Eastbourne People's Assembly

By Lucette Davies

Think of Eastbourne and you may think of affluent, conservative, apolitical, right wing people and to some extent you would be right.  But there is also poverty, deprivation, homelessness, inadequate housing, people with disabilities and many other vulnerabilities.  There is a growing number of children living in poverty but at last there is a group of vociferous and motivated people determined to do all they can to fight for a fairer society.  I have really felt lucky to join the Eastbourne People’s Assembly and meet with others who agree nobody can afford to stay quiet any longer in the face of  the savage austerity measures being implemented by this government.

Somehow (and I’m not sure how) since that day last May when many people, myself included, felt they wanted to emigrate, this group of people emerged who agree Eastbourne needs buckets of motivation rather than the buckets with spades it is famous for.  The memories of the last five years along with the thought of the next five years has inspired many to say:”No More!”.  Our society is being damaged almost on a daily basis and the damage is affecting the whole society.  Although there are some very vulnerable people in Eastbourne, this government’s austerity measures are now affecting people who previously were reasonably comfortable.

Mark McGowan is an activist who has his own YouTube channel where he interviews many people in politics, filming the interview in his car.  He uses the name The Artist Taxi Driver and last Saturday he came down to Eastbourne to interview a group from Eastbourne People’s Assembly.  To understand what lies beneath the anti-austerity agenda of The People’s Assembly have a watch of the video here.

In Eastbourne the local hospital has lost a number of core services and the Trust that manages the hospital placed in special measures.  I am not alone in recognising that there is a very real danger of our hospital being handed to a private company to run.  A simple comparison of our NHS with the American insurance based system of healthcare would provide more than enough evidence to show that private healthcare is the last thing we need.  Money unfortunately will not guarantee anyone good health.  But as The Guardian recently reported we are now on a one way road to the full-scale privatisation of the NHS

The job opportunities in Eastbourne are limited with mainly low paid and/or part time jobs available and a lot of  zero hours contracts on offer.  The food bank is supplying emergency food to growing numbers of people all the time and it is the church led organisations that aim to assist the homeless and vulnerable.  But there is also a large elderly population and so a big need for adult social care services.  The elderly are on average the people living in the more affluent areas of the town but again money doesn’t buy good health.

East Sussex County Council ( ESCC) has already made huge cuts to the budget for adult social care and children’s services, but now they are looking at taking another £40m from the budget.  Recently an impact assessment report written by officers of ESCC  outlined the impact that these cuts could have on residents in the area.  Andrew Durling of the Green Party described reading this document as being akin to: “Reading the script of a Hollywood disaster movie.” The document outlines how these cuts would significantly reduce the quality of life for people in the area and may even be a risk to life in some cases.  The report has also outlined how these cuts may in fact be a false economy.  Preventative services would be lost or damaged resulting in extra costs to the NHS or other ESCC services as people become acutely ill.

ESCC has now written a letter to the government expressing their concern over the proposed cuts to their budget by Central Government.  But we need to keep the pressure up so the Eastbourne People’s Assembly are appealing to anyone concerned about such cuts to join them at a rally in Eastbourne Town Centre tomorrow morning at 11am.  As Andrew Durling also said: “If the £40m of cuts go ahead, decades of progress in public health and social care will be destroyed and the wellbeing of ,many East Sussex residents will be severely eroded.  Is that the kind of society we want?”  If you want to know more or want to meet the Eastbourne People’s Assembly come along to Banker’s Corner tomorrow morning.