Christopher Short, of Barry, South Wales, comments on the Hereford Times report that some parts of Hereford are a blackspot for child poverty. (From Hereford Times)

Christopher Short, of Barry, South Wales, comments on the Hereford Times report that some parts of Hereford are a blackspot for child poverty.

7:00am Tuesday 7th February 2012 in Letters

HEREFORDSHIRE is an outstandingly beautiful county and one to which I return from my home here in South Wales, whether to visit friends and clients (I am a human rights lawyer), to see a game at Edgar Street and enjoy local cider, or meet up with old comrades.

This makes your report (January 19) on child poverty in a recent issue even more galling.

Not just galling but shocking.

While 10 per cent of reception children are classed as obese, Herefordshire Council’s health board had identified poverty as a significant issue in Herefordshire with 4,500 children growing up (are they ‘growing’?) in poverty, with Hereford’s Central Ward having an under-18 pregnancy rate three times the county average and 40 per cent of homes failing the ‘decent homes’ standard.

This, I am ashamed to say, after, until recently, 14 years of a Labour (so-called ‘socialist’) government – a party of which, until the year 2000, I was a member for 35 years, and from which I was selected three times as a parliamentary and /or European Labour candidate.

Shaming. And so, over to Jessie Norman MP and the coalition Government.

Herefordshire remains beautiful, but beneath that veneer of beauty lies real tragedy and hardship. Let us hope the coalition can now solve this and not by cutting Child Benefit.

CHRISTOPHER SHORT, Barry, South Wales.