Gerard Kavanagh;

I have lived in Horsham with my family for almost 20 years and my two children attended St John’s primary, Millais, Tanbridge and Collyers schools. I have worked for 35 years in Software Design and Development with 15 years being based at Gatwick. I am a member of Amnesty International and Liberty.

I have campaigned on the environment and Climate Change issues including attending the County Council meeting in Chichester to support the Labour motion to declare a climate emergency, which was rejected by the Tory members. In continuing support of these important issues I have signed up  to the South East Climate Alliance Pledge Campaign and if elected will work with other members of West Sussex County Council Labour Group to put these into effect in West Sussex.

The austerity cuts introduced by the coalition are still biting and it is criminal that in a country classed as the fifth richest in the world we have people living in food poverty. We were never all in it together, as one of the first actions of the coalition government was to cut the highest tax rate from 50% to 45% and the effects of austerity on the poorest in the country is shown by the increase in food bank usage since 2010 with 40,898 food parcels in 2010 and 1,900,122 food parcels in the year to March 2020 distributed by the Trussell Trust. The use of food banks has greatly increased in Horsham over the last few years. The pandemic has of course exacerbated this with 1,239,399 food parcels being distributed in the 6 months from April to September 2020 and Horsham also has seen a further increase.