News

Be Our Buddy is a befriending project for children and young people with disabilities living in Shepway.

The boss of a water company has told Shepway Council that customers who pay their bills late will be charged £10 for each month it occurs

The Folkestone Academy is included in the latest list of community radio licence winners in the hotly-contested South East England round.

Vital help provided by Shepway Citizens' Advice Bureau to people affected by the credit crunch looks likely to be given a £10,000 boost by Shepway District Council.

The council's Cabinet agreed last month to give a one-off payment to the Bureau to recognise the increased demand for its services.

Although the government has reduced the standard VAT rate by 2½ per cent, the council has found it difficult to pass on the reduction on all its charges and wants the CAB to benefit.

David Willis, Manager of Shepway CAB, said: "I am delighted that Shepway District Council is giving this income to Shepway CAB. It demonstrates our joint commitment to help those worst affected by the recession. In the coming year we want to open for more hours, train more volunteer advisers, and help more people".

 

Dear Editor,

Kent Green Party wants to see an end to the scandal of pre-payment meters.

These meters increase the energy bills of the poorest of Kent’s residents and should be removed from all social housing and private rented accommodation.

We are urging all the Councils in Kent to take action to identify where these meters are being used, and to get them removed. Why is this happening?

“On 11th December 1990 John Major’s government privatised what once were the area electricity boards. In the 18 years since then, neither the Conservative or Labour governments have acted to protect our poorest citizens from the surcharges applied to pre-payment meters.

Those with the smallest incomes whether they be benefits, pensions or minimum wage employment often have no choice but to use the pre-payment meter for their energy needs. It is an outrage that they also are faced with higher prices than those able to afford billed metering.

Energywatch has found that pre-payment users could be paying up to £567, 42%, more a year than affluent customers using Internet tariffs.

It is a huge regulatory failure that the successive governments of John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have not taken action.

The National Housing Federation estimate that over a million people in fuel poverty would benefit from changes to pre-payment charges. We know change is not beyond the realm of possibility because within our United Kingdom solutions have been found: In Northern Ireland pre-pay customers actually receive a 2.5% discount and can top-up over the phone 24/7.

With, according to National Energy Action, 5.4 million households in fuel poverty - and about 1,000 people a day being forcibly put onto pre-payment meters because of debt - this is a growing crisis. Immediate action is needed now, today.�

Steve Dawe
Kent Green Party