Michael Meacher

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I have been proud to be the Member of Parliament for Oldham West since 1970 and the newly formed constituency of Oldham West and Royton since 1997. The whole County Borough, originally incorporated as a munipal authority in June 1849, was joined by six other urban district councils to form Oldham Metropolitan Borough with a geographical area of 55 square miles and a total population of 220,000 of which Oldham West and Royton makes up 70,000.

Although Oldham West and Royton is administered by Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, 5 wards in the constituency belong to Royton and Chadderton, areas which are considered as separate towns in their own right, which have retained their own their own sense of identity. Even though the constituency name mentions Royton, Chadderton is actually the larger township with an excess of 33,000 residents within three separate wards. A bid to include Chadderton in the constituency name failed recently when the Boundary Commission refused permission to change it.

For many years Oldham's economy was heavily dependent on manufacturing industry, especially textiles and mechanical engineering. Thanks to an active diversification and regeneration programme, there is a very different economic picture now with engineering, defence-related industries, catalogue companies and food processing.

My constituency office is at:
11 Church Lane
Oldham OL1 3AN
Tel 0161 626 5779
It is open on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; closed on Thursday. Friday by appointment only.