 17, 2010 - 12:00pm

Term End

May 17, 2015 - 12:00pm

Contributor

Ralphie

Last Modified

Ralphie May 14, 2010 07:03pm

Data Sources

[Link]

Description

BBC Profile:
Created after boundary changes in 1995, Sittingbourne and Sheppey was won in the 1997 general election by Labour's Derek Wyatt from his Conservative opponent, Sir Roger Moate; Wyatt overturned a majority of 16,351 votes to win by 1,929.

In 2001 Wyatt increased his majority to 3,509 votes. The Conservatives almost regained the seat in 2005 when a swing back to them reduced Wyatt's majority to just 79.

At the election, the seat gains the part-ward of Teynham and Lynsted from Faversham and Mid Kent. To find out what might have happened had this boundary change been in force at the last election, see a notional - or estimated - result below.

At the point on the north Kent coast where the Thames estuary meets the North Sea, Sittingbourne is an expanding country town, while the marshy Isle of Sheppey is a flat area cut off geographically from the Kent mainland by the river Swale.

Local companies operate across a wide range of industries, from pharmaceuticals to more traditional paper and construction products. The health care and pharmaceutical sectors are represented not only by manufacturing operations, but also by a cluster of research-led companies that have grown up around Kent Science Park.

There is a great deal of construction work going on in the constituency, with the Thames Gateway Project a major source of funds for regeneration and development.

Rallings & Thrasher Notional:
C 17,933 (41.72%)
Lab 17,911 (41.67%)
LD 5,478 (12.74%)
UKIP 989 (2.30%)
Others 671 (1.56%)