At a Glance
- Focus on decent services, fairness, and real solutions.
- Calls out division, misinformation, and the impact on Southend.
- Highlights transport cuts, privatisation issues, and rising costs.
- Argues for investment, cooperation, and long-term planning.
Let’s cut through the anger and focus on decent services, fair decisions, and a plan that puts people first.
Times are tough, I’ll be the first to admit that. You can’t switch on the radio or scroll the news without another crisis. The cost of living is biting hard, and councils like ours are feeling it too, with rising costs piling pressure onto services that were already stretched thin.
If you believed everything you read in the papers, you’d think the common good had vanished. But in Southend, I see something different. I see neighbours helping neighbours, community groups stepping in where they can, and people doing their best in difficult circumstances. That’s the Southend I know and love, and the Southend we should be fighting for.
People want fairness, decency, and solutions that actually work, not noise, grandstanding, or division.
We also need to talk honestly about why politics here feels more polarised. A small number of voices locally and nationally have been sowing anger and frustration, making things feel broken for their own gain. Over the past few months, hate and misinformation haven’t just slipped into the conversation, they’ve been pushed in. That’s harming you because it drags attention away from the issues that genuinely matter.
Families Left Struggling Daily
We should be debating why we’re paying so much to private companies to run essential services. We should be talking about why bus routes are being cut, why parents are struggling to feed their kids, and why developers keep trying to concrete over our green spaces. Instead, we waste time blaming individuals rather than fixing the system.
I want to see a more respectful, constructive approach because division doesn’t help anyone. It just keeps us distracted from the work we actually need to get done.
One of the clearest examples of where things are going wrong is our public transport. Community grows from connection, and right now Southend is disconnected. Cuts to bus routes have pushed more people back into cars. More cars mean more congestion, slower buses, and even more cuts. It’s a doom-loop.
When buses disappear, older residents become isolated. Families struggle to get children to school. Air quality worsens. Everyone loses.
Real Investment and a Citywide Transport Plan
Buses aren’t a luxury; they’re essential infrastructure. We need serious investment and a proper transport plan for the whole city, cars, buses, rail, walking and cycling. That means looking seriously at bringing buses back in-house so routes serve communities, not just profit. It would make commuting easier, help high streets thrive, reduce the need for costly car ownership, and bring people together.
And this brings us to a wider problem: privatisation. We all see the impact. Whether it’s buses, water, waste collection or children’s social care, the pattern is the same, costs go up, accountability goes down, and services get worse.
Look at the water industry. Our estuary and sewerage system can’t cope with heavy rainfall because water companies haven’t invested properly for decades. They’ve extracted £85 billion in profits over 30 years. Is it any wonder Thorpe Hall Avenue floods with sewage?
Private Providers’ Rising Fees
Southend was the first council in the country to outsource its waste contract, and now we’re paying around 20% more than we would if we ran it in-house. Children’s social care costs have skyrocketed in just five years, with private providers charging eye-watering fees.
All told, privatisation costs the average household in Southend about £250 a year. Imagine what that could do if reinvested into services that are crying out for support.
We need to rebuild skills inside the council, support local groups and cooperatives, and move away from the idea that outsourcing is always the answer.
The truth is that division, poor transport, and rising costs all stem from short-term thinking. We’re constantly firefighting when what Southend needs is a proper long-term vision, something residents can believe in.
Affordable Homes in Right Places
That vision should include good, sustainable homes that people can afford, built in the right places, not on our green belt. It should include vibrant streets full of small businesses, where people can walk or cycle to school and feel proud of their neighbourhood. It should include a world-class bus service, community-owned energy that brings bills down, and safer neighbourhoods built through prevention and early intervention.
None of this is ideological. It’s common sense, and it’s exactly what residents tell me they want.
This is the Southend I want. It’s what Southend people tell me they want. And it’s well within reach if we choose cooperation over division. We need decency, honesty, and local solutions that work in the real world. A better Southend is possible, but only if we work together and get on with it.
By Cllr Stuart Allen
Leader of the Green & Progressive Independents Group
cllrstuartallen@southend.gov.uk