Rushcliffe

Borough of Rushcliffe
—  Borough  —
Logo
Shown within Nottinghamshire
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	East Midlands
Administrative county	Nottinghamshire
Founded
Admin. HQ	West Bridgford
Government
• Type	Rushcliffe Borough Council
• Leadership:	Leader & Cabinet
• Executive:	Conservative
• MPs:	Kenneth Clarke, Patrick Mercer
Area
• Total	158 sq mi (409.2 km2)
Area rank	99th
Population (2010 est.)
• Total	112,800
• Rank	Ranked 195th
• Density	714/sq mi (275.7/km2)
Time zone	Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
• Summer (DST)	British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Postcode
ISO 3166-2
ONS code	37UJ
OS grid reference
NUTS 3
Ethnicity	94.1% White 2.7% S.Asian 1.0% Black 1.3% Mixed 0.9% Chinese or Other
Website	rushcliffe.gov.uk

Rushcliffe is a local government district with borough status in Nottinghamshire, England. Its council is based in West Bridgford. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by merging the West Bridgford Urban District, the Bingham Rural District and part of Basford Rural District.

Political representation

The member of parliament for Rushcliffe is the Conservative, Kenneth Clarke. As of the May 2010 General Election, Rushcliffe is one of only three Tory-held constituencies in Nottinghamshire.

The district council has fifty councillors, with 34 being Conservative, so having control of the council. Only two council seats (both on Trent Bridge ward) are Labour, which is very unusual for a Nottinghamshire district council. However, the county council wards which cover these two Labour district wards are both Conservative.

Geography

North-east of Nottingham, the Rushcliffe boundary splits from the City of Nottingham boundary near the Holme Pierrepont Watersports Centre and then follows the River Trent to near RAF Syerston, which is the most northern part of the district, although Syerston the village itself is in the Newark and Sherwood district. It meets the River Devon near Cotham, then follows this river to the east southwards to where it meets the Leicestershire boundary. To the south, the Leicestershire/Rushcliffe boundary goes across the runways of the former RAF Langar with most of the airfield in Rushcliffe.

Rushcliffe is split between an urbanised north-west, containing suburbs of Greater Nottingham, that have resisted incorporation into the city, and the south and east which is predominantly rural, and stretching to the Leicestershire border. Many of these villages lie in the Vale of Belvoir. The Grantham Canal threads from nearby Grantham through Rushcliffe to the River Trent. Villages in the Vale of Belvoir include Redmile, Hickling, Harby, Stathern and Langar. Some of these villages cross the boundary, which is sometimes unclear ie. Hickling is in Rushcliffe Borough Council, but has a Melton Mowbray (Leicestershire) address and postcode.

The borough was recently voted 14th best place to live in the UK by Channel 4s best and worst places to live 2007 hosted by Phil Spencer and Kirsty Allsop

The Borough also is home to numerous villages along the A60 corridor, heading to Loughborough (Leicestershire) some of these are, Bradmore, Bunny, and Wysall.

The district was named after the old Rushcliffe wapentake.

Demographics

In 2001, there were around 43,600 households in the district, with about 106,000 people. Over a third of Rushcliffe's population lives in West Bridgford. The average house price is the highest in Nottinghamshire and in the top three in the East Midlands.

Education

The district gets the best GCSE results within Nottinghamshire, and throughout the East Midlands. This is mainly due to the three schools in West Bridgford. The school in Radcliffe on Trent is the only one under the England average.

Both the Becket School (partly geographically outside the Rushcliffe district) and the West Bridgford School get A level results better than most English grammar schools.

Sutton Bonington is in the south of the district, which has the Sutton Bonington Campus of the University of Nottingham.

Larger villages and towns

• Bingham: Medium sized market town on the A52. Well known locally for the weekly market held every Thursday.
• Radcliffe on Trent: Village (suburban in parts) on the A52.
• Cotgrave: Once a small village, but grew to be a town due to the presence of the Cotgrave Colliery (now closed).
• East Leake: A large village with three pubs, old village centre and both primary and secondary chools.
• Keyworth: A large village with several pubs, council estate, old village centre and secondary school.
• Ruddington: Once the largest village in England, it has a shopping area, several housing estates, a golf course, and is home of Rushcliffe Country Park.
• Tollerton: A village with a notable pub, shops, historic church, old village centre and Primary School.
• West Bridgford: A large town which is suburb of the Greater Nottingham conurbation. Nottingham Forest Football Club and Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club are based in the town, at the City Ground and Trent Bridge respectively.

Notable residents and visitors

• Conservative politician Kenneth Clarke (who was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1993 and 1997) lives on Melton Road in West Bridgford.
• Actress Sherrie Hewson (Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Crossroads and Loose Women) lives in the Edwalton Hall development of exclusive apartments.
• Famous rose grower Harry Wheatcroft lived with his family in West Bridgford.
• Prince Charles rides with the Belvoir Hunt on occasions.
• The majority of Nottingham Forest Football Club players live in Rushcliffe^{[citation needed]} and have included Stuart Pearce, Andy Cole and Ian Wright. Former Manager Frank Clark lived in Keyworth. A number of ex-Nottingham Forest Players remain in the Rushcliffe area.^{[citation needed]}
• The off spin bowler Graeme Swann

External links

Media related to Rushcliffe at Wikimedia Commons

• Rushcliffe Country Park
• Tollerton Village
• East Leake Village