The seat covers Prestwich, Whitefield and Radcliffe, towns that were absorbed into Bury Council in 1974. The western border contains much of Bury's green belt land including Philips Park in Whitefield, Prestwich Clough and Drinkwater Park, making up 500 acres of green space. Prestwich and Whitefield are residential areas with one of the largest Jewish communities outside London. Radcliffe is a former mill town which declined after the loss of industry, its only secondary schoolshut down, but is attempting regeneration as a commuter suburb and features a large park-and-ride Metrolink station. North Radcliffe includes Ainsworth, a rural area, along with Simister to the east of Prestwich which still has some farmland, now under threat from development. Overall this is an economically diverse area, as there are pockets of social housing in each town, while houses in areas such as Ringley Road in Whitefield, and Sheepfoot Lane in Prestwich, facing Heaton Park, can sell for over £1 million, with mostly owner-occupied semi-detached housing in between. The proportion of graduates and those employed in managerial/professional occupations is slightly above the national average. At local elections Prestwich mostly returns Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors, with some Conservative representation in Sedgley. Whitefield is a mix of safe Conservative and safe Labour, and Unsworth marginally Labour. Radcliffe was generally Labour with the exception of Radcliffe North. In 2019, the Conservatives gained their second Radcliffe North seat, and Labour lost both Radcliffe East and West wards to an independent local party, Radcliffe First.
Boundaries
1983–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Bury wards of Besses, Holyrood, Pilkington Park, Radcliffe Central, Radcliffe North, Radcliffe South, St Mary's, and Sedgley. 2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Bury wards of Besses, Holyrood, Pilkington Park, Radcliffe East, Radcliffe North, Radcliffe West, St Mary's, Sedgley, and Unsworth. The constituency was created in 1983 from parts of the former seats of Middleton and Prestwich & Bury and Radcliffe, both of which were Labour-Conservative marginals, held by Labour on slim majorities at the 1979 election. It covers the suburban towns of Radcliffe, Whitefield and Prestwich. The constituency does not contain any area of the town of Bury itself, apart from Unsworth, but only towns in the south of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The seat was contested by future cabinet ministerHazel Blears in 1992, narrowly losing and would later be elected in her hometown in nearby Salford the following election until retiring in 2015. The 2018 Boundary Commission proposals would see Bury South boundaries changed, once again becoming Prestwich and Middleton, taking Middleton from the existing Heywood and Middleton constituency and losing Radcliffe to a new Farnworth and Radcliffe constituency, while Unsworth becomes part of a newly created Bury constituency.
