Atherstone’s general election – a whole new ball game

Hairdresser Stephen Rhea said small businesses like his needed more help

Move over Shrove Tuesday – a key date in the Warwickshire town of Atherstone for its ball game, when it makes headlines – "Election Thursday" is the date of the next bruising street encounter.

There is a new ball game in town as, following boundary reviews, voters now find themselves in the North Warwickshire and Bedworth constituency, a collection of contrasting market towns and former coalfield communities.

Atherstone, taking in Mancetter, has a population of about 11,000 so what are voters after from their next MP?

The cost of living crisis is an inescapable issue on people’s minds.

Stephen Rhea, a hairdresser for more than 50 years, said his salon’s electricity bills went up by 100% last year and the price he paid for products also rose sharply.

“Small businesses need more help.  I don’t think the politicians in London get ‘real life’," the owner of 4 Church Street Salon said.

"They’re up there in their ivory towers but do they go and do a week’s shopping and understand the prices? No.

“How are they going to face reality when they’re in ‘cuckoo land’ half the time?"

Kim Dudley said she wanted to see the benefits system reformed

Kim Dudley, a hair stylist, said the next government needed to reform the benefits system so people who chose to work were rewarded.

“I know people who are not working who are better off than me," she said.

"When I had a partner, we were both working a lot of hours all the time, yet we were struggling for everyday living. 

"Those on out of work benefits just seem to be living their life more than us.”

Steven Greatrex said a lot of people in Atherstone were looking for work but not finding it

A quarter of north Warwickshire’s working age population are considered "economically inactive", according to the Office for National Statistics, while about 1,000 people were registered unemployed in the 12 months up to December.

“A lot of people are looking for work but they can’t find it,” said Steven Greatrex.

The 58-year-old said he was forced to stop driving supermarket lorries following a medical examination.

After 17 years on the road, the father-of-four is adjusting to a new way of life - attending Atherstone's job centre - in the hope of getting new skills and opportunities to work.

“The retirement age just keeps moving [back] and people going now just don’t get a life," he said.

"I’ve seen so many people retire then die the next year. They want to keep on working in some form and they should be able to afford to.”

Charlotte McMahon's priorities this election included more help over rising food prices

At the Lashbar Academy beauty salon, Charlotte McMahon was deep in concentration plucking and shaping a client’s eyelashes.

This was not the moment for my questions but her own brow was furrowed – she’s incensed at the rising cost of her family’s food bill.

“I dread going food shopping because I can’t afford it. It sounds really stupid but I have to prioritise rent and other bills before the food shop”, she said.

“My cheapest food shop is about £50-60 and it lasts me five days with my one-year-old child so I have to go back again.”

Ms McMahon, who was expecting another child within weeks, said she was fed up with "false promises" over cost of living support.

“Personally I think the current political system should be wiped out and ‘normal people’ should go in and make sense of it all," she added.

Pub manager George Sperrin said business rates and VATs were big issues for him

In Mancetter, lunch orders were coming thick and fast at the Blue Boar Inn, one of a number of pubs owned by Warwickshire-based microbrewery Sperrin.

It’s food and not ale that pays the bills, according to pub manager, George Sperrin, 25, who has been able to keep the place open amid rising bills and the affect of hospitality closures elsewhere.

Since 2021, pubs have closed at a rate of about 500 a year, according to the British Beer and Pub Association.

They wrote an open letter which called on the main political parties to press for radical reform to business rates.

Atherstone sits in the new the North Warwickshire and Bedworth constituency

“Rates and VAT are big, big issues," said Mr Sperrin.

He employed about 30 staff, many who live locally, and wanted a more stable minimum wage so he did not lose workers to bigger chains who can absorb costs.

“The problem is the government push [the minimum wage] up every year, sometimes by 10 or 11%.

“Everyone on a higher wage than that, we have to put their wage up by the same rate to keep everybody happy and that’s really difficult because you don’t want to be putting your food or beer prices up for customers because there’ll be uproar.”

Midlands Today's North Warwickshire election outside broadcast from Church End Brewery will be on BBC One from 18:30 BST.

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