Helena Dollimore, the MP for Hastings, Rye and the villages, has used her first speech in the Houses of Parliament to bring attention to the various - and varied - issues facing her constituents.
In her maiden speech, Helena touched upon the problems surrounding sewage dumping, water outages and floods, as well as the state of the roads and infrastructure across Hastings and Rye.
She said people in the area have “too often been forgotten by Westminster”, while vowing to serve individuals, local businesses and volunteers that make up the unique constituency.
Helena promised to fight for her constituents, who face struggles including neglected infrastructure, a crumbling water system, exceptionally long ambulance response times and some of the worst roads in the country.
Despite these challenges, Helena spoke of the people of Hastings and Rye’s impressive community spirit.
“Our calendar is full of carnivals and festivals, from Jack in the Green to bonfire nights. Those events are made possible only by volunteers who give up their time to give back to the community and raise money for our local charities,” she said, “Volunteers also maintain and protect so many of our amazing public spaces, from Hastings Country Park to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and Camber Sands.”
“The cratered state of our roads and crumbling water infrastructure is symbolic of how we have too often been forgotten by Westminster” - Helena Dollimore MP
“Our road and rail infrastructure is stuck in the past: we may be a similar distance from London as Brighton is, but our train takes twice as long,” Helena said, addressing the myriad issues facing the region.
“We lie at the end of the A21, a road that has been described as the least developed in the south-east of England,” she added, referencing disastrous infrastructure which she will address as MP, “As any driver will tell you, we have the worst potholes in the country.”
Hastings and Rye has been at the forefront of the country’s water scandal, too - from flooding and outages, to the dumping of sewage.
“Southern Water has a lot to answer for in my constituency, dumping record levels of sewage along our coastline from St Leonards through Hastings to Fairlight, Pett, Camber Sands and Winchelsea beach,” Helena said, “Some sewage has even come into people’s homes and gardens in my constituency, and when the water pipes have failed, we have faced major flooding in homes and the town centre and been left without a water supply for days on end.”
Helena now welcomes the water special measures Bill, put in place by the new government to start to clean up our water industry, will make a difference.
Life can be a struggle for people in Hastings and Rye - Helena will tackle this
problem
While life can be hard enough for Helena’s constituents, life expectancy in Hastings and Rye is lower than the national average - a trend that has got worse over the past 14 years of Conservative rule.
The local NHS has other problems, too.
“People wait longer for an ambulance in my constituency than anywhere else in the south-east of England,” Helena said, “The situation is particularly bad in our villages and rural areas such as Winchelsea, where people wait 45 minutes on average when having a stroke or heart attack.”
Continuing her speech, she said she was looking forward to the Labour government’s plans to cut NHS waiting times coming into force.
Similarly, she welcomed the Prime Minister’s determination to get Britain building again to combat the housing crisis.
She bemoaned the fact her constituency is at the sharp end of the housing crisis, with spiralling rents, not enough homes being built and many left in poor-quality rental accommodation, thanks to Southern Housing or private landlords.
Closing her maiden speech, Helena said she very much wants to continue that rich legacy: “I look forward to working hard for all my constituents across Hastings and Rye and delivering much-needed change.”
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