It's been three years since Medway Council declared a climate change emergency, so should they do the same to address the current economic situation?

Around the country, Islington, Birmingham, Eastbourne, Lewes, and South Cambridgeshire – all of which have a Labour or Liberal Democrat majority – have passed measures to address the cost of living crisis.

For some, they have decided to mobilise the voluntary sector to ensure people have access to food and be "mindful" of the situation when it comes to setting next year's council tax bands.

Others have decided to use their influence to petition the government for stronger measures to help those in need, such as through increasing the national living wage.

Tory-run Medway Council declared a climate emergency in 2019 following an opposition Labour Group motion.

Since then, it has been working towards reducing its carbon footprint through the implementation of an action plan.

Regular meetings of the Climate Change Member Advisory Group scrutinise how well the plans are going.

With this in mind, do those on the ground think declaring a cost of living emergency would help?

Ruth Lindsay, project manager at Medway Foodbank, said while declaring an emergency locally it may highlight the issue more, it would ultimately not make a lot of difference.

She explained: "We are here for anybody in need; we're here for anybody who needs food. But, we think that the council and the government should provide adequate resources to allow people to be able feed themselves.

"We are here for people in an emergency, at their point of crisis and we're here if any referral agencies have clients that need that.

"That would make no difference whether we declared a cost of living emergency.

"We're finding our clients and the people in Medway are feeling very challenged by the cost of buying food.

"Our statistics show our centres aren't actually any busier than they have been - they've been busy anyway.

"We haven't seen a spike in our numbers but we are here and ready for people when and if that happens."

Neil Charlick, chief executive of Gillingham Street Angels says he thinks the council is already doing enough to help groups such as his, and thinks it's the government that needs to show more support.

As well as supplying food, furniture, school uniforms and sanitary items, the Street Angels are focussing on making sure people have coats, thermals, blankets, and quilts for the winter.

The group will soon open a sports bank to supply sporting equipment to kids.

He explained: "Medway Council supports the voluntary sector. They have been good across the board.

"It facilitated the Medway Emergency Food Project – which brought all the businesses, charities, and anyone who had an interest in food or poverty together – and it got us all working together.

"There's probably a lot of stuff that goes on in Medway that people don't know about.

"Last month, we had 13,000 people just through the food bank in Skinner Street.

"The national government are the people who hold the purse strings; I beg Medway Council and Medway Council have to go and beg the government.

"People in Medway are feeling very challenged by the cost of buying food."

"The government needs to make funds available for people at local councils and say to them 'We know Medway is a poverty-stricken area, so there's a figure of money and help your residents'."

Medway Labour Group attempted to pass a motion demanding more government support over the cost of living crisis in July.

They also held a rally on the subject outside the council's headquarters.

The motion – which was lost – would have seen the council write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer petitioning the government to reinstate the £20 a week uplift in Universal Credit, and call on Medway's three MPs to demand an emergency budget.

Cllr Teresa Murray, the group's deputy leader who proposed the motion, said instead of trying to declare an emergency like other councils have, the group will hold a cost of living summit next month.

It will bring together the voluntary sector and private sector such as energy companies, banks, and building societies.

She said: "We really feel there is a cost of living emergency and we as people who represent all the residents in the Medway Towns, we should be doing as much as we can to help them.

"The foodbanks are saying the stocks are low. Obviously, donations to the food bank have gone down in line with the fact that people have got less money and churches are saying they're prepared to be a warm space for people but what are they going to do about paying their heating bill because they're not being given loads of extra money to do it.

"We feel like we should create the opportunity for people to tell us how they're feeling about it because we are very aware that the agencies of help are under as much pressure as anybody else."

'People may do stupid things to survive'

Gillingham Street Anglels' Neil Charlick has also warned the rise of social media sites including TikTok could lead to some people making dangerous choices this winter, as they think of inventive ways to heat up food.

He explained: "I think if we are not careful, people are going to start doing some really stupid stuff.

"There's people using tea lights under garden pots to cook their dinner in, and people are watching others smashing up old wood and they're cooking in their gardens.

"If people start trying to cook their dinner on a saucepan on an old IKEA wardrobe, that's got varnishes and paint on it - most of it is not even wood - we're going to end up with fatalities.

"People start lighting candles all over the place to start I think people will start doing dumb stuff to survive.

"I think crime will increase; last week Margate food bank got robbed, that's how desperate people are people are getting."