Located in Nottinghamshire, Mansfield is a largely urban seat with a population of around 100,000 covering the eponymous town and local villages.
The boundaries of the modified constituency have been changed significantly. Mansfield will nearly double in size and obtain territory north east of the town. Its borders for the next election will run south west from Market Warsop to Shirebrook. From there they run south west to Mansfield before turning north east back to Market Warsop.
Mansfield is the largest town in the county, lying on the River Maun, from which its name is derived. It has a large market square and, focused around the market, a large commercial centre including a museum, the Palace Theatre, and numerous pubs, bars and night clubs. Until 2008, Mansfield was the home of Mansfield Brewery, once the largest independent brewer in the UK.
In the 1900s, Mansfield was essentially an industrial centre. Work for many townspeople was in the factory, mills, workshops or down the mines. Today, attempts are constantly being made to attract new industries to the town and while some success had been achieved, too many townspeople are still without work.
Several urban regeneration projects are underway in Mansfield, including reconstruction of the nearby Kings Mill Hospital and the MARR (Mansfield and Ashfield Regeneration Route), which is basically a bypass route past the town designed to reduce traffic flow and improve public transport.
In 2009 Mansfield made a bid for city status, and many more redevelopment plans were unveiled to fit with this, such as retail & residential developments, leisure facilities and wide scale road improvements are underway around the town.
A constituency with a coal mining tradition, Mansfield has been held by Labour for generations. It has usually been regarded as a safe seat for them, however in the general elections of the 1980s they came close to losing to the Conservatives.
In the elections after 1987, the Labour MP Alan Meale has held the seat with comfortable majorities. According to recent polls, Meale continues to be well supported and a victory for another party would be difficult. In the most recent elections, Meale defeated the opposition by 11,038 votes in 2001 and by 11,365 votes in 2005.
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