Mums forced to 'live on energy drinks so kids can eat' on estate

Residents of an estate in North Wales are facing heartbreaking decisions

Parents are being forced to live on a diet of energy drinks so their children can eat on one estate in Wales, it has been claimed.

The Queensway 1 area in Caia Park, Wrexham is one of the poorest places in Wales and those living and volunteering on the estate say that hundreds of families are now reliant on handouts.

The Given to Shine charity, which takes food to deprived areas of Wrexham, is now delivering half of its 200 parcels a week to struggling families on Caia Park - reports North Wales Live.

A spokeswoman for the charity said they were giving food to 600 people on the estate, 450 of which were children.

She said: "We are seeing mums in hospital, they are living off energy drinks just so their children can eat. It is heartbreaking.

"We have definitely seen a massive increase since the summer months. The little amount people earn is having to spent on energy bills."

Over at St Mark's Church, church army officer Chris Lawton explained that although the church had suffered vandalism, there was a growing sense of community.

But he also told how children were going hungry and the church had launched a Holiday Hunger scheme to feed youngsters who don't have access to paid school dinners, when when they are off and can see 120 kids.

He said: "It's very sad, we initially only had one or two families turning up at most to our food bank, now we can have 14-15 families."

Cllr King, a former Wrexham Council leader who runs The Venture playscheme on the estate, said: "The most important figures are the child poverty figures released in April which show Caia Park was had the first and second worst areas in Wales. In fact three out of the top four were on the estate.

"There are no other housing estates in the UK where this happens, it has the largest concentration of child poverty anywhere."

Austerity has hit the estate hard, said Cllr King, with services cut and with the close of the anti-poverty Communities First scheme in Wrexham, The Venture has become a one-stop shop for families and people looking for advice and a range of issues from health to social services.

He said: "It has been a steady decline, children are now coming to The Venture, not to play, but to get something to eat because they are starving.

"They are suffering from malnutrition and its unbelievable that's happening in a first world country and we know that children born into poor families are more likely to have health problems."

Cllr King added: "There are some positives in Caia Park, there is a community spirit, and there are a lot of hard working people, working ridiculous hours an low wages, in jobs that other people would not do.

"But it needs a large increase in funding to bring it back to where it was years ago and the council could be doing more and the council needs to do more."

In response Wrexham Council released a comprehensive statement.

It said: "The council ran the Communities First operation in Caia Park and Hightown between 2013 and 2018, until the closure of the programme.

"The council has maintained a Communities for Work team based on the Caia Park Estate and in Plas Madoc since this time and this project, funded by European Social Fund is expected to continue to 2023 with funding of £1,977,350 confirmed.

"This employability support programme was expanded in 2018 with the addition of the WG’s Communities for Work Plus programme, which increased the number of participants eligible for employability support. As per the Communities for Work programme, Communities for Work Plus is delivered across two operations on the Caia Park Estate and in Plas Madoc, and is worth a total of £431,300.

"The Legacy Fund was launched for an initial period of 2018/19 to 2019/20, and the council has used this fund to provide andadditional officer to work in each of the Caia Park and Plas Madoc operations, as well as a training budget and barriers fund to further complement the Communities for Work teams, which totals £90,000.

"The project is based out of the Caia Park Partnership offices. Through this combination of employability support, more than 200 people have been supported into paid employment to date."

The council said it also used the Legacy Fund to create an Employability Support grant worth £146,447, which was available to previous providers of Community First services.

The statement continued: "Applications for financial support were approved for the two  years of the fund from The Venture Playground Ltd. as lead for the Wrexham Youth & Play Partnership (which also includes Gwenfro Valley ICC) and the Caia Park Partnership."