Call for U-turn on 'ill-judged and cruel' cuts to council's services

LABOUR WARNS OF 'SERIOUS HARM' TO OLDER RESIDENTS AS REFORM SEEKS SAVINGS

- By CATHERINE LANGSTON

(BRIAN GREEN)

THE political fallout from financial cuts at Kent County Council has intensified, with local MPs and councillors urging the embattled Reform UK leadership to reverse planned funding reductions which they warn will cause “serious harm” to vulnerable elderly residents in Thanet.

East Thanet MP Polly Billington and Thanet District Council leader Cllr Rick Everitt have written an open letter to county council leader Linden Kemkaran, raising deep concern over “the impact of Kent County Council’s financial cuts on the future of Age UK Thanet and the vulnerable elderly people in our community”.

The demand for elderly support is particularly acute in Thanet, which has one of Kent's largest populations of residents over both 65 and 85, the highest number of pension credit claimants, and the highest rate of older people living in deprivation.

Age UK Thanet employs around 40 local staff and supports hundreds of residents from its base at Millmead Community Centre in Margate.

However, the planned cuts under the Reform UK administration have severely threatened the charity's financial sustainability and its ability to maintain crucial services, including day centres and detailed information and advice services

Ms Billington was forceful in her condemnation of the Reform leadership’s handling of the council.

She said: “Reform UK has said their management of Kent is an advert for what a Reform government would look like, and I’m afraid on that point they are absolutely right.