Dumfries and Galloway Council have taken steps to address the poverty problems in the region by hosting 2 events in the past fortnight.
On 16 March an event was held in Kirkcudbright, and on 23 March a similar event was held in Dumfries. Representatives from the Council, NHS, Crichton Institute, Fire Service and Third Sector attended action groups to talk about experiences and work towards ending the poverty problems in our region.
Real life issues including money problems, fuel poverty and transport issues were discussed by attendees. Those who were in attendance in Kirkcudbright looked at issues specific to the west of Dumfries and Galloway that the Crichton Institute research raised including that almost 500 homes show multiple characteristics of deprivation including households with a person who is unemployed or on long term sick and no central heating. The delegates then discussed the research findings and how the various agents could work together to reach achievable goals in tackling poverty.
The Kirkcudbright event was chaired by poverty expert Dr John McKendrick of Glasgow Caledonian University. He commented that the poverty issues in the west of the region were “complex and intricate and very household specific.” This means that many unique cases of poverty are in existence in the region and require local solutions to the local poverty problems. As well as this, Dr McHendrick commended the Council on taking steps to ease the poverty problems in the region by introducing solutions such as the Living Wage.
The east event in Dumfries was very well attended and focussed on how we could improve signposting for our residents to make navigating our services much easier for them and how best to solve issues such as accessing healthy eating guidance. The action groups also looked at how individual poverty issues were to specific areas of the region, and how different approaches could be taken to assist with fuel poverty. The groups also looked at the various types of support that is currently available as well as those which are not available, in relation to food poverty.
Chief Executive Gavin Stevenson chaired the Dumfries event before Council Leader Ronnie Nicholson gave a strong speech which enforced the Councils commitment to tackling poverty. Speaking at the event Mr Stevenson said that the Council would be “taking the Anti-Poverty Strategy to committee before the summer recess” and would lead the way in tackling the poverty problems in Dumfries and Galloway, but that we would be working closely with partners to achieve this.
Speaking after the event in Dumfries Councillor Nicholson said;
“Our Council is leading the development of the Anti-Poverty strategy. We held a conference in October last year and this provided a platform for all the right people to come together and work on reducing poverty together. We need to lead the way and tackle this head on. These local meetings have thrown up lots of local issues such as how to protect and support our most vulnerable families and just how complex Dumfries and Galloway’s spread of poverty really is. These issues will be looked at and our Council is fully committed to breaking down the barriers that poverty in this region causes. The Council has already committed £1million to start to reduce poverty in local communities and we will continue to finance this strategy development through Policy Development funding. We are continuing to demonstrate that we are a listening Council by working with various agencies to tackle these local issues and problems.”
Statistics have shown that this region is one of the most deprived areas in Scotland. Stats have also shown that income, transport and unemployment are major contributory factors to this poverty.
Events such as these will continue to be run by the Council, and work is already underway to resolve the issues raised in Kirkcudbright and Dumfries.
To find out more, please see our new anti-poverty page on www.dumgal.gov.uk where an output pack from both events will be uploaded soon. There will also be copies of the full version of the Crichton institute research available.
