Improving the Local Economy

This weekend amongst others have been features on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall waging a war against Tesco's trade in cheap chickens and the Radio Four Food Programme featuring training of craft butchers for local shops. A walk through our local countryside shows a clear movement away from set aside schemes in to real grain production and the oil price is contributing to the cost of basic food items.

All of this must surely in the end, show the way to bringing back life to the local economy. Clear advantages must be seized for both Bexhill and the rural area which surrounds it. Those advantages will benefit both our local economy and education and training for our young people

The GDP for this part of the South of England is one of the lowest in the country. Although there is wealth brought in by many living here who work elsewhere, the wages of those who choose to live and work here are low whilst prices are inflated by those in the first category having the ability to pay higher prices. In other words local people find it hard to find well paid local work and struggle to pay the prices for goods and services. All simple, basic economics of supply and demand.

So why not make it more simple.

We must seek further ways of increasing the amount of food produced locally, a movement which has been underway for some time now. In particular there is a healthy demand for fresh fruit and vegetables and locally produced meat. Local production will bring an increase in jobs in an area which has been largely neglected; jobs which require training of a vocational nature rather than purely academic.

East Sussex has an excellent further education training establishment for horticulture and agriculture with a local base at Netherfield. We need however to ensure that children and young adults are aware of the opportunities to pursue careers in these fields, with active encouragement for them to do so, in schools and youth centres. These young people are the ones in whose hands providing food, in the future, lie.