Cllrs Andy Batsford and Mike Turner of Hastings Independents, centre and right, with local GP Dr David Fox in the deprived district of Broomgrove, Baird ward (photo: Hastings Independents).
Hastings Independents’s motion sparks council action on child poverty
Measures to tackle the unacceptably high rate of child poverty in Hastings are to be taken following the passing of a motion on the matter which was tabled at the Full Council meeting in mid September by Cllr Mike Turner of the Hastings Independents. The party’s Maya Evans explains the thinking behind this move.
A busy summer for Hastings Independents built towards a remarkable meeting of Hastings Council last month, when the Labour Group voted against an Independent motion outlining a plan to tackle the appalling rise in child poverty in Hastings.
Cllr Mike Turner (Hastings Independents) brought the motion, having squeezed the latest figures out of East Sussex County Council, figures that show a steep rise in child poverty across Hastings, but especially in his ward (Baird) which includes the Broomgrove Estate. He has campaigned locally to improve services to children and is proud of his recent success, having got local GP Dr David Fox to open a children’s health clinic there twice a week. The clinic will mean local families can get help with health worries without travelling miles to their nearest GP, and also families across Hastings can use this new specialist service.
Cllr Paul Barnett (leader, Hastings Independents), seconding the motion, pointed out that nationally there has been a steep increase in child poverty, the worst in the world, and that our five-year-olds are now getting shorter for the first time in a hundred years due to malnutrition and health conditions caused by poverty.
The Hastings Independents’ motion called for three actions, firstly for the government to coordinate a national plan to eliminate child poverty, secondly for the government to reverse the two-child benefit cap in the budget this month, and finally for a new multi-agency group to be set up locally to tackle child poverty, led by the council.
This motion was agreed after a passionate debate, with support from the Green Party, but only after remarkable speeches by Labour councillors opposing the plan on the grounds that Hastings must not criticise the government.
Paul Barnett said: ‘It’s hard to watch local Labour councillors putting their national party interests ahead of what is best for Hastings. But that’s why I left Labour last year, and the success of Hastings Independents since, getting things done, not just talking about it, offers hope for a future for local politics based on socialism, commonsense and listening to what residents need and want changing.
‘No one organisation has ever taken a lead for solving child poverty in Hastings, so our new approach looks to build a partnership between the NHS, the County Council and local community organisations. Our children deserve better so it’s time to make sure Hastings works for everyone, not just the better off.’
To be part of this new Independent movement for change in Hastings, drop Hastings Independents a line at hastingsindependents@gmail.com.
DWP figures show nearly 20% of Hastings children living in poverty
The Department of Work and Pensions statistics which were passed on to HOT by Cllr Mike Turner show that child poverty in Hastings, as measured by the number of children aged under 16 in both relative and absolute low income families, increased sharply between 2015 and 2019, when it peaked at 4,285 for relatively low income families and 3,712 for absolutely low income families, writes HOT’s Nick Terdre. By 2023 numbers had fallen back to 3,753 and 3,045 respectively.
Despite the recent decline, these figures indicate a serious social problem, with no less than 18.8% living in absolute low income families and 23.2% in relative low income families in 2023.
In Cllr Turner’s Baird ward, for which the statistics had to be separately calculated, the proportion of children in absolute low income families hit 24.5% in 2019, decreasing to 21.1% in 2023. The respective figures for children in relative low income families were 30.1% and 26.5%.
This section was amended by Nick Terdre on 25 October 2024 to correct a mistake with the statistics.
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This piece, masquerading as a news story, was actually written by a prominent member of the party that proposed the motion. There is no objectivity, and it falls below the journalistic standards you should be espousing.
Comment by Ken Edwards — Monday, Oct 28, 2024 @ 07:09