Medway Labour and Cooperative Group today welcomed the reversal of Conservative Medway Council’s decision to refuse to fund vouchers for families eligible for free school meals.  The Conservative administration decided not to fund vouchers over the summer school holiday.

This is despite the cost-of-living crisis badly hitting families in Medway, with food, travel and energy costs all rocketing. In response, Medway Labour started a petition to challenge the decision, signed by well over 1,000 people, which was submitted to Medway Council.

Medway Labour members also challenged the decision at the council’s Children and Young People committee in September, when Conservative committee members chose to support their administration rather than support struggling Medway families.  However, the administration have now decided to fund vouchers for eligible families over the October half-term.

Cllr Clive Johnson, Medway Labour and Cooperative Group Shadow Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said today,

“This decision, while it is absolutely welcome and absolutely the right thing for the Conservatives to do, as we have been saying for months, defies all logic.  They callously let families struggle over the long summer break with no support.  Now they choose to support those same families over the October break.

“That is welcome and we are pleased that the Conservatives have finally recognised that we were right, but the families of Medway must be asking themselves if the Conservatives have any understanding of what it is like to struggle to feed and clothe a family, to pay the rent or the mortgage and pay to get to work, in the current economic crisis, a crisis for which the Conservatives are responsible in the first place.  Medway Labour will always fight to support Medway families.’