Dr Doug Naysmith

Bristol, North West is made up of six electoral wards in the City of Bristol and four in neighbouring South Gloucestershire.
This constituency is the power house of the Bristol area, providing the big employers and major industries that make Bristol the prosperous and successful regional centre it is. We may not have as many of Bristol’s tourist attractions as neighbouring Bristol West, but where would Bristol be without its docks at Avonmouth or its aerospace industry? The Bristol Port Company is successful and growing and still looking to the future with its plans for a new deep water terminal in the estuary. Environmentalists will be pleased, as I am, to know that the Company will be working on the project with English Nature.

BAe Systems and Matra BAE Dynamics Alenia are sited in Filton and it was in Filton, too, at Airbus, where the state of the art wings for the huge new A380 were designed and made, while Rolls Royce in Patchway contributed to the development of engines which will be an option on many of the new planes.

The Duke of York meeting Doug, during the Duke’s visit
to Airbus at Filton to open the new £16 million fuel systems test facility.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) Defence Procurement Agency employs over four thousand people at its headquarters at Abbey Wood, and Southmead Hospital is a major employer as well. Southmead has been chosen as the site of a new acute hospital for the people of north Bristol and South Gloucestershire. The hospital is already known for its high standards of care and for innovation and research. This new development will give it the purpose-built buildings and high-tech facilities which will enable it to provide an even better service.

Bristol North West is home to the University of the West of England (UWE), one of the finest of the new universities, recognised for the quality of its teaching.

Secretary of State for Education, Ruth Kelly with Doug and students, on her visit to UWE

Filton College, too, is praised for its strong leadership and its responsiveness to the needs of local people. The College has recently opened a new campus next to Filton High School, the West of England Institute of Specialist Education (WISE) devoted to performing arts, fine art and sport. New secondary school buildings have also been springing up all over the constituency in Bradley Stoke and Henbury and at Monks Park in Horfield and Portway in Shirehampton. There are new sports and leisure centres at Henbury and Horfield too.

Left to right: Henbury School Bradley Stoke Community School Horfield Leisure Centre

The previous MP for Bristol North West once said that there wasn’t a blade of grass in the constituency. How wrong he was.

Bristol North West has some fine open spaces, including Blaise Castle Estate and Kings Weston Down, and its share of historic buildings, such as Kings Weston House, Blaise Castle and Blaise Hamlet.

I know I am biased, but I wouldn’t swap the constituency of Bristol North West for any other.

On Shirehampton Green, round the corner from my home