Area in Focus - Kingswood, a constituency facing extinction

The Bristol Cable

Kingswood is about to undergo radical makeover, at least politically.

The Bristol-South Gloucestershire border town’s voters will at this year’s general election find themselves going to the polls in one of four new constituencies – with their current one set to disappear altogether under boundary changes being made to the political map of the UK.

The area’s local MP, Tory minister Chris Skidmore, has also disappeared – he stepped down over the government’s climate plan – triggering a by-election in the constituency where the winner will hold their seat for only a matter of months before it is erased. You might ask: who would fight for a prize that will be so short lived, or even, who would bother voting?

Some Kingswood residents aren’t too enthusiastic about February 15’s vote, nor fans of the boundary changes that will follow shortly after. They say that tampering with the political map, as well as a lack of investment by South Gloucestershire Council in the high street and local services, is an existential threat to his home town’s identity.

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