The MP for Chesham and Amersham has shed light on what continues to concern her community two years after her historical election. 

The community was at the centre of national attention in 2021 when Liberal Democrat Sarah Green took the historically blue-wall Chesham and Amersham seat from the Conservatives in a by-election on June 17.

Now Green and food poverty campaigners from Big Community Takeaway have spoken out about the hidden problem that continues to plague the Chesham community amid the cost-of-living crisis.

In parts of Chesham, such as Pond Park, child poverty rates reach 26.5 percent, which far exceeds the national average (20 percent). 

Green said: “So even in in a constituency which is seen as affluent we have a part of our constituency, which far exceeds the national average in child poverty, which some people may find quite shocking.”

Bucks Free Press:

Alan Soldini, a volunteer with the Big Community Takeaway meal service delivering 200 meal every week in Chesham, said that seeing the poverty exposed by the Covid pandemic was an “eyeopener.”

He said: “It was quickly obvious from some of the houses Covid was incidental.

“Covid had prompted to start the Big Community Takeaway but it was obvious there was food poverty in Chesham and Amersham before Covid, and there is still is after,”

Sharon Rigler, volunteer client caller, said there are still hundreds of people in need.

She said: “The need is crazy.

“We are doing a little bit of something that makes a big difference.

“One lady said to me the day we deliver the food is the one day a week when she’s free of worry. And a lot of families are going through the crisis with energy and food prices.”

The tireless support from BCT, Trussell Trust's Chiltern Foodbank, Chesham Community Fridge and Citizens Advice shows a community pulling together.

Green said: “The thing that is reassuring for me is how robust the community is in terms of helping people.”

Bucks Free Press:

The main concerns for many residents were the buying of new school uniforms, fuel, energy and food prices, she said.

She had spoken with disabled people who were “hard hit” by the energy costs because they had to plug in vital equipment and they were not entitled to any extra support, she said.

Within the last year, “things had only gotten worse,” she said.

Although Green didn’t want to assume what motivated the political change two years ago, she suggested it had to do with people “being taken for granted.”

“I’m not sure if that has gone away, and if anything, that may have become more entrenched. If you think about HS2, all the planning proposals, the state of the roads, which is not great, and all of that fed into the sense of being taken for granted,” she said.