Boom and gloom: The two halves of our district

But a contrasting view has been provided by a woman who helps to feed some of the most vulnerable and desperate people in our town each week.

Warwick and Leamington Conservative MP Chris White this week welcomed the recently published profile of his constituency by the Office for National Statistics.

According to figures in the document, people in the area are doing better in terms of work compared to the national average, with 78 per cent of the population being economically active, compared to 76 per cent nationally.

The most common line of work in Warwick and Leamington is in the professional sector - 29 per cent - and the average hourly pay is £14.76, compared to a national average hourly pay of £12.77.

And while just over four per cent of people across the country are claiming Jobseekers Allowance, only 2.5 per cent of those living in Warwick and Leamington do so.

Mr White said: “The figures show we are certainly moving in the right direction. It is interesting to see how we relate to others. We have all got a role to play in making sure our local economy looks as attractive as possible – to new businesses and existing businesses.

“We have to make sure that the environment is right and the figures are welcome and encouraging.”

Noting the contrasting types of businesses whose homes are within the constituency, Mr White said: “We have firms like Aga Rangemaster, which has a long history here but is a still thriving, fantastic producer, alongside the new media firms, which are also thriving.

“We also have the peace and folk festivals which draw people to the area. It’s a fantastic place to live and we have a very good balance here.”

But he added: “Everybody has got to work hard to make sure everybody has got the skills and qualifications they need to keep the economy strong. There is no way that I will relax or sit comfortably while we have still got a tremendous amount of work to do. I am very conscious that there will be readers who are out of work and I want to include them in this discussion too.”

n MEANWHILE, the grass is certainly a paler shade of green from where stands Steph Devlin, who with her husband Geoff runs a soup kitchen in Leamington.

Mrs Devlin, who was named Citizen of the Year by the Courier and Brakes Trust in 2011, has seen a 40 per cent increase of desperately hungry people coming to the couple’s bus since January.

She said: “We have got a tremendous amount of people coming to us - and they are not necessarily homeless. They’re also people who have lost their jobs and finding that they’re unable to cope with feeding themselves.”

Mrs Devlin said around 50 people regularly visit the bus on each of the three evenings per week it parks in Newbold Terrace.

She said: “Recently a gentleman came down on a beautiful motorbike. He had been made redundant but was trying to save as best as he could and had not eaten for three days.

“A few weeks ago, just as we had packed up for the night, we saw a young couple who were probably in their early 20s and looked very respectable, going through the bins looking for food. It horrified me.

“We are getting a lot more of that sort of incident. You can tell that the people who come to us are really hungry.”

When told about the Office for National Statistics’ findings for Warwick and Leamington, Mrs Devlin said: “I don’t see an improvement. There seem to be more people out of work. Employment may be better in some areas of work, but there are certainly a lot of people who are still finding it hard to get a job. It’s not just alcoholics and drug abusers who come to us, but also ordinary people who are embarrassed to be using our service, but who are hungry and need to be fed.”

But she added: “We will always cope. Like most charities, the money side of what we do has gone down - we know that that’s part of the recession, but we are financing the bus through other avenues. We just carry on.”

Steph and Geoff Devlin’s Christian Mission bus provides free hot food to those in need in Newbold Terrace, opposite the Justice Centre, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 6.15pm onwards.