Your letters - August 20, 2010

The fine art of fine art appreciation

IN YOUR letters page last week (August 13) John Hill utters a frequently heard - and deeply ignorant - rant against modern art, which he clearly doesn't understand, his pedestrian and unfunny smugness blocking his path to possible enlightenment.

Further, as any self-respecting sesquipedalian ought to know, the word floccinaucinihilipilification actually represents what his unfortunate letter attempts to do - 'valuing something as worthless'; it most certainly does not mean 'bric-a-brac'.

All Mr Hill needs to do is to educate himself a little and as a result avoid attending art exhibitions that might be beyond his comprehension.

His attitude to the name of the artist in question should not really have escaped your editorial attention either - the fact that Mr Hill cannot pronounce a Japanese person's name does not invalidate that name.

I suggest that he sticks to what he knows and understands - car boot sales, where he might be lucky enough to pick up an Athena print. After all, to paraphrase John Cleese in an excellent Monty Python sketch, Mr Hill obviously "doesn't know much about art but he knows what he likes". Perhaps he ought to keep his self-satisfied, ill-informed 'opinions' to himself?

Denis Delahunt

Mitten Road, Bexhill-on-Sea

Our, very splendid, house of fun

IN THE past, I have attended many splendid and varied productions at our White Rock Theatre, however, last Thursday's performance of Our House must rank as one of the best I've ever seen!

This was better than any West End production and the highly-talented cast of young people, mainly 'home-grown', worked extremely hard to bring amazing entertainment to the Hastings stage.

134 young people participated: 40 from Hastings, 49 from St Leonards, eight from Battle, eight from Bexhill, four from Catsfield, three from Rye, four from Sedlescombe, five from Eastbourne, four from Lydd, one from Netherfield, three from Westfield, two from Winchelsea, one from Uckfield and two from further afield, with 20 being fully sponsored and a further six part-sponsored.

Very many congratulations to you all for such an enjoyable and memorable evening and also to your director, producer and all involved in this superb production by the White Rock Youth Theatre.

Councillor Alan Roberts

Deputy Mayor of Hastings

Thanks for help with charity craft fair

I WOULD like to express appreciation and thanks to Roger and Cherie Cramp, Sue Standivan and other workers at Redcoat Fruit Farm and Shop, Catsfield, for their tireless efforts in helping raise funds for our charity, Brownbread Horse Rescue.

This last Saturday they held a Craft Fair in aid of our charity. It was very well organised and attracted a steady stream of visitors.

They raised 350 which will make a great difference to our ability to prevent equine abuse and care for our recent influx of neglected horses. Thank you Redcoats and visitors for your generosity.

Tony Smith

Trustee, Brownbread Horse Rescue,

Ashburnham

Rye under siege by 'The Rye Army'

Having seen off the French, kept the Germans at bay, never has this town (Rye) been more under siege since those wars than it is today.

The enemy within, feral unemployed yobs who are destroying our town with vandalism, thieving and unsociable behaviour. They are known as the Rye Army, it is a pity that we could not send them to Afghanistan, perhaps then they would see the errors of their way.

Many people in the town do not bother anymore to report incidents to the local police. All you get from them is a crime number and then it is forgotten about. Sadly with no inspector based in the town there is no leadership at Rye Police Station anymore, just glorified community wardens patrolling our streets, who the yobs laugh at. But at least they make good Traffic Wardens.

Name and address supplied

Rye.

MP should move to improve A21 road

AN open letter in response to Mr Greg Barker's request to the public to assist the Government in deciding which cuts the public prefer:

Dear Mr Barker

Following on from Prime Minister David Cameron's absolutely right determination to achieve a more acceptable level of national debt, and your own invitation to your constituents to suggest preferred cuts, there will be very many who wish to seek your support in cutting the number of road deaths and injuries as the direct result of the gross shortage of capital investment in the key road of the area, the notorious A21.

With the death rate so high and the number of accidents increasing it seems as I travel that road frequently, it is no surprise that the county councils are in despair. Can we please be assured that the new Government will live up to its responsibilities – which the last certainly did not – to reinstate the improvements to this key route through Kent and East Sussex, as it is the only way to get a sea change in the status of Hastings and open up this part of the county to better commerce and employment?

My great, great grandfather twice weekly ran a wagon from Hastings to the Star Inn at The Borough, taking most of each day. Some of the road is almost as narrow and winding today as it was in the 1840s. And we are less than 50 miles from the Capital City! Is this really the way the less endowed communities have to live and survive in rural Britain? Certainly Hastings has had little incentive to improve its infrastructure and its ability to attract new business, employment and new housing.

Between Robertsbridge and Whatlington the carnage has been horrific of late. We see the road closed outside the John's Cross pub with a depressing regularity and for hours on end. But look at the road north and south and the disasters are equally bad.

The reality is that the cost to the community in terms of surgical treatment and nursing of the injured, the costs of repair to vehicles and the impact on commerce and the community due to the congestion or major diversion each accident causes on the A21 is a major contributor to unacceptable demands on the national public purse.

Mr Barker, it makes most obvious and compelling sense to press the Chancellor to accept the realities of these cuts and to invest in a much improved strategic route to achieve substantial reductions in hospital care and congestion. May we please count on your driving for these cuts?

Richard Tilden Smith

Mountfield

Lion Street plays vital community role

Like many others, I wish to see the Further Education Centre on Lion Street remain available for classes and other community uses; it is an invaluable facility at the heart of Rye and any thought of converting it to non-community purposes and depriving those who live in and near Rye of its use shows a lamentable lack of awareness of the town's needs.

Besides its obvious use for classes of various kinds, the Lion Street venue is also the perfect place for events such as the recent launch of the 2010 Rye Festival and we are looking forward to visiting the annual Tuesday Painters exhibition currently showing there.

While the Community Centre is adequate for large meetings (e.g. Film Club, U3A, Friday market, performances) it is not suitable for many other types of activity which Rye should offer. A major advantage of the F E Centre is the fact it offers different sized rooms and appropriate facilities for a wide range of courses, meetings and exhibitions - a large airy room with windows that open and close for e.g. pilates or a large art history class featuring slide presentations, smaller rooms for smaller groups, a room equipped for computer classes, a room for socialising at break time, a convenient kitchen, appropriate toilet facilities and so on.

This flexibility makes it a much more attractive venue for many purposes than the Community Centre which has, essentially, just the one large room. There is much more demand (and potential demand) for daytime space than that venue could cope with anyway—and many of us will only attend daytime classes which knocks out Rye College to take the spillover.

Rye College and the School Creative Centre are also important venues for the community, but neither of these can provide the particular spaces and facilities and 'atmosphere' so valued at the FE Centre, let alone at the required times. In summary. the town needs the FE Centre as well as these other venues! For some, such as myself, courses at the Lion Street FE Centre are the only ones it is possible to attend. For me, time is a major reason -- its accessibility means I can fit classes in amongst other work and community commitments; for others its being within easy walking distance or near the High Street make this their first or only choice.

Having said that, I have had/have at present, at the two FE Centre classes I attend, companions who live in Winchelsea, Icklesham, Romney Marsh villages , even Tenterden and Appledore: they too like the 'atmosphere' there well enough to make the trip each week and also favour this venue over the so-called alternatives. The FE Centre obviously appeals to a wide range of individuals for a variety of reasons. Robert, the capable and friendly caretaker. Is another FE Centre 'plus'.

My fellow classmates and I are pleased to note (in the Fixtures) the list of WEA classes which will be offered at the FE Centre from September (though regrettably neither the Lion Street venue for these or the classes we regularly attend are mentioned on the survey form!). Our hope is that an even wider range will be provided here in future.

This deservedly well-loved building could, if properly managed, be fully booked for classes, meetings of voluntary organisations, community events and so on, day and evening, and out of term time affordable rates encouraging full use and therefore economic viability.

Having spent some 50 years in a range of roles to do with educational provision for all ages in a variety of places I cannot help but view the continued and expanded use of the FE Centre as an essential ingredient in providing 'quality education for adults in Rye'.

We trust that Hastings College, with its fine new campus, and once aware of the depth of feeling on this issue in Rye, will direct its energies to pursuit of other means of solving its financial problems so that the small town of Rye, far from being robbed of its FE Centre, can make full use of it for educational purposes for decades to come.

Jean Floyd

Rye

Let's identify Rye green areas

At a recent meeting held to update Rye residents on recent changes to the planning system, and what may be included in the proposed Decentralisation and Localism Bill, it was said that the government may bring forward new measures to protect green areas that the local community sees as important. Rye is still fortunate in having a lot of green space leading into the heart of the town. It is yet another reason why Rye is so special and a lovely place to live.

It would be useful to have a list of green areas that we, the residents think of as important and should not be developed.

I would put forward, amongst many others:

1. The school field to the north of the old school site and to the south of the new Rye Primary School and the Love Lane allotments,

2. The Tillingham Field,

3. The marshy area between the Leisure Centre carpark and the aforementioned school field.

4. The field along the east side of The Grove

5. The allotments

Do others agree, and which sites would they propose?

Rosalind Collier

Love Lane, Rye