OUT IN THE FIELD: Tar and feather these heartless thugs

But mine really did take a bit of a bashing when I read about the disabled newcomer to Eastbourne who needs crutches to walk and suffered a cruel attack by a group of youths outside the Post Office in Terminus Road.

It happened at 10am last Friday when the man was resting against a wall. The mindless idiots ran up to him and kicked his crutches away so he fell to the ground. The youths then ran off in the direction of the Arndale.

What a ghastly, horrible, mean and heartless thing to do. The poor chap had only been in Eastbourne three weeks since moving down from Milton Keynes.

Fortunately he wasn’t hurt badly but told police officers it had left him greatly upset. The incident has prompted a police appeal and while there is no detailed description of the thugs, they were all wearing hooded jackets and one had a bandana across his face.

With all the CCTV cameras in town, I would imagine it won’t take long for the police to track down those responsible who I hope will be feeling ashamed of themselves and their disgusting behaviour. Time to pass the feathers and the tar.

As predicted some time ago, the council’s plan to hand over the running of the newly refurbished Princes Park cafe to hospitality and catering students from the University of Brighton is well and truly off.

Despite numerous requests for an update on the situation, the council has remained tight lipped in recent weeks until its hand was forced this week when it became clear that nothing was happening at the eatery and the university wasn’t fitting it out as planned.

The news was broken by a member of the public on a social media community site after he was told by a borough councillor who had the decency and good manners to reply to a letter from a voter.

The university we are told could not commit and wanted to defer a decision until the new financial year. That was even after it was offered a very generous financial deal to go ahead with the project.

It was obviously not to be but the council says there is a Plan B and another company experienced in running a cafe is waiting in the wings and eager to move in soon. The cafe, we are told, is due to be fully operational and opened by Easter which is only a few weeks away. Let’s hope the due diligence process goes through smoothly and everything is dotted and crossed quickly.

Among the mail coming through letter boxes across the town this week will be the Eastbourne Review, the council’s regular newspaper for residents. Don’t be too quick to line the cat litter tray with the special spring edition this time however as within its pages is column after column on that current political hot potato: the sell off of the downland farms. Basically residents are being asked to choose between the farms being sold, the Carpet Gardens going to rack and ruin or street cleaning drastically reduced to find the money the council needs. Do take the time to fill in the form.