Wrekin Conservative Association
The Conservative Party is a voluntary organisation with many members offering their spare time to organise and campaign for the Party. Volunteers run their local Associations and donate many thousands of hours of their time to help the Party. They campaign all year round, delivering leaflets, surveying and contacting voters in their local area.
The officers of Wrekin Conservative Association are as follows:
President
Jacqui Seymour
Chairman
Cllr Gareth Thomas
Deputy Chairman (Political)
Stuart Parr
Deputy Chairman (Membership & Finance)
Cllr Thomas Hoof
Secretary
Sylvia Hall
Branches
Wrekin Conservative Association is sub-divided into three branches to help provide a local voice for members and supporters in the constituency.
Albrighton & Shifnal
Covering the following divisions of Shropshire Council:
Albrighton, Shifnal North and Shifnal South & Cosford
Wellington Area
Covering the following wards of Telford & Wrekin Council:
Apley Castle, Arleston & College, Ercall, Hadley & Leegomery, Haygate & Park and Shawbirch & Dothill
West Wrekin & Newport
Covering the following wards of Telford & Wrekin Council:
Admaston & Bratton, Church Aston & Lilleshall, Donnington, Edgmond, Ercall Magna, Muxton, Newport East, Newport North, Newport South, Newport West and Wrockwardine
The Wrekin
The Wrekin parliamentary constituency forms a rural horseshoe around the east, north and west of the much more urban constituency of Telford, named after the Scottish engineer Thomas Telford. It is covered by two local government administrations, Telford & Wrekin Borough Council and Shropshire Unitary Authority.
Telford began life in 1963 as Dawley New Town and then, in 1969, was enlarged to provide for relocation from Birmingham and the Black Country and renamed Telford.
From a population of some 50,000 scattered among many villages and the market towns of Wellington & Newport and coal mining centres of Dawley and Oakengates, the new town population was projected to grow towards 240,000. It is currently around 190,000. The land area of the Borough is nearly 80% rural and The Wrekin constituency is fortunate to be its steward, leaving the industrialised and heavily populated growth centre to Telford.
Formerly one constituency covering all of Telford, the Wrekin was divided into two in the 1990s and extended to include Newport, Shifnal, Cosford and Albrighton. It was extended again in a 2022 Boundary Review to include Cheswardine and Hodnet.
The constituency takes its name from the 1,300ft hill that dominates the landscape from the west of the constituency. The Wrekin is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and part of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Economy
Despite its agricultural focus, there are significantly large manufacturing and employment centres within its boundary. The Hortonwood Industrial Estate is a large and growing employment centre of strategic importance to the local economy. Historically, the GKN site at Hadley Castle Works (commonly referred to as Sankey's) provided much of the local employment but it is much diminished nowadays with the group being broken up and sold off in the last few decades. The Hadley Castle Works is undergoing something of a revival with a programme of work to renew and expand employment opportunities underway.
Defence
The Wrekin has a special relationship with the Armed Forces. MoD Donnington was built in 1936 whilst RAF Cosford followed two years later, in 1938. The Hadley Castle Works was a key part of the war effort in World War 2 and in the 1950s became home to GKN Armoured Vehicle Division (later known as GKN Defence) and is still producing tanks and armoured vehicles as part of Rheinmetall BAE Systems.
Population Centres
The largest town in the Wrekin constituency is Wellington followed by Newport, Shifnal and Albrighton. Other large population areas are Hadley & Leegomery, Donnington & Muxton, Edgmond, Hodnet and Cheswardine.