GLOUCESTERSHIRE, WILTSHIRE AND NORTH SOMERSET - Geography and history
The NUTS 2 area of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and North Somerset include the counties of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire and the Unitary Authorities of Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and Swindon. Together they are situated around the Severn estuary, which leads to the Atlantic Ocean. The region is bounded to the north-west by south Wales, to the north-east by the West Midlands and to the east by the South East. The sub-region is predominantly rural covering 7 465 square kilometres of which Wiltshire, the largest, covers 3 255 square kilometres including Salisbury Plain a large, sparsely inhabited chalk upland area.
There are two ranges of hills, the rolling Cotswolds characterize much of Gloucestershire and extend North Somerset and Bath & North East Somerset. The Mendips lie in both North Somerset and Bath & North East Somerset as well as the county of Somerset. Bristol is the regional centre for the South-West, and its population is 382 thousand. The other largest cities are Bath and Gloucester and the towns of Swindon and Cheltenham.
Two major motorways serve the area: the M4 runs from London to Bristol, while the M5 running from the Midlands to the South-West connects with the M4 at Bristol. There are also the three smaller motorways: The M32 leading from Bristol city centre to join the M4, the M49 leaving the M5 at Avonmouth and joining the M4 at the Severn Bridge crossing to Wales and the M48, the old Severn Bridge. The area's largest docks and port facilities are at Avonport and Portbury on the Severn estuary at the mouth of the river Avon.
Good communications, manufacturing is less predominant
Although Bristol has long been an industrial and commercial centre, agriculture has been an important element in the economy of much of the area. Since the 1960s however, improved communications with the South-East have encouraged the growth of industries in the 'M4 corridor' ? the area served by the M4 motorway running from London to Bristol via Swindon. Service industries in particular have been encouraged to relocate from London; thus in Cheltenham and Gloucester, half of employees now work in 'other service' industries.
Long-standing manufacturing centres include the British Rail engineering works at Swindon and the docks at Avonmouth and Portbury characterised by car import and chemical works. Wilton in Wiltshire, has given its name to the luxurious carpets manufactured in the town. The region has developed a reputation for high-technology industries, most notably the British Aerospace and Rolls Royce factories at Filton to the north of Bristol. Telecommunications and electronics are also important with major producers in the area such as Orange, British Telecom, Telewest Communications and Hewlett Packard. Recent relocations of Lloyds TSB, Nat West Life and Sun Life Assurance have also meant that Bristol is now one of the countries largest financial centres outside London.
The result of this expansion is that unemployment is generally well below the national average and the region has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Pockets of severe unemployment exist both in the more remote rural localities and in urban areas, most notably inner city areas of Bristol.
Movement from urban to suburban
Although formerly an important sector, agriculture now provides less than 2% of the sub-region's employment. In the most agricultural districts, Cotswold and the Forest of Dean, both in Gloucestershire, these figures are 4.8% and 3.6% respectively. The importance of manufacturing varies more widely from roughly 10.3% of the workforce in Salisbury and the City of Bristol to a fifth of the workforce in Stroud, Forest of Dean and Tewkesbury. It must be highlighted that the production industry sector accounts for 21.0.2% of the sub-regions employment while the services sector has a share of 77.5%.
In common with the rest of Britain the pattern of settlement in the South-West in recent years has been for people to move from the urban to suburban and rural locations. Allied to this the South-West region has experienced a population increase of 12.7% between 1982 and 2002.
From 1982 to 2002, the population of the City of Bristol UA fell by 4.8%, while that for Plymouth UA fell by 6.2%. In contrast, South Gloucestershire experienced an increase in population of one-fifth over the same period. The sharpest increases in population over this period occurred in Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, where the population increased by 22% over the period.
|
|