Your letters - January 2

Devonshire Square - time for a re-think

WHILE generally agreeing with correspondents who feel the Devonshire Square revamp leaves a lot to be desired, the answer is NOT to return it to car parking as such.

Those with even moderate memories will recall the pollution resulting from the time when it WAS used for parking.

It wasn't just the emissions from the vehicles that did manage to find a space - and then overstayed.

It was the filth spewing from the exhausts of the ones waiting, one after another, with engines running, for someone to pull out. Congestion reigned.

This scenario was repeated over and over through the day. six days a week. And while there were repeated promises from officialdom of action to stop these anti-social pests, nothing ever was done.

At least Gubby's balls drove them away.

What is needed is a complete rethink of Devonshire Square and its purpose.

Starting, I suggest, with a sustained campaign to have the rail station entrance moved to the square, where it should be.

A new station could have a parking area built over the top, so benefitting both rail users and those wanting to shop in the town centre.

And there would be space for a rail/bus interchange, similar to the one at Hastings station although, obviously, on a smaller scale.

Indeed, a station entrance here would decant potential shoppers right into the town centre - with obvious benefits - instead of continuing to leave them in a virtual no-man's land.

As for the post office, it needs shifting. It has been obvious for a long time that it's in the wrong place and is too small, especially now that we have ever fewer POs thanks to the anti-people policies of our appalling excuse for a government.

You could always rebuild the present station entrance as a post office, which would be adjacent to the new parking area over the station ... so solving the complaints from users of the present PO that there's nowhere to park except on double yellow lines.

Anyone else got thoughts on this?

Sinclair Robieson

Marina, Bexhill

Bring back parking

OURSELVES and many of our friends agree wholeheartedly with Anthony Shuttleworth's letter last week - get rid of those ridiculous balls in Devonshire Square, which is never used for any events, and bring back the parking slots.

Robert & Joey Mitchell

Cooden Sea Road

We need link road

LINK Road, Observer readers' vote. How interesting that the majority in favour of this vital scheme plunged from well over 90% the day before the vote closed to just 59% in the published result! Hmm.

Particularly so, when the earlier figure agreed with the support which we obtained on the street survey (more than 10,000 signatures) about a decade ago in favour of the original. but sadly aborted, Bexhill-Hastings, dual-carriageway, bypass scheme.

Much needless pollution has been produced during this lost decade by stationary or crawling traffic on the A259, not to mention uncounted wasted time, missed appointments, family misery and lost tourist revenue. (Oh yes, people do avoid visiting this area at all costs because of the dreadful roads), De La Warr Pavilion please note.

Now, the single-carriageway Link Road, will obviously not solve all these problems and offers no benefit at all at Little Common, where the roundabout will continue to be a major bottleneck.

It will, however, facilitate access to the A21 and A259 East, in the latter case without having to travel along Hastings seafront.

Also, and quite importantly to the elderly residents of Bexhill, it will enable ambulances to arrive at the hopelessly-located Conquest Hospital before we expire.

There is a tiny minority, but vociferous, anti-road lobby which would have us all walking, waiting at bus stops all weather (surely a case of optimism over reality), riding pushbikes, or staying at home. But for the majority of us this is either impractical or irrelevant.

We do need the Link Road and it would be helpful if press coverage reflected the views of the vast majority of Bexhill and Hastings residents, rather than the minority anti-road lobby, who by rejecting the bypass have led us into this mess in the first place.

Glyn Chave

1066 Road Improvement Group

Memorial benches are on the move - sadly!

THE council has now begun the process for the removal of the memorial benches on the western end of the promenade.

I was very suspicious when there was no question about these benches in the recent council "consultation". Maybe the council would rather not know whether you would like to keep these benches or not. Indeed in the council's document they were described as "street clutter" - how insensitive is that? Does the council not realise that these benches represent what is so special about Bexhill? They are about the affection that the people of this close knit community feel for each other.

They are not part of a playground for "whizz kid" designers to fiddle with.

In practical terms, and in these "green" recycling times, together with the delicate global financial situation, why destroy benches that only need a little care and repair.

Also these benches are tried and tested and people find them comfortable so why replace them with some fanciful "ergonomically designed" structures which might not suit our less than perfectly shaped bodies, and probably cost a fortune.

And their destruction will not create "jobs for youngsters".

Benefactors who donated the benches will be getting letters from the council but they should ignore them. No-one can force them to have their plaques transferred to benches not even yet designed.

The council appear to be rushing the matter.

Luckily there is a question on the street trolley forms about the benches. So far 98% of people have voted to keep them, only 2% gave no answer. You can have your say too. Just fill in a form and we will do the rest,

JACKIE BIALESKA

Vox Pop

Cantelupe Road

Cram as many homes in as you can!

THE council's policy on housing seems to be to cram as much, mostly blocks of flats, into as small a space as possible. The block of 66 flats to be completed at the sea end of Sackville Road is just one example. Just how many of these flats are expected to be occupied as main homes is not clear.

What appears to be important is that they help the council to meet targets imposed by central and regional government.

Of no importance is our Edwardian heritage and the views of the residents of our town. For how long is this cramming to continue?

What do we want for our seafront? Basically, the consensus of opinion seems to be support for the rowing club, restoration and maintenance of the Colonnade (but not development), and of existing toilets, shelters and benches. And I am sure people would want the good work done by the ground staff in grasscutting and planting of floral beds to continue, as well as the best efforts of the rubbish collectors in keeping the seafront looking as neat and tidy as possible.

Sea levels are forecast to rise in future, so is there any sense in the planned developments at the Colonnade? There are enough places to get refreshments already. So is the council still determined to needlessly spend most of its financial reserves at a time when the years ahead are expected to be tough?

If the council thinks it is able to defy the sea at the Colonnade, then it should manage the less difficult task of providing parking at the railway station. The council leader at the end of a reply to a questioner says 'I understand there is free onstreet parking around the station'. How nice to be so aloof and detached from the problem, but I suggest he tries it out. He may find that it is not quite so easy as he thinks.

J.M.I.LEWIS

Bexhill

A nation in southern Africa

A NATION in southern Africa will be the subject of Bexhill and Hastings UN Association's first free public meeting of 2009.

Rev Christopher Hopkins, of Peasmarsh, Rye, will ask - Can the legacy of the British in Bechuanaland guide the UN? Land-locked, diamond-rich Bechuanaland was a British protectorate until it became the Republic of Botswana in 1966.

The talk will start at 11am on Saturday January 10 in the Garden Room at Sackville Road Methodist church (enter through the gate in the fence to the left of the main church doors). The Room will be open and coffee available from 10.30am.

ALAN BULA,

brnach secretary Bexhill and Hastings UNA,

Wickham Avenue

New Link Road will create gridlock

AS a Bexhill resident, I am very concerned that the proposed new Link Road will create periods of gridlock in Bexhill.

This would be due to the limited throughput of the Link Road junction with the A259. For westbound traffic following what will become the main coastal route, there would be a right-hand turn onto the Little Common Road, controlled by traffic lights.

At the moment only about four vehicles get to turn right at each cycle of the lights, so the modified junction could not possibly take the extra 22,100 vehicles per day that the County Council reports predict. I fear that there will not be land space for a filter lane to turn right, which would need to start north of Sidley.

Without long filter lanes, all traffic regardless of route, will be locked into the same long queue to the traffic lights.

When a main route has to take a right turn at a busy crossroad, the result is long queues. At Polegate there is a long filter lane for westbound traffic to turn right onto the A27 and this junction is not even a crossroad. I have seen the new environmental statement and drawings of the Link Road and they do not show details of filter lanes at each point on the Link Road.

To make things worse the London Road is already very busy and the plans call for all of this traffic heading for Bexhill to queue to try to merge with the Link Road at a T-junction, within the queue for the main traffic lights. Residents of northern Bexhill will be affected by long delays every time we drive down to Bexhill centre. Other traffic wanting to go north onto the London Road would queue on the Link Road immediately after the main traffic lights to turn right across the other queues, potentially holding up the eastbound Link Road flow. The citizens of Bexhill can expect serious traffic congestion and it will start when the Link Road is being built through our housing estates.

I would hope that the planners have used computer simulation or mathematical analysis to quantify future traffic congestion and determine if the proposed plans are viable and worthy of millions of pounds of Government funding. We need to know the effect that these proposals will have on traffic queuing times and queues lengths for all routes through the junction at the Bexhill end of the proposed Link Road. The answers have yet to be revealed.

R. CREES

Bexhill

Love sent - with a tinge of sadness

WHEN I sent my love to every reader a couple of weeks ago, it was with a tinge of sadness.

I felt I had to sacrifice a little of the real me, to be able to reach out and not offend anyone.

Jade Parker asks, 'Can I have some of whatever he is on?' and I have to answer in truth 'yes.' I am on a diet of Bread and Water.

The Bread is found in the Bible at John 6:35 when Jesus says, 'I am the bread of Life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.'

The Water is found in the next chapter at John 7: 37-38 where Jesus says, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.'

I admit I'm not very clever. Many will have seen the bible message in what I originally wrote and I take no credit. Jade you live in the parish of the church I attend (St Augustine's).

You have also received three Christian leaflets I have delivered in the last year and will be receiving more in 2009.

All you need to do is respond.

God bless.

PAUL MINTER

Gunters Lane

Councillors with their heads in the cloud

IT was intriguing to note that the subject of retractable awnings on the Devonshire Arms provoked such an intense level of debate at the planning meeting on December 18.

Whilst rejection was recommended by the officers on aesthetic grounds (a bit rich considering the twin carbuncles at the top of Sackville Road), the committee clearly saw it differently.

They discussed the appearance of the awnings and the need to retract them when the pub is closed. They worried about the safety of councillors who walk about with their heads in the cloud - definitely a 'diversity' issue there.

They acknowledged that the Devonshire Balls-Up is an arid wasteland which does nothing for the town. More radically, there was a suggestion that the committee should be trying to 'help' businesses. Heady stuff this. Unfortunately, in all this cerebral activity they appear to have missed a very pertinent point. The great majority of these awnings will be on a four story north-facing wall which will never see the sun so there is no need to shade customers from it!

Does this mean that F. Forte Developments are wasting their money? Not at all. A goodly number of their customers smoke and they might just go home if they are get wet standing outside indulging in their addiction.

Now they can have purpose-made smoking areas. Of course, had Forte pointed out the real reason for the awnings the measure may not have been greeted so favourably but the myth of customers gaining shade from the sun was sufficient to confuse the committee and send them off in other directions.

It occurs to me that the planning committee could do with some training in lateral thinking so I have devised two questions to get them started.

1.How many ADDITIONAL tourists will be tempted to travel to Bexhill in order to sit in seafront shelters which closely resemble Public Lavatories?

2.How many Troglodytes are required to provide an economic return on 5million of Council Tax payer's money?

F. WOOD

Old Orchard Road

Eastbourne

Pay nurses a better wage

I AM an ex-staff nurse having worked for many years in the children's unit of the Conquest Hospital, now retired. I endorse Christina Burton's comments (letters).

With the best will in the world, we are only-human, therefore being expected to work on a normal rota is enough, to put people in a situation where they are pushed beyond limits is appalling. Illness is no time-keeper!

I know we all have roles to do, but why as in the older times can't we see all hands on deck in a crisis? There are not enough caring staff there for patient care. Legally we are all in line to be sued if we put a foot wrong,

Roll up your sleeves Admin, come onto the shop floor and help, as you did in times gone by, while the crisis is on.

Then pay nurses a better wage - perhaps we'll get through. I wonder?

I see my friends almost collapsing from exhaustion as their dedication to work pushes them on in a situation that is impossible for them,

One hundred per cent care? We are lucky to receive half of that. Nurses, doctors and all carers are not robots.

PENNY ELDRIDGE

Retired staff nurse

Pine Corner

Gordon Brown takes us for fools

GORDON Brown takes us for fools, trying to "con" us into going on mad spending sprees with the little money we have left to boost the economy he has wrecked.

Five Bishops have quite rightly condemned his immoral tactics and blasted Labour for being "beguiled by money" and being "morally corrupt".

Not surprisingly, Labour sources, instead of taking the criticism on board, call the Bishops out of touch. Just like they tryto deny that immigration,racial tension, crime, violence and murdersare now out of control.

Labour keeps trying to wriggle off the hook with sleaze and spin, while causing the country to be engulfed by debt and destruction. But we are not daft enough to vote them into office again.

Gordon is up to his neck in the Brown stuff, yet hewill carry on blaming others until his head is fully covered in the muck.

TONY FLOOD,

Brisbane Quay,

Eastbourne

No forgiveness from the Israelis

THE Palestinians' crime is to live in Palestine. And the Israelis have never forgiven them for it.

The Israelis' claim to Palestine rests on the word of their God, who promised the Israelites a land "flowing with milk and honey.

The Israelites duly invaded and effected a partial and tenuous occupation. They then split into the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea, which, after many misfortunes, disappeared from history 2,500 years ago.

The Israelis have no right to Palestine or Palestinian land. But until the international community exposes the Israelis' untenable position and acts accordingly there will be no peace.

STEPHEN JACKSON

Second Avenue

Poor resource planning at the Conquest

With regard to the Conquest Hospital being in crisis, (Observer website) I think the problem stems as much from poor resource planning as much as the volume of admissions.

My former husband, who has cancer, was admitted on Boxing Day and had to spend two days on the Medical Assessment Unit with only palliative care, as there is no proper weekend / holiday cover provided by specialist doctors who are able to make decisions as to treatment and ward allocation.

This blocks beds in the MAU and slows down the care and treatment process. My former husband was moved from Bexhill Hospital and the duty staff and locum doctors at the Conquest, in addition to being at a loss as how to deal with him, were not passed his full medication records, there was no continuity of care, so vital antibiotics which he should have had were not given. I had to inform staff as to his condition, the nature of his infection, and the name of his specialist.

If shops can ensure that there is a staff rota to ensure proper cover at weekends, why do hospitals have to rely on a scant number of staff, often non-specialised, rather than make sure that there is adequate cover and treatment available at all times?

Doctors and consultants are paid handsomely, so surely missing a few weekends should be no problem. Alas for the NHS pen pushers, illness does not conveniently occur on weekdays between 9 am and 5 pm.

Christina Burton

Springfield Road

St Leonards

We do not support this road scheme

HAVING read the article in last week's Bexhill Observer - Labour welcomes link road decision - I found the comment by Paul Cortnel utter rubbish; the population of Bexhill do not, as he says, overwhelmingly support this road scheme.

It may have been voted for by councillors but not by the population, it is clear that such a scheme like this would go to a public enquiry before a decision was made by the government. One thing the public of Bexhill and in particular those residents who live near this proposed road do know is it is not about the link road (it is only single lane after all and leading to another bottle neck at each end serving no purpose at all). No, the whole scheme is about the housing that will go with the road.

And as for the comment made by Michael Foster MP for Hastings and Rye that he hopes protesters will not spoil the planning, well he can think again because I am sure that this scheme and the countryside it will spoil will not get passed without the utmost respect for the people. There must be a government public enquiry and I am sure there will be before any decision is made.

M TAYLOR

Near Pebsham Lane

Bexhill

Make sure you shop local in 2009

Can we make 2009 the year that local people support local shops and businesses?

Otherwise I fear that this year could mark the end of the high street as we know it.

Bring back the war time spirit, let's all get together and keep this town of ours-ours

Not some faceless multi-national carbon copy of every high street in the UK.

Use your fruit and veg shop, use your local butcher, baker and any one else maker.

Come on every-one let's do our bit.

Stephanie Beale

Ninfield Road

Is prison a deterrent to wrong-doing?

I AM currently on remand here till 20-02-09.

It seems to me that the belief is that prison is a deterrent to wrong-doing. How come? I have not seen any campaign such as "Drink Drive."

Could this be relevant?

MARTIN HUMPAGE

HMP Lewes

Financial problems on a huge scale

I AM the founder of the Bankruptcy Association that I set up 25 years ago during 1983 to provide independent advice to people in debt and those facing bankruptcy. We helped tens of thousands of people deal with their financial problems during the last deep recession in the early 1990s. The financial problems that many people now face in 2009 are on a much greater scale.

We specialise in providing solid pragmatic and caring advice to individuals and businesses on a personal one to one basis. I am appalled by the current proliferation of debt management companies and so called 'free debt advice' services that are in fact bundling people into unsuitable voluntary arrangements that provide incredibly high fees for those companies that promote them. Individual voluntary arrangements '“ known as IVAs '“ often fail and become extended and painful bankruptcies.

Our Association also publishes a range of books on bankruptcy subjects including our most popular book called Bankruptcy Explained. Further details about our publications and our Association can be seen at our website at www.theba.org.uk or we can be contacted by telephone at 015394 69474. Alternatively details about us can be obtained by writing to us at our freepost address at: The Bankruptcy Association, FREEPOST LA118, 4 Johnson Close, LANCASTER, LA1 5BR.

JOHN McQUEEN

Founder, The Bankruptcy Association,

Don't cut back on public services

Lately I have been concerned by the total lack of knowledge from various 'armchair economists.'

I am a retired government bond manager with 20 years experience of both global economics and government debt research.

Hence I should have more insight than the average armchair pundit. In my view the global recession has been caused by a world wide credit crunch. Whereas the debacle of the early 1990's was purely due to Tory economic mismanagement. The criticism of this government's management of the public finances is totally unjustified. The government was prudent during the economic upswing of the late 1990's and this enabled the UK to ride out the global economic slowdown that ensued in the aftermath of the millennium. During this slowdown the government increased investment in the NHS and Education which had been woefully underinvested by previous Tory governments.

Despite this sensible public investment, the government's debt position is still lower as a percentage of GDP than most other G8 countries.

In terms of possible solutions, this is not the time to cut back on public services.

Edward Bacon

St Leonards