Maidstone and The Weald (UK Parliament constituency)

Maidstone and The Weald
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Maidstone and The Weald in Kent.
Location of Kent within England.
County	Kent
Electorate	70,576 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Maidstone, Staplehurst and Cranbrook
Current constituency
Created	1997
Member of parliament	Helen Grant (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Maidstone, Mid Kent, Tunbridge Wells
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South East England

Maidstone and The Weald is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Helen Grant, a Conservative.

1997-2010: The Borough of Maidstone wards of Allington, Barming, Boughton Monchelsea, Bridge, Coxheath, East, Farleigh, Heath, High Street, Loose, Marden, North, South, Staplehurst, and Yalding, and the Borough of Tunbridge Wells wards of Benenden, Cranbrook, Frittenden and Sissinghurst, Hawkhurst, and Sandhurst.

2010-present: The Borough of Maidstone wards of Allington, Barming, Bridge, Coxheath and Hunton, East, Fant, Heath, High Street, Loose, Marden and Yalding, North, South, and Staplehurst, and the Borough of Tunbridge Wells wards of Benenden and Cranbrook, and Frittenden and Sissinghurst.

The largest settlement is the central county town of Maidstone in Kent in south-east England with smaller settlements spread throughout agriculture-rich Maidstone borough and partly wooded Tunbridge Wells borough.

The constituency was created for the 1997 general election, after the previous Maidstone constituency was split in two: its southeast wards of Shepway and Park Wood of the town itself and the rural wards east of the town joined Faversham in the new Faversham and Mid Kent constituency. The remaining two-thirds of the electorate in west/central Maidstone were reunited with the town wards that had been lost in 1983 to Mid Kent (which was abolished), and joined by a rural part of the Weald to the south of the town, previously in the Tunbridge Wells constituency.