“If you choose the statistics for the other half of Sidmouth, the picture is different and not so compelling.” [Sidmouth commentator]
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This week saw the story splashed across local and regional media that ‘Sidmouth has the highest proportion of residents aged over 90 in England’
However, looking at the details, the map used by the Office for National Statistics, published in the VGS’s own piece, shows that only one half of the Sidmouth civil parish was used.
So, not only do we need to do a spot of fact-checking, but we need to challenge the rather lazy narrative. Do the Census statistics back up the claims?
A correspondent has responded pointing out the statistical anomalies and more:
The thing is that this article seems to be spin to do with housing needs disguised as a piece about age… Cherry picking statistics to make a point is not good and I thought the VGS punctured this sort of thing. We know we need more affordable housing but if you look at statistics for the other half of Sidmouth it demonstrates the need much better. Lack of affordable housing is not a problem caused by the over 90s.
As Sidmouth Town Ward has an awful lot of flats, old people’s (over 50) housing, hotels, holiday accommodation etc you wouldn’t really expect a high proportion of people with families living there. Instead they are out at Arcot, Sidford Road, etc. [to the north and east – in the other half of Sidmouth] and so fall within the Sidmouth/Sidford Ward.
It is rather like just looking at Sanditon Luxury Flats and saying most people in Sidmouth are second home owners with an income of £???, 000 and therefore there is no deprivation in Sidmouth, and hardly anyone living permanently in Sidmouth.
Articles like these are intentionally misleading and stir intergenerational division with the message that ‘somehow’ loads of things are ‘given’ to the elderly but just a few Councillors are fighting against the tide to provide for the young. There is no mention of who closed down the things for the young in the first place and therefore made provision so unbalanced. Nor that older generations are capable of setting up their own amusements (and have done) where children haven’t that ability. Some ‘old’ people have even been known to work to help the young too!!
Unfortunately, the more sensationalist line that Sidmouth is the nonagenarian capital of Britain (from the Mail) prevails across the national media; perhaps the over-90s are having the time of their lives (from the Times) but there is a lot of misleading debate, or rather non-debate, happening, as suggested by our commentator above.
Yes, there are a lot of elderly people in the Sid Valley, but there are a lot of services provided for them, both from the council and the Sidmouth Voluntary Services; yes, there is the excellent Sid Valley Help which signposts help for those in need across the generations, but the Town Council is struggling in its efforts at replacing Manstone Youth Centre.
Yes, many businesses cater for the elderly, from independent house-and-garden enterprises to the eleven care homes in the Sid Valley, but the uncomfortable reality is that the job market for young people offers mostly badly-paid, low-status work in the hospitality and care industries. And such acute labour shortages due to declining wages and working conditions mean that most of these care homes are staffed by nurses from abroad. Perhaps an alternative to Bristol or London for young Sidmouthians would be working abroad…
Finally, yes, Sidmouth is an ‘age friendly’ community and the elderly might well be ‘having the time of their lives’, but loneliness is certainly an issue for the retired. Meanwhile, young people’s mental health has become very much an issue – although perhaps we should finish on a positive intergenerational story where people are tackling such issues and where we hear that Sidmouth students have trained teachers and the College has won an anti bullying award.
Staff at Sidmouth College take part in a training session led by Anti-Bullying Ambassadors (Credit: Submitted) from Devon Live
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