OUT IN THE FIELD: Old photos of Debenhams, Barclays at Langney to close and bringing in water cannons to deal with street drinkers

When I was a teenager – in the early 1980s when I was sporting a patchouli oil fragranced embroidered Afghan coat and flared jeans – there was a poem doing the rounds. It went something along the lines of, “Remember when hippy meant big in the hips; when a trip involved travel on cars, planes and ships; when pot was a vessel for cooking things in; and hooked was what grandmother’s rug would’ve been”. That wonderful poem came back flooding to me this week when I saw a collection of wonderful old photos of Debenhams, brought in to Herald Towers by reader and former display manager Keith Lindley, who worked at the store from 1977 to 2003. It was a fabulous trip down Memory Lane looking at the pictures. My favourite is the one to the right when there was two way traffic in Terminus Road. There are more pictures on pages 46 and 47 and online at www.eastbourneherald.co.uk and I hope you enjoy them as much as us old timers in the office have. There will be more next week with photos of the one and only Mollie Sugden, the hair salon and the Coffee Bean cafe.
Debenhams in Terminus Road SUS-200602-111538001Debenhams in Terminus Road SUS-200602-111538001
Debenhams in Terminus Road SUS-200602-111538001

Last week I went out with the newly formed Sussex Police Tactical Enforcement Unit. The unit is dedicated to capturing some of the most wanted and prolific offenders, including those involved in serious violence, organised crime and county lines drugs gangs and has already been successful in carrying out targeted disruption, enforcement and patrol activities wherever and whenever it is most needed. It is very similar to what was once called the Local Action Teams, support groups or, going right back to the 1990s, Eastbourne’s very own pro-active unit whose members were no strangers to bashing doors in and fishing out some little toe rag. I think the TEU – as it is known – is a wonderful addition to the force and since being launched in December, the team has made dozens of arrests, seized illegal drugs, weapons, cash and helped safeguard vulnerable people and those at risk of exploitation. What we need however, is more of them. Perhaps the team could be deployed in the town centre, sort out the street drinkers and the shoplifters who seem to gather with gay abandon in the new precinct and when they’re not showing off their ill-gotten gains, they are shrieking at each other over whose turn it is to go and buy some super strength lager. I had a walk through the town the other day and came across a gang of them. It made me wish I lived in a country where the use of water cannons to dispel troublemakers was allowed.

Sad news that Barclays in Langney Shopping Centre is to close. I love that little branch. It’s so handy. You can park easily for free, nip in and actually speak to a cashier instead of a machine trying to do a human’s job. That will mean just one branch left in Eastbourne - and that is bang in the town centre. Remember when there were branches in Meads, Hampden Park, Seaside? You could write a poem about it.

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