HARWICH & Parkeston used to be a thriving port town famous for the Mayflower, the television set of Hi-de-Hi and for a celebrated historical resident by the name of Samuel Pepys.

It is a beautiful seaside town, with mostly sandy, award-winning beaches and it is surrounded by stunning Constable countryside. Yet it is part of one of the most deprived districts in Essex, Tendring.

Harwich neighbours Jaywick is one of the most deprived areas in England but Harwich is not without its own struggles and has continued to downward spiral since 2010 with increasing difficulties as services are cut and an increase in people living in poverty becoming more visible.

In June 2018 published statistics revealed that there were 35,400 jobs available within Tendring and 57,800 economically active people.

Tendring contributes £2.1 billion to Britain economy, yet its economy is dominated by sectors which offer low pay and frequently only part-time employment, a whopping 41 per cent of all jobs in the district are part-time.

Many residents are stuck in involuntary part-time work, likely on minimum wage. You begin to see how easy it is to be left struggling in a situation where you can not win. The numbers do not stack up in favour of the people living in Tendring and work is not working for many of its residents.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) released a report stating that 14.3 million people in Britain were living in poverty. Of this figure, eight million are living in a family with at least one working adult, 4.1 million are children and 1.9 million are pensioners.

The research carried out by JRF stated that in-work poverty is rising faster than employment especially for working families.

JRF chief executive Campbell Robb said: “We are seeing a rising tide of child poverty as more parents are unable to make ends meet, despite working. This is unacceptable. It means more families are trapped in impossible situations struggling to pay the bills, put food on the table and dealing with the terrible stresses and strains poverty places on family life.”

A 2018 report by End Child Poverty revealed that child poverty in Tendring was the highest in Essex, with 8,884 children living in poverty, which equates to 32.54 per cent. 

Harwich and Parkeston are particularly affected with 1,461 (16.44 per cent) of those children living in the area.

Some people deny the idea that poverty exists in Britain, the image of starving children living in mud huts without fresh water has frequented our television sets often enough that when we picture poverty, we can not equate it to people living in bricks and mortar, with a smartphone and access to a TV.

However, telling a starving child in Britain that they aren’t as hungry as a child in a Third World country doesn’t magically make that child full. Comparing our problems to those with bigger problems doesn’t fix our problems. We need solutions not whataboutery.

Of course, people in Britain have an advantage to those suffering poverty in Third World countries — they have grown up in a rich country that provided them with opportunities, access to clean water, free education, state pensions, free world-class healthcare and a safety net designed to protect people from living in destitution — all due to the socialist policies of the past. But since 2010, cuts, privatisation and reformation of public services have resulted in devastating and often catastrophic consequences.

People are finding themselves in situations where circumstances change and they can no longer afford the basic necessities to live on.

Prior to those changes, they could afford a smartphone, a television and a car. Yet often through no fault of their own, they find themselves in situations where they are choosing between putting food on the table or putting the heating on or worse.

The Harwich foodbank volunteers can testify to this. They see working families visiting them because they are having to choose between feeding themselves or keeping a roof over their head, pensioners that have paid taxes all their lives only to find their state pension doesn’t cover the basics or people suffering cruel benefits sanctions that leave them penniless and starving.

Harwich foodbank saw a 33.5 per cent increase in bags of food handed out this year as universal credit rolled out in the area, helping 14 per cent of local residents requiring the help of the foodbank in order to feed themselves.

Lami, the chairperson and manager, said: “People using the service were varied from all walks of life.”

Single men are a large majority of clients but also pensioners were frequent visitors.

Lami spoke of an older woman who became very animated when tinned pineapples were in stock. She knew working families that visited because they were having to choose between paying the mortgage or putting food on the table.

Harwich foodbank was busy saving Christmas for 38 families in the Harwich area by providing them with Christmas hampers and shoeboxes filled with gifts for adults and children in the lead-up to Christmas, all items kindly donated by the community and local businesses.

They weren’t the only ones saving Christmas for those struggling, not just in Harwich but across Tendring and Colchester.

Les Nichol, firefighter, Pride of Britain finalist and local community hero, worked magic pulling the community together to donate money, time and kindness in order to provide Christmas hampers of food and presents to 52 families, an increase from 26 last year.

Without this community action, 200 children would have woken to a bleak Christmas Day.

Not only would they have had no presents but the levels of poverty were so high that there would have been no real food on the table.

Like a real-life Santa Claus, Les and his team of helpers made sure for those families that Christmas was Christmas.

An amazing £4,480 was raised via a Just Giving fundraiser and direct funds. Not only did they provide a true Christmas Day for these families but they went above and beyond, ensuring that teenage girls were provided with sanitary products in their hampers, that each family had money for gas and electric over the Christmas period.

Parcels were delivered by the local firefighters who engaged with the children and ensured that smoke alarms were installed and working.

Over 40 people volunteered their time to go shopping, wrap presents and deliver the parcels. Children donated their pocket money, including a little girl who slipped £5 into Les’s hand in Harwich high street.

Les said: “I live in this town and know money was given by people who are desperately struggling themselves. We have not turned down one cry for help when it looked like we would have to close the list, people just sent in more money.

“I received messages of gratitude from social workers, school welfare officers, all telling stories of tears and happiness, of disbelief that so many should care about the plight of these families and of their disbelief at the size and generosity of the hampers.”

Les continued: “This effort has provided these families with just one day of joy — their poverty will not go away, but because of the community’s generosity and my canny shoppers, there will be a small surplus left over in the pot.

“I am very aware that we cannot keep up this level of donations every Christmas, yet the need will continue to grow. I will be keeping the Just Giving page open all year, so if you are raising money throughout the year and want to know that every penny will go to families in need in your community, think of us.”

It’s hard to imagine that people living in Britain, one of the richest countries in the world, a country that still glorifies in its imperial past and perpetuates the idea that England brought the world civilisation, are struggling to the point that without help from communities, Christmas would have been cancelled.

Les continually helps the local community and shortly after Christmas, he was bringing local community volunteers together again for the annual Winter Warmers scheme — a pop-up shop which opens for five days giving away donated winter clothes, bedding, coats, shoes, bags, towels, toiletries, kitchenware and baby items to anyone that needs them for free. Over 7,500 items were given away to over 1,100 individuals, families and children.

One of the visitors was helping a friend who had five children, one only a few months old. She had been the wife of a soldier and had lived in barracks with her husband. However, her husband quit the army and they had moved into a privately rented home.

Unfortunately, shortly after her fifth child was born he walked out on her and left her struggling to make ends meet and raise the children all by herself.

Unable to pay the rent she had ended up living in a static caravan within a holiday park, using towels as bed covers. This is just one example of why we have a welfare system.

This woman has done nothing wrong. She was meeting her end of the bargain to raise the children in her home but due to circumstances out of her control, she needed a safety net. Unfortunately, due to harsh welfare reforms, her safety net is broken.

Once again, Les had over 40 volunteers from not only the local community but from across the county and country.“This was a community action,” said Les, “which apart from a few labels and string, cost absolutely nothing — that’s right no funding was required — just support from a great community.”

Throughout the year Les will call on the community to help those in absolute destitution using social media as a conduit to direct community action.

His requests for help are quickly answered as the community pulls together and his posts are visible evidence of how austerity policies are destroying lives.

A recent request for help was for a family with no beds or bedding, sleeping on a floor — one of the items on the list was a cot.

In this small deprived town in north Essex, this inability to escape poverty continues to be a significant problem, with local and central government cuts continuing including threats to local libraries.

Investment is what is desperately needed for Harwich but it continues to be neglected, with violent and malicious crime rising and no signs of improvement to come.