'We live next to the world's most expensive homes but struggle to pay our bills'
Residents in Poole, Dorset say they have to resort to using food banks despite living next door to some of the country's wealthiest people.
Poole's Sandbanks peninsular is now the world's most expensive place to live after a four-bedroom coastal bungalow sold for an eye-watering £13.5million.
The Sandbanks rich - one street has a row of houses worth upwards of £90million - is a far cry from the lives of other proud Poole residents despite their geographical proximity.
Longtime local and ex-military man Brian Fuller, 79, said the gap between the affluent and those less well-off is stark.
He told The Sun: "The whole area is split into two types of people with the lucky over in Sandbanks and the unlucky over here."
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The gap between Poole's rich and poor is stark (SWNS)Brian added: “The cost of living has hit this part of Poole hard. Gas prices have really gone up, my gas bill used to be £44 a quarter and it has gone all the way up to £138."
The wealthy Sandbanks locals, which include the likes of Jamie and Harry Redknapp, drive up the house prices in the surrounding area.
Another local resident said that this causes problems because it leads people to assume that everyone who lives in the area must be wealthy.
The 2021 census said Rossmore was one of Dorset's most deprived areas (Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)Data collected from the 2021 census by the Office for National Statistics showed that 60.6 per cent of people in Rossmore were deprived in at least one dimension.
This made the area the fifth worst in Dorset, behind places like Boscombe West and West Howe.
Brian complained that his electricity bills have recently rocketed and the price of food in shops is no help either.
His pension payments, which are not rising, are struggling to go up with the hiked food in his local Asda.
One food bank in the area said they have seen an 80 per cent increase in visitors in the last year.
A councillor said Rossmore is 'one of the most deprived areas in the country' (Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)Brian is a resident of Rossmore, where local Liberal Democrat councillor Millie Earl said there is a "strong sense of community," but that they are "one of the most deprived areas in the country."
Councillor Earl that they need more than "kind and supportive" people and that more funding needs to be taken from the Sandbanks seafront, where residents enjoy beautiful views of the harbour, and given to Poole's more deprived areas.
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The councillor added that the government recently gave £18million to the seafront, but that "we won't see any of that."
The Levelling Up fund grant was announced earlier this year and promised "better, modernised facilities along the promenade, as well as building a community water sports hub."
A Sandbanks house recently sold for over £18million (Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)Fellow Rossmore resident Diana Triggs said the Sandbanks rich are "just lucky".
Diana, 50, used to clean some of the Sandbanks properties and said the people who lived there "were very nice people."
"It's a case of some have and some haven't," Diana argued.
