Your Letters - June 8

Hidden chaos

WITH reference to the computer-created front page picture in the Observer (May 25) - what a tranquil scene it conjures up! What it does not show, however, is the chaos and tailback of traffic waiting to exit right on to the next A259 bottleneck that will now be relocated on to Little Common Road from Bexhill Road.

The truth is this new link road has nothing to do with relieving traffic congestion along the Bexhill Road but everything to do with releasing green field land for housing development. I would imagine the people who will eventually live in those new houses and work in the proposed factories will all be driving cars - thus ensuring more traffic congestion.

Incidentally what businesses will be relocating to Hastings and Bexhill? In the past the lack of interest shown by manufacturers in coming to this area has mainly been due to the lack of skilled labour and the abysmal transport links with London. The money being spent on this proposed link road could be put to far better use in improving the A21. As I am now in my eighties if and when this disastrous road is built I may not be around to say, "I told you so".

G W ROGERS

Clinch Green Avenue.

More congestion

IN the pamphlet issued by the East Sussex County Council about the proposed Bexhill-Hastings Link Road claims are made that building the road will mean that

a) Bexhill will have fewer accidents in built up areas;

b) that air quality along the Bexhill Road will be improved, and

c) that developers will be able to build much needed housing and business development.

A first class project - unless you live or work in the Little Common area or your children attend the schools near to Little Common Road. For you the extra traffic generated by the development will mean

a) greater traffic congestion;

b) more traffic accidents, and

c) increased air pollution.

The MP for Hastings can see the benefits for his 'patch' - and what are Bexhill's representatives doing supporting such a short-sighted scheme? Solving a problem by creating more problems is no way to conduct county business! The answer to Bexhill's present and future traffic problems (including access to the landfill site in Turkey Road) is obviously a by-pass. So, please, write to the Planning Committee at County Hall and tell them that you want them to refuse the application for the Link Road and that you wish them to recommend that a by-pass be built.

D W WOOLLER

Collington Rise.

Who's listening?

IN your articles on the proposed link road in your May 25 edition you called for our comments on the proposed link road. I have examined the proposals at the De La Warr exhibition and whilst I appreciate your ideals it strikes me that whatever comments we may make it will not affect the outcome of this enquiry. I have had correspondence with East Sussex County Council in particular over this suggested link road in the past but I have not even had an acknowledgement of my correspondence let alone an answer.

The proposal for the current routing of the link does nothing to help the situation other than removing the chaos from Bexhill Road and transferring it to Barnhorn Road and Little Common and similar chaos at the northern end of Queensway and its subsequent junctions.

In my opinion ESCC should have refused the government's request to seek an alternative to the original by-pass turned down in 2001 and pointed out that the roads of Barnhorn and Little Common are subject to more accidents than all the rest of the Sussex A259 put together. When travelling north of London it is obvious that the South East has been very badly neglected with little improvement in road construction or condition since the end of World War II.

There is another issue which seems to have escaped the notice of the planners in that there is already congestion around the roundabout at Little Common and whilst the traffic travelling east may be able to negotiate the traffic lit junction at King Offa Way, traffic travelling west from the link road will cause massive delays. We currently have a green arrow for traffic turning from Little Common Road into London Road but without considerable delays for all routes there appears to be no way of avoiding this congestion.

If the proposed link road goes ahead then within a year or so of its opening, with the increase in traffic levels as experienced with other alterations to the roads, there will be such chaos that alternative entrances and exits will have to be devised to get traffic moving. This will involve considerable extra expense compared with making a sensible set of designs with the current proposals.

D J DIGWEED

Duke Street.

Link deception

THE publication of the latest stage of this ill-starred proposal reveals with depressing clarity what a deceptive and third-rate scheme we are actually faced with.

The proposal is, in reality, not for a Link Road at all but for a patchwork Hastings By-Pass cobbled together from inadequate and mismatched parts. These are (heading eastwards):

1. Existing A259 to Bexhill Down: already dangerously over-trafficked and blighting Little Common and West Bexhill;

2. The "new" section from Bexhill Down to Queensway, Hollington. This section will have to be squeezed under the old railway bridge at the bottom of Ninfield Road, Sidley and through the adjacent cuttings. Design of this whole section is therefore dominated and compromised by this unavoidable pinch-point;

3. Queensway, Hollington (B2092). This, as anyone who has had the misfortune to travel it will know, is a nightmare of poor road design and already an accident black spot. It will become even more dangerous when more heavily trafficked per a) the proposed Link Road and b) when fed by the industrial estate access roads which are already taking shape on the ground;

4. The Ridge, Hastings (A2100). This was basically the Victorian northern boundary road to the old Hastings conurbation and is now lined with several major educational, health, leisure and other users (eg Conquest Hospital, Helenswood Schools - Upper and Lower, St Helen's Cemetery). The road 'design', if that is the right word, pre-dates motor traffic; there are many awkward bends and junctions and the road is already subject to jamming at peak periods (for example, when large numbers of school children from Helenswood Lower School cross it on foot).

All these ill-matched parts will of course, have to be joined: some are already, eg, the dangerously inadequate roundabout at the north end of Queensway. The other parts will presumably be stitched together in similar patchwork fashion.

In my opinion, therefore, the Link Road is a hotch-potch of mongrel scraps which has no chance of solving our real transport needs and will, if implemented, prove to be disastrous in terms of road safety. The scheme as proposed should be binned at once.

J NEWMAN

Little Common Road.

Not impressed

IN reply to Dr John Thurston's letter (Unimpressed, Observer, June 1) I am totally unimpressed with his comments regarding the Bexhill / Hastings Link Road as I am sure are the residents of Pear Tree Lane, Turkey Road etc are.

Does he not realise that the residents are fighting against the proposed landfill site? May I remind him this is a proposed site, not a planned landfill site and we certainly can do without proposals from people like him regarding a re-routing of the Link Road.

Maybe this is another case of not in my back yard, Dr Thurston!

R K ANDREWS

Turkey Road.

Dire welcome

ON the front of the Observer, May 18, there was an artist's impression of what the start of the proposed link road would look like and in the Observer Comment there is mention of trees and neatly trimmed greenery. While all this is very good, do any members of the council or the county council ever look at the roundabout at Ravenside, which is an absolute disgrace. It is the eastern approach to our town and is just a solid mass of weeds, as is the verge by the side of the old gas works. I understand that as these are on a trunk road, they are not maintained by the council but by the Highways Authority, who are situated in Dorking, but they give such a very bad first impression. In France the roundabouts are a delight and usually represent some aspect of the town through which one is passing. Goodness only knows what tourists or other visitors travelling along the A259 think of us. Surely there is someone on either the county council or Rother council who can put pressure on the Highways Authority to maintain them in better condition.

JOANNE LAWRENCE (Mrs)

Shipley Lane.

Sentence policy

READING recent reports in the Observer relating to the seemingly increasing incidents of vandalism in the Bexhill area, makes me wonder why we are surprised.

It is quite possible that this could be a countrywide problem, friends tell me, however, that in other seaside resorts families and couples can walk along the seafront day or evening time without the usual rash of retards out to ruin other people's happiness because of their own sad pointless existence.

Unfortunately, this country is sinking slowly into a mire made by its own Government's judicial system that feels giving out ever-shorter sentences for all crimes will ease the prison space crisis.

We have not really got a prison space shortage, what we have is a sentencing policy that ensures the criminals get away with whatever they want to without adequate punishment or more importantly, no deterrent. Prisons are now so "cushy" that nobody is bothered about the usual short-stay possibility any longer.

Already we are seeing people who deliberately and wilfully kill another human being, serving as little as two years and almost every killing is now "manslaughter" rather than what is obvious to all, a murder.

Attackers are regularly charged with "attempted murder" but when a similar case actually comes to court it is reduced down to manslaughter in possibly eight out of ten cases.

So this is why people have little or no respect for each other and the U.K. has become a "do anything you like and get away with it" society now recognised across the world hence our attractiveness to foreign criminals. This all boils down to the fact that nobody living in modern Britain today will be surprised to read that an apple tree planted by a young girl in a park recently was destroyed only hours later.

A recent correspondent to the Observer stated that if newcomers to Bexhill don't like it they should return from where they came from, if this type of stupidity carries on we may be very pleased to do just that, and leave you to it, pal!

Paul Stewart

Bexhill

Out of control

MAY I say a big thank you to the Observer for stories over the past few weeks, expressing the need for action to be taken in regard to the local yob issues.

Yes, my premises were vandalised and caused me not only huge increases in my insurance premiums next year, but also 250 in my lost excess which meant I worked very hard for two weeks, no profit and only to be ruined.

Besides the police taking an initiative in getting the local district council to act, what I want to see is everybody who is involved in law making and policy making amongst others getting together and actually doing not just saying.

On the Saturday evening after the Cup Final, there were many young people hanging around the area very drunk and disorderly, shouting at members of the public, spilling half empty kebabs on the pavement (which we have to pay for to get cleaned up) and so on. Why do the publicans retain their licences when they obviously serve more alcohol to people who are drunk? The local police support community officers, what powers do they have? And the police themselves are so stretched that when was the last time real policing is ever done?

Businesses, local residents... in fact everyone has a part to play in eradicating this so called yob society which blights not only this town but up and down the UK. There are many young people who behave themselves week in and week out and don't cause any trouble, but the irresponsible few make other people's lives a misery and it's time now for it to stop.

ROBIN M POWELL

Sackville Road.

Stay away

WHAT a wonderful late May Bank Holiday it was in Bexhill on Sea!

Mother Nature, in her infinite mercy, provided sufficient threat of wind and rain to deter the noisy, litter-strewing, snack-guzzling hordes of incontinent trippers from descending on our fair town and soiling our public places over the whole weekend. The Promenade, in particular, was a joy to experience in its near-deserted state. Normally, on high days and holidays, one has need of a stout cudgel to ensure progress during a post-prandial stroll; but this year safe passage was achieved without any problem at all.

I realise that some may regard my views as a small curd in the milk of human kindness, and that the pious platoons of Social Correction will no doubt consider them as actionable under the European Convention of Human Rights: but I am sure that 90 per cent of sober, right-thinking Bexhill residents will - albeit silently - join in my celebration.

We can only hope that the weather remains as joyously unpredictable for the remainder of the summer.

JONATHON BREARLEY

Cooden Sea Road.

A final letter

THIS is the last letter I shall be able to write to the Observer, after many, many, many years. Thank you to all those who have read them. I have enjoyed writing them. Good luck.

JACKIE LUCK

Eversley Road.

r Thank you, Jackie. We wish you well.- Ed.

What cost?

I HAVE just taken delivery of the first consignment of wheelie and other bins to my home which are supposed to improve the environment and reduce the demand for landfill sites.

The first one I must use is the black bin which is for non specific household refuse, and I am informed by the council that the black plastic sack which I have put out for the dustmen for years must now be put into the black wheelie bin.

This has caused me to wonder if any of our councillors have ever heard of cost effectiveness as the cost of the black bin, plus that of emptying the black bin into a special vehicle, just to get my same black plastic sack of refuse to the same destination as before, must be ridiculous!

Eric Fooks

Spindlewood Drive.

Half baked

THROUGH your letters page I would like to be given the opportunity to question Rother District Council's actions behind what can only be described as a half-baked recycling project.

I have never come across a local authority that undertakes the implementation of a recycling scheme that does not have the facilities to handle cardboard or glass.

Likewise I have never come across a local authority that will be implementing a fortnightly collection of household refuse.

Although the Liberal Democrat Party in Sidley fully supports recycling as I am sure every other political party and individual does, we cannot support a scheme that has created confusion and worry for elderly residents, that will create a future health hazard with mountains of stinking household refuse being located in front of a majority of residents' house frontages for up to a two week period and a scheme where 44,000 wheelie bins have been electronically chipped at the expense of Rother residents' taxes as the council feels that people may wish to steal a wheelie bin even though all households are being issued with them.

It is my opinion that the best way forward for Rother District Council to implement a recycling scheme is to revert to weekly collections as Hastings Borough Council currently has and to ensure that recycling includes all materials that are recyclable especially cardboard as most packaging from supermarkets, catalogue deliveries etc etc are cardboard based.

Rother District Council you need to clean up your recycling act so that it benefits residents, traders and the environment.

BRETT MCLEAN

1066 Branch Federation of Small Business Sidley Liberal Democrats.

Litter left

WE should like to draw your attention to the state this area (Little Common recycling bank) was left in at 0915 this (Saturday) morning.

As I parked my car in the adjacent parking area I saw the driver of the collection vehicle tip two plastic and can recycling bins into his lorry. Although there was no wind a considerable mess was left behind. Perhaps this brings a new meaning to recycling as the new wheelie bins are delivered to houses in our area.

In the notice that came with our new wheelie bin it states that cardboard should be delivered to Pebsham or Mountfield, hardly practical for those without transport or the time to queue to get into Pebsham.

Access to Mountfield is easier but can one justify the round trip of over 20 miles to dispose to cardboard for recycling?

We have sent a copy of this email to Recycling at Rother District but they don't give the option to send attachments.

Felicity and David Hicks

Little Common.

Bins arrive

OH! What a 'Red Letter' day! Our new bins have been delivered in our street (I can hardly contain myself with the excitement).

The area looked like something from Dr Who (I think those wheelie bins look like a miniature Tardis - I only wish there was a Time Lord to sort everything out).

The leaflets contradicted themselves, one said to note where our new bins were delivered (that was on the pavement) as that was where the collection point would be - but yet another leaflet stated we can leave our bins at the nearest point to the pavement, but not on the pavement.

All that cash spent! Not forgetting the bins all burnt out recently, near our back gardens.

The procedure is made easier when the collections are made from back gardens. We, in terrace houses, are not so lucky - only our tiny front gardens are to be used to store all these bins, and the collections to be made at the front of our houses.

I also noted that one of the wheelie bins had the wheel off, and the man had a terrible job to get it fixed on again.

Of course, it is important to recycle, as many of us do, at our nearby centre. However, I do feel we are to do the job of all this extra sorting, which should be undertaken by Rother, especially in view of the council tax we already pay for this service.

Oh, well, perhaps I'd better shut up as there's that chip in my bin. "We know where you live".

It appears cardboard boxes are to be eaten - they cannot be collected!

JOYCE HUMPHREY

Reginald Road.

Dispersal order

As a parent of teenage daughters in Bexhill, I must say I am a little bit worried about this blanket anti-social dispersal order for the town. Where there is genuine anti-social behaviour, I'm sure most right-minded people would fully support, but I am concerned that it is open to mis-interpretation.

My daughters are considered to be reasonably well behaved but even one of them experienced being moved on from the promenade last year, just because there had been a complaint that 'there was a group of teenagers hanging around'. Even the policewoman asking them to move on seemed faintly embarrassed and agreed they were doing no wrong but asked them just to move elsewhere for the sake of keeping the complainant happy.

Should blanket dispersal orders come into effect who governs interpretation of what groups are considered anti-social, the grumpy resident who thinks all youth under 20 are out to cause trouble or will the police take a more rational approach and only act after monitoring that behaviour has indeed, got out of hand?

There is already a very anti youth attitude that has developed amongst a few of our elderly Bexhill residents, but please don't tar everyone with the same brush.

Whilst we need some form of prevention to curtail certain anti-social groups, it would be awful if those that had been brought up to be better behaved, felt they couldn't meet their friends for a laugh in their own town.

J. Brockhurst

Bexhill.

Top service

LAST week I experienced several heavy nose bleeds with much attendant blood loss, resulting in three attendances over 72 hours at my home by three different crews of emergency paramedics.

I simply cannot speak highly enough of their speed of response and, on arrival, their sheer professionalism. "All's well that ends well" they say, and my personal little misery culminated in an evening transfer to Eastbourne DGH, the prompt cauterisation of the offending blood vessels, appropriate medications and - certainly not least - a most pleasant and healing overnight stay in Glynde ward. My sincere thanks to you all...

Being 95, I still remember vividly growing up, experiencing various sicknesses and eventually having my own three children in altogether very different circumstances, most of which I sincerely believe would shock today's generations.

I urge that no-one forgets what it was like then (truly awful for working class families) and just how overjoyed we all were in 1948 by the introduction of our own new National Health Service, with its motto: 'Free medical care for all, at the point of need.'

I read so much criticism of the NHS these days - levelled at all from GPs to consultants, waiting times and hospital treatments - which I personally find so difficult to understand as, neither my (now extended] family nor I have ever been failed in the slightest over 60 years of calling upon its services.

Please Sir - without wishing in any way to lower people's expectations, may we all just stop whingeing for a moment and simply be eternally and daily grateful to all those dedicated staff of our wonderful health service, spearheaded 24/7 by our outstanding local Emergency Paramedics, only a 'phone call away at all times?

I remain, (a very elderly] Sarah, who still recoils in horror at memories of those 'bad old days'.

Sarah L. Roper (Mrs)

St Marks Close.

Sidley issues

WE would like to thank all the kind people of Sidley Ward who voted for us on May 3.

Whilst we were not successful on this occasion we were heartened by the large number of people who have contacted us since the election to thank us for what we have tried to achieve for Sidley over the past 12 years (for Helen) and 10 years (for Keith).

We would also like to thank the staff of Rother District Council for their help and kindness over the years, this has been much appreciated.

It is of course very easy for candidates to "offer the moon" when they are unelected; it is of course a very different situation once you are representing a ward, especially one like Sidley which is many respects is quite unique.

We would therefore offer Cllrs Carroll and Wheeler our congratulations on being elected and to remind them that Sidley is worth fighting for!

KEITH AND HELEN BRIDGER.

Bexhill.

Disgrace

I AM writing to you in disgust at the state of the grass verges in the Cranston Avenue area in which I live. I have never seen such a pathetic attempt at trying to cut verges only two feet wide.

They miss more than they cut and then leave all the cuttings to blow everywhere and block the drains.

I feel this is a total waste of our Council Tax money. If I left a job like that I wouldn't get paid.

Ian Stanley

Cranston Avenue.

Store point

YOUR Little Common Tesco article last week stated that plans for the supermarket were "set to be approved" at the next planning meeting. Yet in fact five councillors held out against all the browbeating of the planning and legal departments to force the proposal to be deferred further to full council on June 25.

They voted against the development because they knew it was wrong for Little Common Village and that none of the residents want it (511 against - two for).

They believe it can't be right to plonk a big supermarket and flats bang opposite another smaller supermarket to further congest traffic and destroy once and for all a thriving little high street where small shops succeed and provide real choice for consumers as well as a social glue that binds the community together.

Cllr Lendon said he couldn't vote for the development as he has a "social conscience". (What? Surely it must be removed quickly!) Similarly, I believe many councillors were reluctant to approve this application but accepted the planning officer's assurances that there were "no planning reasons" to refuse it.

But had he looked hard enough? I find it strange that no such reasons could be found when planning is not an exact science and councils up and down the country are refusing such applications and successfully defending them on appeal. (See www.tescopoly.org).

Also, have councillors themselves looked hard at the Rother District Local Plan and Government planning policy documents (PPS). Surely being on the planning committee is not a matter of simply accepting the planning officer's view? I am surprised so few councillors on Planning seemed familiar with or prepared to research relevant main planning documents.

I myself have studied the Rother District Local Plan and come to the conclusion that actually the development is contrary to it and to government policy PPS6. I believe Policy EM13, on which the Planning Officer relies, does not apply to Little Common as it is not part of the "primary shopping centre" of Bexhill where larger developments should be focussed. Also I believe the Local Plan pledges to protect such areas from development prejudicial to "local character".

I get the impression the planning committee thinks I'm intruding on their private domain, but I intend to carry on! Through your pages I seek supporters, especially those with legal or planning experience or those willing to join me in commissioning independent planning advice on the matter to submit to councillors before their next meeting. All I then ask of councillors is that they examine all the arguments carefully.

Nick Hollington

Whydown.

Museum aid

ON behalf of the Society of Bexhill Museums, I would like to publicly thank Bexhill's new mayor, Cllr Paul Lendon, for nominating the society as one of his charities for his year in office.

Cllr Lendon's support is doubly welcomed, not only for the financial benefits but for the added media exposure which hopefully we will receive.

Bexhill Museum is a vital component in the regeneration of the town, the second most popular visitor attraction and fully deserving to be supported by all who have the best interests of Bexhill at heart.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the committee and indeed all members of the Bexhill 100 Motoring Club for agreeing to support our Bringing Elva Home project, through their own fund-raising.

In addition, the society's sincere thanks to Dave Dickens-Smith of the club and to John Malley, director of our society's trading arm, for their most generous pledges of financial support, again for the Elva project.

Let us hope, with all of this goodwill, that the museum's cash crisis was only a temporary blip and the construction works can now get under way without further delay. Bringing nearer the date when we can open the doors of Bexhill's fantastic regenerated attraction.

John Betts

Head of Fundraising

Society of Bexhill Museums.

Bible truth

The Rev Daniel Smith in Just a Minute (Observer, June 1) says that we must ensure the values of Jesus - justice, peace, mercy, kindness, generosity and love - are upheld in our political leaders, by making sure we all vote.

Which one of the 3 major parties or even a minor party stands for a christian point of view?

For example which party agrees with the bible and states that Christianity is the only true faith and that there is only one God (Yahweh)? Do I just ignore that the bible condems homosexuality in both the Old and New Testaments, but all three major parties not only say homosexuality is alright but have gay MPs/ councillors. Which commandments of the Old Testament or words of Jesus Christ of the Gospels are in these politicians hearts or minds?

The Christian should be promoting Bible truth in this corrupt world, not voting for 'politically correct' parties that deny both Jesus Christ' and his Father' position.

Paul Minter

Uplands Close.

Purse find

THANK you so much to the four ladies who found my purse on a seat by the beach huts near the De La Warr on Saturday, May 26. They waited to see if I returned and also left a message on my answer phone at home. I am so grateful. It's good to know there are still a lot of kind and honest people around.

SHIRLEY FORSTER

Cooden.

Show support

I WOULD like to say a big thank you to The Studio at Bexhill Photographic for sponsoring the Dog Show at Bexhill Horse Show this year. Best in Show was won by Phillipa Benge with her Siberian Husky and Best Puppy was won by Tracey Gray with her Griffon Bruxellois.

I hope everyone had a good time at the Dog Show.

PAMELA DYER

Ashby Close.

Great evening

I WOULD very much like to thank Mr Toni Mansi for organising the Old Tyme Music Hall at the De La Warr Pavilion on May 27.

My thanks also include the driver of the Bexhill Community Bus who transported us, to and back from the De La Warr Pavilion that evening.

It was a splendid evening, and I was very pleased to see the auditorium almost full.

Could we have an encore please?

S MUYTJENS (Mrs)

Little Common.

Tank story

DOES anyone have any information on the Great War military tank that stood in West Parade from 1919 until the 1930s?

ROBERT SCOTT

53 Thesiger House, Grimsby

N.E. Lincs DN32 7HW

tele. no. 01472 595029.