LIKE many in the North-East the City of Durham seat has been held by Labour for as long as most people can remember.
Though named for Durham City, the constituency also covers more than dozen villages, mostly formed around former pit communities, where the issues are not always the same as the university-dominated city.
With Durham University having recently announced its growth plan, increasing student numbers and the ever-growing pressure on housing are issues that dominate discussions.
Other issues are continuing services at the University Hospital of North Durham (UHND), school funding, affordable housing and transport in a city which struggles with congestion.
CANDIDATE: Roberta Blackman-Woods, Labour
For more than a decade the area has been represented by Roberta Blackman-Woods, who is seeking re-election for the fourth time on the promise of developing Durham’s economy, trying to halt underfunding of the NHS and social care, and stopping cuts to school’s funding and sure start centres – issues she said came up regularly on the doorstep.
“There are other issues like trying to get something done about the cost of living and getting it to a decent level in a way that’s fair for workers and employers,” she said. “Getting affordable housing for families in the city centre so there’s a better balance in the city. I’m not against growth in the university but that has to be balanced.”
CANDIDATE: Richard Lawrie, Conservatives
Balance, a word reiterated by Conservative candidate and Gilesgate resident Richard Lawrie. As a Durham University academic and a vice-master and senior tutor at University College, he says he is best placed to work with the institution.
“The university is a big employer and it does bring a lot of money to the area,” he said. “But it just can’t ride roughshod over the desires of the local population and students. I think I would be in the best place to have those discussions.”
Mr Lawrie says more needs to be done to champion Durham in the Northern Powerhouse, join up the “fragmented” approach to tourism and wants to reduce congestion by opening up the Leamside railway.
CANDIDATE: Amanda Hopgood, Liberal Democrats
Though held by Labour since 1935, it has not always been as safe as the results from last time would suggest. In both 2005 and 2010 the Liberal Democrats mounting fierce campaigns to capture the seat, only to see their vote collapse in the wake of the coalition government and broken pledges on tuition fees.
This time the seat is a regional target for the party. Their candidate is Amanda Hopgood, the current leader of the party at Durham County Council and first time parliamentary hopeful.
Calling for a fairer school funding formula, keeping NHS services at UHND and giving people a say on the final Brexit deal, she is hopeful she can regain votes lost in 2015.
“We’re in a very different position this time around than we were two years ago,” she said. “We want to see that Durham has a voice in Westminster, not Westminster having a voice in Durham. I was born in Durham and I’ve lived here all my life. I’ve invested my life in Durham.”
CANDIDATE: Jonathan Elmer, Green Party
Hoping to convince voters to go green is Jonathan Elmer, a freelance ecologist and former Durham County Council worker.
Mr Elmer, who is standing for a second time, is leader of the County Durham Green Party and wants to make the case for limiting growth, rethinking where future homes are built and protecting the green belt and reconsidering transport infrastructure to reduce the number of cars of the road.
He said: “I don’t like the term growth, I prefer the term stability. A city needs stability. We would like to see an end to boom bust economy and challenge the idea that high growth is the only way forward.”
CANDIDATE: Malcolm Bint, UKIP
Fighting for the UK Independence Party is Malcolm Bint, who stood in North Durham in 2015 and earlier this year was a candidate for Hampshire County Council.
Accusing successive governments of neglecting the North-East and promising to rebuild the region as a base for manufacturing, the businessman said: “Perhaps it’s because we’re so remote from Westminster, or perhaps it’s because our career political class has forgotten about us. Whether it’s defending our steel industry, giving us appropriate transport links, high-speed internet, or underfunding our councils, central government has done nothing – it’s time to reverse this trend.”
Jon Collings is one of three candidates representing the Young People’s Party. Having stood as an independent in 2010 and 2015, he says he does not believe the mainstream parties have solutions to the problems facing Britain.
Pledging a radical overhaul of the tax and benefit system, the party, which was established in 2012, also advocates abolishing tuition fees and favours a “hard Brexit”.
Independent Jim Clark, who registered his address in the City of Durham constituency, is also standing but the Northern Echo has been unable to contact him.
Northern Echo political commentator Chris Lloyd says...
THE PECULIARITY of this election is that seats that were once safe are now marginal whereas those that were once hotly contested have gone tepid.
So it is in the university-dominated City of Durham. In 2010, the battle here between Labour and the Lib Dems was so heated that on the day before polling, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg chose to conclude his campaign on Palace Green before travelling to his own constituency in Sheffield. His push, though, was not enough, and Labour’s Roberta Blackman Woods beat her Lib Dem rival, Carol Woods, by 3,000 votes.
Then came the Lib Dems’ U-turn on tuition fees, and their vote in Durham collapsed from 38 per cent in 2010 to 11 per cent in 2015 and they trailed in fourth behind Ukip.
If the pro-EU Lib Dems are to revive in 2017, it will be in a place like City of Durham, which was porbably the only part of County Durham to vote to remain in the EU (there are no local breakdown of the referendum figures in the county).
But Ms Blackman Woods was a remainer and Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to scrap even tuition fees paid this year appears to have given her enough weaponry to snuff out any serious Lib Dem stirrings.
The Conservatives will increase their 22 per cent of the vote but the fiercest flames of their challenge to Labour will be felt elsewhere.
In 2015...
Electorate: 68,741
Turnout: 66.44%
Roberta Blackman-Woods (Lab) 21,596
Rebecca Coulson (Con) 10,157
Liam Clark (UKIP) 5,232
Craig Martin (Lib Dem) 5,153
Jonathan Elmer (Green) 2,687
John Marshall (Ind) 649
Jon Collings (Ind) 195
Labour majority: 11,439
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