We've lost the flag
BEXHILL'S already increasingly controversial seafront will also be a less colourful place this summer. Only the Union Flag and occasionally 'no inflatables' warning pennants and the Sailing and RAFA Club ensigns will fly from its flagpoles. For the town has lost its coveted national Quality Coast Award given by the Keep Britain Tidy Organisation and given to resorts to acknowledge that they have clean and safe beaches. Cooden Beach and Norman's Bay have also lost their awards.
Added to Camber and Winchelsea beaches, also under their supervision, this gives Rother District Council the dubious honour in East Sussex of having been stripped of five of the six former distinctions gained by resorts locally in 2010. Could there be a management message here?
Perhaps to compensate for the visual loss of the flags, West Parade promenaders this year can give each other cheery new waves each time they pass the delightful so-called shelters and other improvements currently adding so much to the attractions of the now officially downgraded beach area.
MICHAEL GREEN
Marina Arcade
Bexhill-on-Sea