Longbridge


Longbridge is an area of south-west Birmingham, England. For local government purposes it is a ward within the district of Northfield.

Public Transport

Longbridge has good public transport links, with buses going south, north, east and west.

Situation

Longbridge is surrounded by Frankley, Frankley Beeches, Rubery, Rednal, Bromsgrove, Northfield, West Heath and Kings Norton. Longbridge is in close proximity to and can be viewed from the Lickey Hills.

Longbridge plant

Since 1906, the area has been dominated by the Longbridge plant, which produced Austin, Nash Metropolitan, Morris, British Leyland, and most recently MG Rover cars. The factory became dormant, and some parts of the older sections of the site were demolished after MG Rover fell into administration in April 2005. The plant was one of the main employers of the local population and the resultant layoffs caused local decline. The company, renamed MG Motor resumed full MG TF sports car production within a small portion of the factory in August 2008 and in late 2010 started final assembly of the MG6. The remaining disused sections of the factory were demolished on 4 August 2006.

Regeneration

The demolition of the Longbridge plant left behind a large amount of disused brownfield land. The site was bought by regeneration firm St. Modwen Properties. A shopping complex was constructed along with many new homes and a retirement complex. Concerns that the area's history would be completely erased were met with the addition of plaques set into the concrete walkway running parallel to the River Rea that give a brief history of the Longbridge Plant and its operators; principally, the Austin Motor Company.

Politics

of the Conservative Party is the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield, representing the seat since December 2019.
As part of the Ward of Longbridge And West Heath, Longbridge is represented on Birmingham City Council by Debbie Clancy and Brett O'Reilly who was very narrowly elected at the 2018 Birmingham City Council election.

Population

The 2001 Population Census recorded that there were 30,964 people living in Longbridge with a population density of 3,789 people per km² compared with 3,649 people per km² for Birmingham. Longbridge has a small ethnic minority population: only 6.8% of the ward's population consists of ethnic minorities, unlike more centralised areas such as Aston, Handsworth and Small Heath.