County Greater London Created 1974 (1974) European Parliament constituency London Number of members 1 Party Conservative Party | Electorate 76,980 (December 2010) Created from Croydon South Member of parliament Gavin Barwell Replaced by Croydon South | |
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Croydon Central is a Parliamentary constituency created in 1974 represented in the House of Commons of Parliament since 2010 by Conservative Gavin Barwell.
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Constituency profile
Croydon Central covers a wedge of the London Borough of Croydon to the east of central Croydon and is much more marginal than the other selected two parliamentary divisions constrained to the borough itself Croydon South (which is safely Conservative) and Croydon North (Labour). The northern parts are characterised by terraced houses and urban areas, with small council estates. Labour gains much support from in particular Addiscombe, Fieldway, Woodside and Ashburton. The southern area, largely Conservative, consists of suburban semi-detached houses, populated by commuters, surrounded by golf courses and parkland. The wards of Shirley, Heathfield and Fairfield give large Conservative votes.
In the south east corner is a large former council estate, New Addington containing more than 10,000 residents. The estate is largely white and has comprised the whole or vast bulk of one or two wards of the United Kingdom in its history. The New Addington wards saw the highest turnout of British National Party supporters during the 2000s "heyday decade" however never elected a local councillor from the party; its sleight of councillors has been consistently Labour. Historically, Labour's strength in the area had been on the council estates, particularly New Addington.
The two major-stop railway stations on the national network, most office buildings, businesses and shopping centres of Croydon are in the seat. A wide range of flats forms a major part of the housing sector unlike neighbouring seats, from upmarket expensively built apartments with dedicated gym and restaurant facilities to ex-local authority brutalist architecture tower blocks, most of which had been replaced by the 2010s decade.
Political history
The constituency that preceded Croydon Central, Croydon South (1918-1950) and (1955-1974) had the modern borough area's two periods of brief Labour Party parliamentary representation — David Rees-Williams held the forerunner from the 1945 Labour landslide until unfavourable boundary changes in 1950. David Winnick was MP, 1966-1970.. Otherwise the area at parliamentary level has elected, since 1918, Conservative MPs.
In 1997, Croydon's seats were reduced from four to three and the displaced Conservative Members had to face one another for the right to stand in the new Croydon Central seat (Croydon North by then a Labour-held seat). The MP for Croydon North East, David Congdon, beat off Sir Paul Beresford, the MP for the former Croydon Central seat. However, three years after Labour had taken control of Croydon Council, Labour's Geraint Davies saw off Congdon with a majority of 4,000. He held the seat with a similar majority in 2001 but lost by just 75 votes to Conservative Andrew Pelling in 2005, with the Liberal Democrats and Green Party gaining a local record of 7,000 votes between them.
The 2015 result gave the seat the 3rd most marginal majority of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority.
Boundaries
Croydon Central covers the central and eastern parts of the London Borough of Croydon, one of the Borough's three seats. It is bordered by Croydon North and Croydon South, as well as Beckenham to the east.
The seat was redrawn in the 1997 redistribution, taking in territory from most of the pre-1997 Croydon Central constituency (losing Waddon ward to the redrawn Croydon South) and part of the abolished Croydon North East constituency. It covers an area that was Croydon South constituency until 1974 when part of Surrey East was incorporated into a new Croydon South constituency, following the creation of the London Borough of Croydon in 1965.
Election results
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