A helping hand for Sidley and Pebsham

It's part of a scheme to put a community action plan into place involving 15 Rother parishes as well as the two Bexhill wards.

Local action plans are seen as a means of harnessing local knowledge and expertise and of working in partnership with the local authority and service providers such as fire and police to overcome community problems.

Examples could range from self-help anti-litter schemes to cutting speeding, improving transport and coordinating emergency planning.

Encouraging progress in setting up the plan has attracted the attention of the Government Office of the South East.

Local Strategic Plans are a government requirement.

Yet the only plan in East Sussex to receive funding is Hastings, a designated neighbourhood renewal area.

Rother leader Cllr Graham Gubby brokered a countywide agreement with fire police and the county council that 22 per cent of the "windfall" revenue generated when local authorities were given freedom to reduce the Council Tax concession on second homes could be ring-fenced for the purpose.

Though the county and police elements of this funding may now be under threat, within Rother the deal meant that over 120,000 was available for "short-term wins" in the first year.

Now the emphasis is shifting from short to long-term planning.

The results of Rother's "tell us what you think" survey on local needs formed the basis of a draft management plan and are now enshrined in a full Rother Community Plan.

As chairman of Rother's local strategic partnership, Cllr Gubby is delighted that local service providers such as the police and fire service are fully involved with the local strategic plan and now, as the project develops, with the setting up of local action plans.

He says: "In the first year we allocated 120,000 to local projects. Much of that was to prove to people that the local strategic plan can be effective; secondly to raise the profile of the local strategic plan and thirdly to provide 'quick wins' as a means of engaging other sections of the community in the LSP process.

"What I did last year was to convince the LSP board that they should look at doing long-term things.

"What we agreed to do is for the next two years is devote the whole of the second homes 120,000 to community action plans."

In Sidley, a start has already been made under Sidley Community Association chairman John Izzard.

Ward councillor Charles Clark is leading a similar project at Pebsham which, deliberately, is being phased three months behind Sidley..

Rother LSP coordinator Scott Lavocah says: "We decided to provide support by funding two development workers to give assistance.

"We are hoping that it will be a two-year programme of funding."

Sidley and Pebsham are seen as "natural communities" with their own local identity and individual needs.

Cllr Gubby adds: "What we hope to do is create a sense of community, a feeling of civic pride."