'˜Abandon hope all ye who enter'

As a Sidley dweller observing the recent Town Hall palavers about the ongoing Local Governance Review for Bexhill, I was particularly struck by references by Rother District Council members and officers to the chasm of social inequality separating the natives of downtown Sidley from the residents of upmarket Cooden (the emphasis is, apparently, on the second syllable).

We of the unwashed masses are aware that our lives must be brutish and short. We acknowledge that our roads are not worthy of maintenance or our schools worthy of investment.

We accept that such meagre public green spaces as we have left must necessarily remain wild and untended until they fall into the hands of profiteers. We expect to bear the brunt of unchecked property development in the “scramble for Bexhill” which passes for “regeneration”. In short, we know our place.

This being the case, I should like to make a suggestion.

I note that a road sign of suitably modest proportions, pointing the way to Sidley, has recently been erected beside the first set of traffic lights on the Northbound Combe Haven Way. My suggestion is that, for the avoidance of doubt, this sign be qualified by the caveat “Abandon hope all ye who enter here”.