Tunbridge Wells (UK Parliament constituency)

Tunbridge Wells County constituency
Tunbridge Wells shown within Kent, and Kent shown within England
Created:	1974
Electorate:	73,028 (December 2010)
MP:	Greg Clark
Party:	Conservative
Type:	House of Commons
County:	Kent
EP constituency:	South East England

Tunbridge Wells is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It returns one Member of Parliament (MP), elected under the first-past-the-post voting system.

Contents 1 Boundaries 1.1 Boundary review 2 History 3 Members of Parliament 4 Elections 4.1 Elections in the 2010s 4.2 Elections in the 2000s 4.3 Elections in the 1990s 5 See also 6 Notes and references

Boundaries

It is located in the west of the county of Kent in south eastern England and covers the area of Tunbridge Wells borough.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Kent, the Boundary Commission for England has made major changes to the existing constituency arrangement as a consequence of population changes across the county.

The electoral wards used in the formation of the modified Tunbridge Wells constituency are;

• Brenchley and Horsmonden, Broadwater, Capel, Culverden, Goudhurst and Lamberhurst, Hawkhurst and Sandhurst, Paddock Wood East, Paddock Wood West, Pantiles and St Mark’s, Park, Pembury, Rusthall, St James’, St John’s, Sherwood, Southborough and High Brooms, Southborough North, and Speldhurst and Bidborough

History

The constituency was created in 1974 from parts of the seats of Tonbridge & Ashford, and was originally named "Royal Tunbridge Wells". It consisted of the following areas of the administrative county of Kent:

• The borough of Royal Tunbridge Wells;
• The urban district of Southborough;
• The rural district of Cranbrook;
• Part of the rural district of Tonbridge (the parishes of Bidborough, Brenchley, Capel, Horsmonden, Lamberhurst, Paddock Wood, Pembury and Speldhurst)^[1]

Except for Cranbrook Rural District (previously part of the Ashford constituency) the area had formed part of the constituency of Tonbridge prior to 1974.

In 1983 the "Royal" prefix was removed, and the boundaries of the constituency were realigned to coincide with the Borough of Tunbridge Wells created by the Local Government Act 1972.^[2]

The area is rural with strong Conservative support although there is a degree of light engineering too and many locals commute to London. In 1994 the Conservative group in the council surprisingly lost control but has since regained it.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [3]	Party
	Feb. 1974	Patrick Mayhew	Conservative
	1997	Archie Norman	Conservative
	2005	Greg Clark	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Tunbridge Wells[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Greg Clark	28,302	56.2	+5.5
	Liberal Democrat	David Hallas	12,726	25.3	+0
	Labour	Gary Heather	5,448	10.8	-9.6
	UKIP	Victor Webb	2,054	4.1	+0.6
	Green	Hazel Dawe	914	1.8	+1.8
	BNP	Andrew McBride[5]	704	1.4	+1.4
	Independent	Farel Bradbury	172	0.3	+0.3
Majority			15,576	31
Turnout			50, 320	69.8	+3.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	+2.8

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Tunbridge Wells
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Greg Clark	21,083	49.6	+0.7
	Liberal Democrat	Laura Murphy	11,095	26.1	+1.4
	Labour	Jacqui Jedrzejewski	8,736	20.6	-2.6
	UKIP	Victor Webb	1,568	3.7	+0.4
Majority			9,988	23.5
Turnout			42,482	65.7	3.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.3

General Election 2001: Tunbridge Wells
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Archie Norman	19,643	48.9	+3.7
	Liberal Democrat	Keith Brown	9,913	24.7	-5.0
	Labour	Ian Carvell	9,332	23.2	+2.8
	UKIP	Victor Webb	1,313	3.3	+2.7
Majority			9,730	24.2
Turnout			40,201	62.3	-11.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1992: Tunbridge Wells[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Patrick Mayhew	34,162	56.9	−1.5
	Liberal Democrat	AS Clayton	17,030	28.4	−1.6
	Labour	EAC Goodman	8,300	13.8	+2.3
	Natural Law	EW Fenna	267	0.4	N/A
	Independent	R Edey	236	0.4	N/A
Majority			17,132	28.6	+0.1
Turnout			59,995	78.1	+3.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.0

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Kent

Notes and references

Royal Tunbridge Wells Locations within Tunbridge Wells Hawkenbury · High Brooms · Langton Green · Rusthall · The Pantiles Buildings High Brooms station · High Rocks halt · Holy Trinity Church · Kent and Sussex Hospital · King Charles the Martyr Church · Hungershall Forge · Royal Victoria Place · Standings Mill · Tunbridge Wells station · Tunbridge Wells West station Businesses BBC South East · Freight Transport Association · Kent and Sussex Courier · Subbuteo People List of people from Royal Tunbridge Wells · Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells Political Tunbridge Wells constituency (since 1974) · Tunbridge Wells borough (since 1974) · Local elections (1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010) Schools and colleges Bennett Memorial · Skinners' · St. Gregory's · Tunbridge Wells Boys Grammar · Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School Sport, leisure and the arts Assembly Hall Theatre · BBC Radio Kent · Dunorlan Park · High Rocks · Ice Melters Curling Club · KMFM West Kent · Linden Park Cricket Club · Nevill Ground · South East Today · Spa Valley Railway · Trinity Theatre · Tunbridge ware · Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week · Tunbridge Wells Football club · Tunbridge Wells Forum · Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon · Tunbridge Wells Rugby club Twin towns Wiesbaden Italics denotes places in East Sussex included as they are generally considered part of Tunbridge Wells.

Constituencies in South East England (84) Conservative (74) Aldershot Arundel and South Downs Ashford Aylesbury Banbury Basingstoke Beaconsfield Bexhill and Battle Bognor Regis and Littlehampton Bracknell Brighton Kemptown Canterbury Chatham and Aylesford Chesham and Amersham Chichester Crawley Dartford Dover East Hampshire East Surrey East Worthing and Shoreham Epsom and Ewell Esher and Walton Fareham Faversham and Mid Kent Folkestone and Hythe Gillingham and Rainham Gosport Gravesham Guildford Hastings and Rye Havant Henley Horsham Hove Isle of Wight Maidenhead Maidstone and The Weald Meon Valley Mid Sussex Milton Keynes North Milton Keynes South Mole Valley Newbury New Forest East New Forest West North East Hampshire North Thanet North West Hampshire Oxford West and Abingdon Portsmouth North Reading East Reading West Reigate Rochester and Strood Romsey and Southampton North Runnymede and Weybridge Sevenoaks Sittingbourne and Sheppey South Thanet South West Surrey Spelthorne Surrey Heath Tonbridge and Malling Tunbridge Wells Wantage Wealden Winchester Windsor Witney Woking Wokingham Worthing West Wycombe Labour (4) Oxford East Slough Southampton Itchen Southampton Test Liberal Democrats (4) Eastbourne Eastleigh Lewes Portsmouth South Green (1) Brighton Pavilion Speaker (1) Buckingham South East England European constituency: Conservative (4) UKIP (2) Liberal Democrats (2) Green (1) Labour (1)