WINTER is a bigger killer in Brentwood than any other part of Essex, a new report has shown.
The latest figures, which recorded average monthly deaths from 2006 to 2009, revealed that an average 25 per cent more residents died between December and March than between April and November.
It is estimated that around 55 people die each year in Brentwood from causes directly attributable to the cold and poor living conditions.
It leaves people living in Brentwood more at risk during winter than anywhere else in the county.
A total of 90 per cent of winter deaths are of adults aged over 65. There are 27,600 people in this age group in the borough and they are particularly vulnerable during the winter.
Brentwood, which has 37.3 per cent of residents aged over 65, has the fifth most elderly population in Essex.
Chelmsford also has a high excess winter death rate – the number of deaths more than occur in summer – at 22.6 per cent. Maldon has a rate of 10.1 per cent, Harlow 13.2 per cent and Rochford 14.2 per cent.
In England as a whole the average was 18.1 per cent.
Zaza, 84, and Eric Walker, 92, who live in Doddinghurst, are proud of their independence and live relatively active lives. They both only stopped contributing to the Brentwood talking newspaper last year, after 20 years.
Mrs Walker said: "A lot of people living on their own are so independent and they don't like relying on others.
"We have got wonderful neighbours who look after us and keep an eye on us.
"But there are people who may not have that kind of support. There are a lot of people who may never speak to their neighbours.
"It could be there where the difference comes from.
"There are so may ways, from helping us put the bins out when it is cold and icy, to clearing the snow from the driveways.
"If the curtains haven't been drawn in the morning, they want to know why."
Ken Wright, chairman of the Brentwood branch of Age UK, said: "One of the biggest things we can do is promote community cohesion. We used to have people like the milkman looking into old people to make sure they were OK. We have lost a lot of that.
"It's a huge problem but one that cannot really be tackled by the Government. It has to come from the community itself."
A spokesman for Brentwood Borough Council said: "We have set up a Health and Wellbeing board that will be responding to and submitting ideas to the Health and Wellbeing Board established by Essex County Council. We will use this process to both improve the health of all in Brentwood and to better respond to their health needs."
An Essex County Council spokesman said: "ECC, in conjunction with NHS Essex North and NHS Essex South, have applied to the Government's Warm Homes Healthy People Fund, the aim of which is to reduce the levels of deaths and illness in the coming winter that are due to vulnerable people living in cold housing.
"ECC intend to work with Citizen Advice Bureaus across Essex to target those people hardest to reach and most at risk of living in cold homes."
