00:00This is one of the worst areas in the UK to grow up in.
00:04Medway's come 10th in a new report from the Children's Commissioner.
00:08This has ranked all of the local authorities in the country across different parts of a child's life,
00:13such as their education or their poverty level.
00:15Medway's officially been revealed as the worst place in the South East to grow up in.
00:20Access to health care, exam results and safety were among some of the main concerns.
00:25But what do people who live in Medway actually think?
00:29Unfortunately, not or unfortunately, I live near Middlesbrough and having come back to the Medway towns,
00:33I look around and I say how things have changed.
00:36I look along the High Street here at Rochester, how things have changed.
00:40They think it's for the better, but it isn't always for the better.
00:43Because in some places there's quite a lot of rubbish, like bad people, I guess you could say, and like
00:48pollutive areas.
00:49So if there was people around that do that as a job to help you feel safe, I don't know,
00:55but obviously it's harder to get those kind of things.
00:57I grew up out in Cliff, so I had awful access to transportation.
01:03But other than that, the second you get out into the Medway towns, I thought it was good.
01:07Even though people are torn, the council's surprised with the results.
01:12Look, I think it's always difficult.
01:13When you've got more than 150 different data points, comparing and contrasting the weighting of those,
01:19I think it's a real challenge.
01:21I recognise that I respect Dame Rachel D'Souza and her role as children's commissioner,
01:25but a league table of these natures can sometimes be challenging because of trying to compare and contrast so many
01:31different aspects
01:32and perhaps not necessarily recognising the specific challenges.
01:36This set of results may represent the local area, but it's ranked amongst other parts of urban Britain
01:41which are facing similar problems.
01:43And with young people facing an already uncertain future,
01:47a national attitude change may be the way to win back their trust.
01:51Ryan Massey for KMTV in Medway.
