Your letters - September 19

Think ahead

THE furious correspondence that accompanies any change or proposal for change in Bexhill is totally dispiriting to me, a fairly recent Bexhillian.

I arrived in time for the drumming out of the Sea Space proposals and have witnessed the challenges to the De La Warr Heights and Baird Court developments and the squalor of major non-developments at the Grand Hotel and Hollenden House.

Grudging approvals have been given to mediocre proposals and the usual suspects have gathered their petitions.

It seems clear to me that there is absolutely no strategic grasp of the current situation of the town, no agreement to how it might change and no acceptance that sacrifices are necessary to create a better future.

The town is tatty, commercially unattractive, offering little in the way of decent employment and almost nothing to absorb the energies and enthusiasms of its pre-retirement residents.

It is inevitable that its large proportion of retirees will watch their every penny, so the spiral of decline is likely to continue without a major nudge.

It's 'Edwardian heritage' is largely-neglected, poorly-maintained and commands rents that make it uneconomic to restore to an acceptable state. Meanwhile the gems of the Pavilion and the Old Town are widely reviled and ignored respectively.

Bexhill must be the bane of Rother DC '“ a disaster in the making with no appetite for change of any sort. So, while they can concentrate on Rye, Battle and the less bellicose villages we can hardly expect their best efforts for this ungrateful town. Hence, perhaps, the daft waste of the Devonshire Square Piazza and the Colonnade proposal.

As a purely retirement town Bexhill will just slide further into failure and dereliction.

We need a local debate to see if that is what the majority want. With a radically different mandate, however, it is at least possible that the town could develop its commercial and tourist activities, providing life-blood for its future.

Short of building a theme park, the DLWP is the one magnet we have to attract significant numbers of visitors. Given a decent hotel and a selection of 'destination' restaurants and shops, we can keep them here long enough to spend a great deal more than all those locals who complain about the food and ticket prices at the DLWP!

The problem is that nobody in their right mind will build a top-class seaside hotel without a sea view. Save Our Seafront be damned, seafront space needs to be found for a good hotel.

In the cold light of day, the seafront is already marred by the awful amusement arcade, a succession of failing cafes and a low-budget floral effort, so the loss of a rather pathetic crazy golf course would seem a small sacrifice.

We also need a Tourist Information Centre for our B&Bs and smaller hotels.

So, let the forward-looking townsfolk take up the cudgels for change.

Who will set up a petition trolley in Devonshire Road? I'll be the first to sign it, and I'll build the website to gather support from the online community.

David Woolf

De La Warr Road

Half baked

Your Editorial Comment on the subject of Pebsham playpark and recreational areas sat nicely alongside the two full pages of readers' letters objecting to the way in which Rother Council, plus their "Consultant Camp-Followers", were attempting to impose their grandiose ideas on the council taxpayers.

With a few exceptions (Charles Clark and Stuart Earl come to mind), it seems that not too long after being elected our local politicians not only start to follow their "party line" in all matters, but look for the sort of self-glorification all too common in their national political leaders.

Advised by "experts," they come up with half baked ideas that will only involve Joe Public footing the bill! Frank Wood, in his letter agreed with the old saying," There are no group of people so consistently wrong as The Experts!

In a democratic society the remedy is easy: "You put them in, you get them out"! Sadly, only a small part of those entitled to vote do so, and those that do mostly vote on ingrained party lines.

Perhaps more of our concern should be on the very few people who, for various reasons, offer their services to elected positions.

Perhaps We get the Government that we deserve?

Dave Sully

York Road

Town vandals

I HAVE just returned to the town after some time away and am stunned to learn of the proposals by Rother Council to vandalise the Bexhill seafront, I can only conclude that a significant clique of councillors is in the grip of a manic affliction.

If I had to identify the temporary madness in question it would be a close cousin of St Vitus Dance - by the name of St Leonards Dance. This condition causes sufferers to cast envious, blinkered eyes to the east and is marked by futile attempts to imitate what the Joneses next door are doing. Our green-eyed councillors see the lorry-loads of euro-cash being dumped on St Leonards on Sea (and the reservoirs of distemper being slapped on the seafront facade) and greedily want to play the same game in their own little backwater.

But Bexhill is nothing like St Leonards and what may work in St Leonards will not work in Bexhill. To start with, there was no Decimus Burton in Bexhill and consequently no comparable unified development concept and little design consistency - not least because of the triumphantly discordant and dominant Pavilion. The town therefore does not lend itself to the type of imposed quick fix now being proposed. In the circumstances, I suggest the Council should remove its biassed blinkers and start taking a hard look at Bexhill itself - and not the towns down the coast.

KAY LEONARD

Little Common Road

Party poopers

HOW many people who are now worried about the seafront proposals are those very same people who last year voted this lot of councillors into office?

When will the electorate realise that the habit of simply voting in local elections for a political party that one has always supported, is no guarantee that the local representatives who are elected will listen to our views?

Local issues have nothing to do with national politics. We could do much worse than remember this when we next have the chance to vote.

Peter Webb

Glenleigh Park Road

Speak up

AS Observer readers will be aware, there are proposals being put forward by Rother District Council to change the centre and western areas of Bexhill seafront, including the Colonnade. These proposals are known as the "Next Wave".

Few residents will have seen the "Next Wave" presentation which has so far only been given to councillors and which explains these proposed changes. The estimated cost of these changes is 5.1million, 4.1million of which will come from Rother District Council's own funds. Now, however, the public is to be given its own opportunity to see this presentation at the Town Forum on Tuesday, September 23 in the Community Centre, Shepherds Close, Little Common, at 6.30pm.

It's your seafront and your money, and your views are important. This meeting is open to everyone and will be your last chance to comment or ask questions before your councillors vote on these proposals.

JEAN BISHOP

The Committee of S.O.S. Save Our Seafront

Copse Road

Next wave

HAVING read all the letters regarding the proposed and to my mind misguided development of the seafront by Nextwave, may I suggest that they have a very serious re-think of this project as the next new wave may well be a tsunami of public opinion and we all know what the aftermath of those are.

Have the council not learnt anything from the debacle of Devonshire Square and the surrounding area?

If not it is time they did.

H. R. Lloyd-Jones

De La Warr Road

Like warriors

THE ill advised planning application by the council officers to spend 3.5m of our tax reserves on six probably unlettable shops and restaurants on the Colonnade, at the mercy of wind and waves, has raised many hackles in the council chamber. I witnessed last week a planning meeting that demonstrated the mammoth struggle between many of our local councillors and the aggressive ranks of the non-elected and highly paid council officers who seem to be trying to turn this town into a poor man's Hastings, and ignore the taxpayers.

They angrily tried to force the councillors to approve this scheme but the councillors fought back bravely. The Mayor Cllr Douart and Cllrs Williams, Hughes, Lendon and Vereker fought like warriors and deserve our thanks.

Consequently the decision has been deferred again until Monday, September 29 at 6.30pm in the Town Hall. Anyone who wants to come is welcome. Don't let these enormous decision be made in secret, make sure we get the sort of town we need and that our money is used intelligently. Come and support the councillors who are fighting for us.

See you on the 29th at the Town Hall.

JACKIE BIALESKA

Cantelupe Road

Listed request

IN preparing the Colonnade for retail development, the district council have paid no regard to the policies of their District Local Plan, approved only a few years ago.

Policy EM13 states that "shopping and related commercial development shall be focussed within the main shopping area of Bexhill....as defined on the Proposals Map...." and Policy EM14 states that "further significant retail development will only be permitted outside the town centre....as defined on the Proposals Map where a quantative and qualitative need for the development is demonstrated."

The Colonnade is well outside the main shopping area of Bexhill as defined on the Proposals Map (Policy BX5), and absolutely no assessment of need has been made. The application, therefore, clearly conflicts with the district council's own policies and should be refused. In order to remind the district council of the attractive character and architectural quality of the Colonnade, I have submitted an application to English Heritage for it to be Listed. I very much hope it will be granted.

Jack Seabrook

Richmond Avenue

Think back

JUST a thought . . . Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff did redesign the Colonnade area back in the 1930s but it was never built.

Apparently, it showed a two-storey pergola which enclosed the lawn area, an outside swimming pool and a pier. Plus a hotel and cinema.

If it was possible I think it would be a great idea to find a copy of these designs and compare them to what is happening now.

It would make an interesting feature.

Gail Plowman

Clock Tower Court

Bench despair

THE suggestion that the seats on West Parade should be replaced by steel benches fills me with despair. Steel benches I have seen elsewhere have no backrests, no armrests, are uncomfortably cold in winter, and extremely hot in sunny conditions. In other words, there is not a lot to recommend them. Additionally, they cost money, whereas the wooden seats donated in memory of departed ones do not.

If the councillors really believe the public are in favour of this retrograde step, I would suggest they buy a steel bench with their own money, place it on the West Parade, and then let the citizens of Bexhill decide.

D. G. BINES

Eastergate

Costly scheme

CONGRATULATIONS to those councillors who supported the proposal to refer back the over-ambitious Colonnade scheme projected by the officers. Quite apart from advocating such a costly scheme, at a time when council tax payers are being obliged to 'tighten our belts,' is ludicrous enough, but to include in the scheme the provision of shops, when so many shops are closing down, to say nothing of the failure to let shops in the block of flats facing the putting green, is folly to say the least.

I feel that Cllr Lendon put his finger on the pulse with his suggestion that we, the council tax payers, be given a preliminary view of the proposed scheme. Who knows, we might provide some more constructive suggestions.

A. BROWN

Ninfield Road

Animal logic

AM I alone or have others been struck by the similarity of the current sea front debacle and George Orwell's Animal Farm? So some councillors are more equal than others and we the Council Tax payers are expected to play the horse. How sad that in this town democracy seems to be a forgotten or disregarded word and certainly not a principle with which to govern. Since the inception of the cabinet style of local government we seem to have lost the right as tax payers to any voice in community affairs. Well so it may seem, but please remember we are also voters.

As a long time promenade and Colonnade trader I can only support the many well documented technical difficulties the proposed development would face. I am not however surprised that no solutions have been forthcoming. How much easier, like national government, it is to just throw money at a problem! Do we really need another costly council white elephant?

Surely no further proof than the Observer's report of the planning committee's meeting is needed to prove the Orwellian nature of our local authority. Is it a deliberate oversight on their part that the overall policy of being a residential town by the sea hasn't been mentioned? It has been in place so many years that the very nature of the town has changed. There are now few hotels, limited entertainment for visitors, poor wet weather facilities, inadequate toilets and no encouragement to coaches or trippers, indeed no People's Palace! Let us not therefore compare ourselves with Eastbourne and Hastings both resort towns. Long ago Dr. Beeching removed our only direct rail service, and today many years on our rail and road links are still slow and ponderous reducing our ability to earn or attract. A council survey showed the vast majority of our visitors are family oriented. Our biggest asset is not the De La Warr Pavilion but the sea and a safe unspoilt front. I am proud of our Edwardian heritage but by no means a diehard. Put forward ideas to attract residents and businesses to fill our many empty shops, improve our toilets, footpaths, parking and facilities for our youths, fight the water authority for clean unpolluted seawater in fact revert to priority spending and do a few things the town really needs. You would not only improve the town but earn the tax payers' support and even respect. But you never will on irresponsible spending on an ill-conceived seafront development.

F. CHAPLIN

Pembury Grove

Voice denied

THE decision of the Head of Planning to prematurely end debate by the planning committee on the Colonnade development and refer the application to full council suggests that:-

* There were difficulties in answering questions asked by councillors.

* The debate was going in a direction that was not acceptable to him or the officers.

* By referring the planning application to the main council meeting, debate would be restricted because of the different rules governing that debate, and that in the interim councillors could be pressurised.

* Normally planning applications are fully discussed by the Planning Committee and members reservations addressed at that stage.

This decision by Mr Hickling, a non-elected officer of the council, not only subordinated local councillors, and negated local democracy, but also prevented charge paying members of the public listening to a debate which was of major local interest.

S. A. BOYD

Former chairman, Rother District Council

Great Spin

THE Big Spin event at the De La Warr Pavilion was a fantastic end to the summer holidays, with great weather and hundreds of people turning out to watch local young people showing off their BMX and skateboard skills, as the photos in the Observer showed so well. I wanted to add a big thank you to all the young people who volunteered as stewards on the day. The involvement of young people is always a vital part of the event and although we weren't able to build our own ramps this year, our volunteers worked hard to make sure the day ran smoothly. So thanks to all of you and we look forward to developing ideas with you for next year.

POLLY GIFFORD

Head of Education

De La Warr Pavilion

Waste wait

JUST over four weeks ago residents of flats 1-9 Ewell Court in Sutton Place phoned the Customers Service Department at the Bexhill Town Hall to report that the contractors had not collected their recycled waste paper and that a considerable amount of paper had accumulated and was becoming a fire and health hazard.

In reply we were informed by the Customer Services Department that this matter would be sorted within 72 hours and provide us with reference number 57429 as proof of our call.

Over the following four weeks a further four calls (one to the chief executive's secretary) was made to the Town Hall reporting that the paper had still not been collected. Yesterday (Tuesday) we were informed that the contractors had assured the Town Hall that the paper would be collected before the close of business but no collection has been made making seven weeks since we last had a collection.

It would appear that this contractor is quite happy to ignore requests from the council to attend to this matter and treat both the residents and the council with utter contempt.

E. R. RANDALL, MBE

Sutton Place

The hoarders

WITH construction workers laid off, with plant and machinery idle, and with stockpiles of materials, it is evidently not a shortage of labour or capital that is causing distress in the building industry. The problem is that land hoarding and land speculation have driven the price beyond a point at which profitable operation is not possible, not only immediately but in the foreseeable future too.

Against this background, it is instructive to do a calculation to see how much land is needed to house everybody comfortably. If there is a population of 60 million in the United Kingdom, and we had a density of eight houses per acre, four persons per house (which would give a very much more spacious environment than usual) one could if one wished, house the entire population of the United Kingdom very decently within a circle having a radius of less than 31 miles, leaving the whole of the rest of the land area available for agriculture, industry, commerce and leisure.

There need be no foolish talk of overcrowding.

Land prices have become unacceptably high, and are encouraging too much land development and redevelopment on the most expensive sites, forcing otherwise viable businesses to close when rents are reviewed or when the owner simply decides to take his profit. Land speculation is undermining applications of labour and capital which are fundamentally economic, and sites are being moved in to uses which are justified only by illusory expectations.

LAURENCE KEELEY

Herstmonceux

Flopsy's back

OUR granddaughter Millie and her teddy Flopsy have just enjoyed their first week at Little Common School ...

until she suddenly realised that on her return home Flopsy wasn't with her...

Everywhere was searched, schoolbags, car, Mummy's handbag you name it! Millie rang us up to see if she was with us, sadly she wasn't. What to do on a Friday evening? Panic.

I rang a lady who I have made friends with over the last few months, through Bexhill Freecycle, Olwyn, who works at Little Common School.

I contacted Olwyn for some advice. She went further than that, due to her and the caretaker, Flopsy was found and was even taken to Millie.

One little girl is very happy and will sleep much better now she has her best friend back safe and sound. There are some lovely, genuine people and Olwyn is one good example, so, once again thank you.

Jane and Marc Searston

Turkey Road

UN display

MAY I urge any of your readers who have even the slightest interest in international affairs to spare a few minutes to look at the United Nations exhibition at Parkhurst Hall tomorrow?

A free show, it will be open from 11am till 3pm.

At 11.30, there will be a docu-drama to explain the UN's work; and, at 12.30pm, an optional ploughman's lunch for 2.50. Between 2pm and 3pm, we'll discuss how ordinary people can relate to an influence the UN.

Both leaders of the event, Sheila Kesby and Nigel Gregory, will be coming from Canterbury, but grew up in Bexhill. Come along and make their return worthwhile.

Allan Bula

Branch secretary

Bexhill and Hastings UN Association

Generous gift

THE Dial-a-Ride Service, run by the Bexhill Caring Community, would like to thank The Bexhill 100 Motoring Club for their generous donation of 1000 towards the running of the Dial-a-Ride Service.

This was presented at a very enjoyable awards ceremony at the Cooden Beach Hotel on Sunday evening, September 7. The Dial-a-Ride Service is operated for residents who have difficulty in accessing public transport services in and around Bexhill.

The drivers, Peter and John, work very hard to provide a very efficient service backed up by Frances who takes all the bookings.

Whilst residents pay a donation of 6 per return trip, within Bexhill, this is not enough to cover the annual costs of running the bus, due to increased fuel charges and other costs, so to receive a donation of this size is very welcome.

The Bexhill 100 Motoring club are to be congratulated for running various events within the town and for very generously donating funds to local Bexhill charities.

Our thanks once again to the members.

MARGARET VON SPEYR

Manager

Bexhill Caring Community

Motor cash

ON behalf of the committee and members of the Bexhill branch of the East Sussex Disability Association I would like to thank the Bexhill 100 Motoring Club for the very generous donation of 1,000 given to our club.

This is greatly appreciated and will enable us to continue to help in many ways our 191 members, and to take out each month those members (now over 81) who are able to join our outings, some of whom would not otherwise get out.

MARY PLUCKNETT

Co-chairman

Bexhill Branch

East Sussex Disability Association

For Pinkie

I WOULD like to thank all those dear friends and relations of Pinkie who donated so generously to St Michael's Hospice-at-Home: whose nurses made Pinkie's last few days so peaceful in the home she loved.

A total of 1155 was collected, yet another indication of how much she was loved. On behalf of St Michael's Hospice-at-Home, I thank you.

JIM HILLIER

Ninfield Road