Created 2005 European Parliament constituency Scotland | Created from Cunninghame South, Ayr Member of parliament Philippa Whitford | |
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Subdivisions of Scotland North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire Scottish Parliament Ayr,
Carrick, Cumnock & Doon Valley,
Cunninghame South Replaced by Cunninghame South, Ayr, Cunninghame North | ||
Central Ayrshire is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south-west of Scotland within the North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire council areas. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.
The seat has mostly belonged to the Labour Party since the 1950s, with the former MP Brian Donohoe having represented the seat since its creation in 2005, and was MP for the predecessor seat of Cunninghame South since 1992. Until the 2015 General Election in which the SNP's Philippa Whitford was elected with a majority of 13,589.
A diverse seat, the constituency covers more working class towns such as Irvine and parts of Kilwinning to the north, as well as the more affluent coastal resorts of Troon and Prestwick to the south. The seat also takes in a set of villages in rural South Ayrshire including the former mining communities of Annbank, Mossblown and Tarbolton alongside the villages of Loans, Dundonald and Symington.
Boundaries
As created in 1950 the constituency merged parts of the Bute and Northern Ayrshire and Kilmarnock constituencies. Following the Representation of the People Act 1948 the Central Ayrshire constituency between 1950 and 1955 consisted of Irvine, Kilwinning, Stewarton, Troon, Kilbirnie and part of the district of Kilmarnock. When abolished in 1983 the constituency was largely replaced by Cunninghame South, with Troon and its surrounding area forming part of the Ayr constituency.
The constituency was re-established in 2005, centred around the historic burgh of Irvine which was designated in the 1970s as a Glasgow overspill new town. Irvine is among the most deprived parts of Scotland and made up mostly of social housing, with patches of suburban developments around Perceton, central Irvine and in parts of Girdle Toll. In recent local council elections the SNP have performed strongly in the town of Irvine. The affluent coastal towns of Prestwick and Troon join the town as part of the constituency as well as outlying rural areas located south and east of Troon and Prestwick: these areas have held a considerable level of support for Conservative candidates locally and as part of the Ayr constituency in the Scottish parliament. Labour, and more recently the SNP, have performed strongly in west Troon, south and east Prestwick and in the former Mossblown, Annbank and St. Quivox electoral ward. Heathfield in Ayr north also forms part of the constituency: this area is relatively small and has elected Labour councillors locally.
Since the 2005 general election aspects of the Ayr, Cunninghame South and Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituencies were grouped together to form the Central Ayrshire constituency: it takes up the majority of former the Cunninghame South constituency, around half of the former Ayr constituency and a group of villages which formed part of the former Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituency. The constituency incorporates the 2007 electoral wards of Kilwinning (part: excludes the majority of the electoral ward west of the river Garnock and north of the B778, and B785: it effectively covers the south east of the town of Kilwinning and rural areas east of the river Lugton), Irvine West, Irvine East, Kyle, Troon, Prestwick, and the northern elements of the Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton electoral ward covering the stretch of the B744 from Belston to Annbank and the Auchincruive Agricultural College. The constituency also cuts into the Ayr North electoral ward with its southern boundaries following Seaforth Road and Lochside Road to include part of Heathfield in Ayr.
The constituency overlaps the Scottish Parliamentary constituencies of Ayr, Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley and Cunninghame South. The Ayr constituency has been represented by Conservative MSP John Scott since a by-election in 2000, marginally ahead of the SNP in second place. Cunninghame South is currently represented by SNP MSP Ruth Maguire, who sustained a significant majority of 22.1% of the vote at the 2016 Scottish Parliament election ahead of Labour's Joe Cullinane in second place.