County Essex Created 1997 Member of parliament James Duddridge Replaced by Southend East, Rochford | Electorate 71,131 (December 2010) European Parliament constituency East of England Number of members 1 | |
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Created from Southend East, Rochford | ||
Rochford and Southend East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by James Duddridge, a Conservative.
Contents
Boundaries
1997-2010: The Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Milton, St Luke's, Shoebury, Southchurch, Thorpe, and Victoria, and the District of Rochford wards of Barling and Sutton, Foulness and Great Wakering East, Great Wakering Central, Great Wakering West, Rochford Eastwood, Rochford Roche, and Rochford St Andrews.
2010-present: The Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Kursaal, Milton, St Luke’s, Shoeburyness, Southchurch, Thorpe, Victoria, and West Shoebury, and the District of Rochford wards of Barling and Sutton, Foulness and Great Wakering, and Rochford.
The constituency covers the town of Rochford and the town centre, main seafront and eastern part of Southend-on-Sea, such as Thorpe Bay and Shoeburyness.
Constituency profile
Rochford and Southend East had a relatively marginal Conservative majority on its 1997 creation, as it had some of Labour's stronger wards in Southend, such as Kursaal, Milton and Victoria, with the party nearly gaining its predecessor seat Southend East in a by-election in 1980, though in the elections since a much larger majority suggests a Conservative safe seat. Dependency on social housing and unemployment benefit in the constituency is low and in the Rochford local council only 14.5% of households do not have a car (band 5 of 5 in the 2011 census) whereas 27% of households in the Southend part lack a car (band 2 of 5).
Local government
Currently the 31 Council seats held in Rochford and Southend East are 7 Conservative (from Rochford), 10 Independent, 7 Labour, 5 Conservative and 2 UKIP (from Southend).