BBC NEWS | VOTE 2003

DESCRIPTION: Bridgend

Bridgend is a mixture of new and old industrial areas, as well rural and coastline. It has prospered while some other South Wales seats have struggled, thanks partly to the presence of big companies like Ford and Sony. It is also helped by good road, rail and air links: the M4 runs through the constituency, the area is on the main rail link between Swansea and Paddington, and Cardiff International Airport is just a few miles away. The area has increasingly become an overspill area for both Cardiff and Swansea, with new housing estates for the relatively well-off. It also includes the holiday and retirement communities in and around the coast near Porthcawl.

It has become a safe Labour seat, although its first MP in 1983 was a Conservative swept in on the high tide of Margaret Thatcher's success at both UK and Welsh level. The Tories lost the seat four years later to Labour, who have held on ever since. Its AM is the assembly cabinet minister Carwyn Jones, widely tipped to become the next first minister. Bridgend also has one of the most prominent council leaders in Wales in Labour�s Jeff Jones, a strong critic of his party�s assembly coalition deal with the Liberal Democrats. The first assembly election saw a surge in support for Plaid Cymru, in common with many other Labour seats. Plaid came third in 1999, only just behind the Conservatives, although it slipped back to fourth place at the 2001 general election.

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