DARTMOUTH town councillor Steve Smith has likened Dartmouth to Dickensian England.

He said so many families struggling with fuel and food poverty was hard to take in.

'You wonder if it's a script from Dickens' Oliver Twist,' he said. 'This is Dartmouth 2014, not Dartmouth 1814. What a sad state of affairs when the biggest growth industry in this country seems to be food banks.'

Cllr Smith was responding to a report by food bank manager Dawn Shepherd at Monday's Townstal Community Partner-ship meeting.

She revealed how food parcels were being delivered to families unable to feed themselves because of breaks in benefit payments and some homes last year were relying on candles for lighting because they could not afford electricity or heating.

A Christmas campaign by the Dartmouth and District Food Bank has already received around £1,000 in ­donations.

TCP chairman Cllr Smith said there had been a good turnout

at the meeting at Townstal Community Hall, where concerns were also raised about outstanding repairs to some properties owned by Guinness Trust Hermitage.

Some tenants' calls had not been followed up by the social ­housing provider and in some cases requests for help went back as far as five years, he said afterwards.

On one occasion an electrician had been sent to do a plumbing job, the meeting was told.

'Surely social housing providers such as Guinness have a legal responsibility in the ­tenancy agreement to provide an adequate duty of care service to their residents,' said Cllr Smith. 'But it seems quite the opposite. They've left their ­tenants frustrated and very angry and with

no confidence in their landlord whatsoever.

'If a resident of the Guinness Trust housing missed a rental payment, then I believe it would be fair to say they would be on the doorstep.

'It's sad that they don't have the same quick-to-react response for residents' pleas for repairs.'

Cllr Smith went on to praise another housing provider, Devon and Cornwall Housing, for its 'proactive response' to recent concerns over mould and damp at some flats in Townstal.

'There is now regular contact with residents, a community listening event this week, with further events planned this year,' he said.

Nobody from the Dartmouth-based Guinness Trust was available for comment at the time of going to press.

The next TCP meeting is on January 26. It will take place at the Townstal Community Hall at 7pm.