Giles Watling, MP for Clacton, met with members of the Jaywick Sands Revival Club on 27th September to discuss how he can better support their important work.
Jaywick Sands Revival Club is a not for profit company, formed by residents in April 2019, which aims to give all those who live in the area a voice in its regeneration. For £1, residents can buy shares in this new company, giving them the right to vote for initiatives and projects. Residents are also able to put forward and vote on their own ideas for how to improve the area.
Ultimately, those running this company hope to develop a sustainable community, where residents can move to be self-supporting. To do this, a new local Community Hub was recently opened by Giles to help nurture craft and local skills. And the long-term goal is to improve employment and housing prospects for all who live in the area.
For the visit Giles was joined by Tim Clarke, Head of Housing and Environmental Health at Tendring District Council, and Jamie Timms, Tendring District Council’s Jaywick Community Warden, and discussed with members what more could be done to help residents. The group identified several areas for improvement, and Giles proposed that he also would host the first ever ‘Jaywick Clean Up’, with the support of Tendring District Council, to remove the rubbish from the streets in the area.
Speaking after the meeting, Giles said:
“I would like to thank the wonderful ladies of Jaywick Sands Revival Club for taking the time to meet with me. We went for a walk along the gorgeous beaches in the area and spoke at length about what services we now need to deliver to help this community.
“As I said last week, I was disappointed that Jaywick has, once again, been labelled as the most deprived ward in the country. But I know, as a former councillor, that Tendring District Council has been focussing on the area for years, and there has been significant investment in infrastructure.
“However, the area continues to score poorly on many of the other individual domains of deprivation, so there is more to do, and we need to engage with and better support the population there – that is what I will continue to do, and that is why this meeting was so important.
“As always, I could not be any more enthusiastic and optimistic about Jaywick and its future. So, let’s not talk it down, or just see it as the sum of its faults. There is so much there that is positive. It is an area of truly outstanding natural beauty, and the people there have a lot to offer - not least because of their strong sense of community. I truly want to see the area thrive and I am looking forward to hosting the first ‘Jaywick Clean Up’ to do my part to help residents, and I am pleased that Tendring District Council are so keen to support those efforts.”