European Parliament constituency East of England Number of members 1 | Electorate 78,269 (December 2010) | |
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Created from West Hertfordshire, Watford | ||
South West Hertfordshire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by David Gauke, a Conservative.
Contents
Boundaries
1950-1974: The Urban Districts of Bushey, Chorleywood, and Rickmansworth, and the Rural District of Watford (the civil parishes of Abbots Langley, Aldenham, Rickmansworth Rural, Sarratt, and Watford Rural).
1974-1983: The Urban Districts of Bushey, Chorleywood, and Rickmansworth, and in the Rural District of Watford the civil parishes of Abbots Langley, Sarratt, and Watford Rural.
1983-1997: The District of Three Rivers wards of Ashridge, Bedmond, Carpenders Park, Chorleywood, Chorleywood West, Croxley Green, Croxley Green North, Croxley Green South, Hayling, Langleybury, Maple Cross and West Hyde, Mill End, Money Hill, Moor Park, Northwick, Oxhey Hall, Rickmansworth, and Sarratt, and the District of Dacorum wards of Berkhamsted Central, Berkhamsted East, Berkhamsted West, Bovingdon and Flaunden, Chipperfield, Kings Langley, and Northchurch.
1997-2010: The District of Three Rivers wards of Ashridge, Chorleywood, Chorleywood West, Croxley Green, Croxley Green North, Croxley Green South, Hayling, Maple Cross and West Hyde, Mill End, Money Hill, Moor Park, Northwick, Rickmansworth, and Sarratt, and the District of Dacorum wards of Aldbury and Wigginton, Berkhamsted Central, Berkhamsted East, Berkhamsted West, Bovingdon and Flaunden, Chipperfield, Northchurch, Tring Central, Tring East, and Tring West.
2010–present: The District of Three Rivers wards of Ashridge, Chorleywood East, Chorleywood West, Croxley Green, Croxley Green North, Croxley Green South, Hayling, Maple Cross and Mill End, Moor Park and Eastbury, Northwick, Penn, Rickmansworth, Rickmansworth West, and Sarratt, and the District of Dacorum wards of Aldbury and Wigginton, Berkhamsted Castle, Berkhamsted East, Berkhamsted West, Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield, Northchurch, Tring Central, Tring East, and Tring West.
This seat forms a thin strip along the south-west border of Hertfordshire from South Oxhey (near Watford) in the south, through interspersed settlements and countryside to Tring in the north. Settlements in the constituency include Chipperfield, Chorleywood, Croxley Green, Moor Park, and Rickmansworth.
Constituency profile
Elevated and bordering Greater London and Buckinghamshire, this part of Hertfordshire is for its residents mostly middle-class surburbia, an established haven for commuters who travel from the outer reaches of London Underground's Metropolitan line or two railways from London which serve difference parts of the seat: the West Coast Main Line and Aylesbury Line. A substantial proportion of land is occupied by farms and hillside woodland.
Further from London in the north of the seat, the brewing town of Tring has a distinctive compact, and architecturally rich identity, nestled between steep hills of the Chilterns. Similarly Chorleywood is extremely affluent.
Workless claimants were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.6% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
History
Following the 2010 election, every seat in Hertfordshire had a Conservative MP, and 'South West Herts' was the third safest of these.