Worthing councillors speak out after area labelled 'most deprived'

Conservatives Sean McDonald and Russ Cochran represent Northbrook, in West Durrington, on West Sussex County Council and Worthing Borough Council respectively.

They have now invited representatives of the Office for National Statistics to visit, to see for themselves what the area has to offer.

Mr McDonald said: “Both of us live in the ward and I have lived here for 37 years.

“So it was something of a surprise to me when I was at a recent West Sussex County Council meeting where it was stated that Northbrook is the most deprived area of West Sussex.

“I had to stop the meeting and ask where they got that information from.

“Apparently it comes from the Office for National Statistics, who have never spoken to either of us.”

As part of the 2021 census, households in England and Wales were classified in terms of four ‘dimensions of deprivation’, based on certain characteristics.

The first was where any member of a household, who was not a full-time student, was either unemployed or long-term sick; the second covered households where no one had at least five or more GCSE passes or equivalent qualifications, and no 16 to 18-year-olds at the home were full-time students; the third was where any person in the household had general health that was ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ or had a long-term health problem and the fourth where the household’s accommodation was either overcrowded or was in a shared dwelling, or had no central heating.

Mr McDonald said he and Mr Cochran were proud to serve Northbrook and proud to say they live there.

He added: “Northbrook is a fantastic community with new house builds and new businesses moving into the ward.

“We have a first-class superstore, a couple of great pubs, easy access to the South Downs and lots of sports facilities – Northbrook Park to name one.

“There are pockets of deprivation, as there are anywhere else, but try to ask the people why they live here. And ask me why I have been here so long. The ONS are welcome to visit Northbrook and we will show them around.”