Your Letters - May 30

Info boards

I WAS angered by the narrow-mindedness shown by Brian Hazell's criticism of the new Smuggling information boards (located around Bexhill) in last week's Observer.

Bexhill Museum, and it's curator, Julian Porter, and his team should instead be applauded for producing such interesting information boards!

I was aware that smuggling happened along the South Coast, but I never realised that Bexhill was involved in it.

Yes, Bexhill has a rich motoring history which should be celebrated, but not all Bexhillians will get excited by this subject, and neither would every visitor to Bexhill.

I for one find the subject of little interest.

It was not so long ago that the DLWP was being attacked for producing exhibitions of little interest to local people, and for appealing to only a narrow area of interest. Bexhill Museum has shown that they will not make the same mistake, and by producing the new smuggling boards have shown that they appreciate that Bexhill is not a one-trick pony, and in fact has a diverse and fascinating history far beyond Bexhill Motor Racing!

I think the Museum has done a splendid job in highlighting another aspect of Bexhill's rich history, and if this an indication of what is to come in the new Museum, I for one will be very proud to be a resident of Bexhill. Well Done!

Finally, may I suggest that if there are so many motoring history enthusiasts in Bexhill as Brian Hazell would have us believe, then perhaps they should stop waiting for Rother to replace the motoring boards, and raise the money to do it themselves!

Jeff Eden

Sutton Place

Pavilion priority

LYNNE Moore's excellent letter in last week's Bexhill Observer (May 23) provides a compelling illustration of the fundamental problem affecting use of the De La Warr Pavilion as a community resource.

It is clear that an increasing number of local people - probably a majority - now believes that DLWP runs the Pavilion largely as a vanity project for the benefit and enjoyment of an exclusive group of the cultural elite. These were presumably the invitees to the 'private function' that Ms Moore saw besporting themselves with Grayson Perry in the forbidden sections of the Pavilion on May 10.

In these circumstances we can only wonder how much longer our local Council (which provides so much of our money to support the DLWP) will continue to allow us locals to be treated as second class citizens in our own town. And I very much hope that our councillors, if invited, were not included in those attending the exclusive 'private function.'

B. J. SEWELL

Pages Lane

Lamp costs

MANY thanks for publishing my letter some weeks ago highlighting the recent explosion in the population of (still disfunctional) lamp posts in Bexhill Old Town. I have since learned an estimated cost of such monstrosities and, in the public interest, would the local Council and the Old Town Preservation Society like to make public this outrageous misuse of monies? I have heard the cost has run into, not tens, but hundreds of thousands of pounds! Did any of this come from public funds? Even if a large portion of the cost was covered by charity, surely in today's environment of global warming and recession, there are much more deserving causes than installing pointless street lamps? Not only that - they don't work!

RIK COWLARD

Church Street

Sidley sadness

LAST Monday, (12th) the committee of the Sidley Residents Association met for the last time. As the committee members were retiring, and no one was willing to take over, the Association was disbanded.

During the past years they have put on a very successful annual fete and the remaining funds have been evenly distributed, mostly to Sidley Organisations.

They are: Bexhill Gateway Club; Sidley Community Centre Toy Library; All Saints Wives Club (for the Old Folk's Christmas Party); Playaway; The Carnival Committee; Sidley Martlets (Junior section); Sidley Football Club; Sidley Cricket Club; All Saints School (for books) and Sidley County Primary School (for books).

All who attended expressed their regret that circumstances had forced this decision and a vote of thanks for all their hard work was given to Jim Muselwhite and Ray and Gillian Croft.

HELEN BRIDGER

Carfax Close

Footpath scheme

TRAFFIC management planners at East Sussex County Council seem to be a perverse bunch.

On one hand they are trying to foist an unwanted traffic calming scheme on the residents of Gunters Lane. On the other they are claiming lack of funds to complete 120 metres of footway in Cooden Sea Road, left outstanding since the "improvements" of the 1970's, causing pedestrians traversing between Little Common and the station, the hotel, the beach and the golf club to run the gauntlet of fast moving traffic by walking in the carriageway of the B2128.

Meanwhile, I understand that the funds earmarked for calming works in Little Common have been used at Heathfield!

If the Gunters Lane scheme is to be deferred, I suggest that the funds secured in the current financial year should be used instead to complete the Little Common scheme and the Cooden Sea Road footpath.

The only problem is convincing the planners that the footpath is needed. I have a recent letter stating that it does not qualify for calming measures, based on the (fortunate) absence of injury at this obviously dangerous point. Try walking small children to the beach; it is a nightmare, with vehicles with a sight line of only 50 metres suddenly appearing.

So I urge aspiring pedestrians in Cooden Sea Road, currently deterred by the absence of footpath continuity, to write to Rupert Clubb, the ESCC Director of Transport and Environment at Lewes, setting out their views of this unacceptable situation.

J. HODSON

Cooden Sea Road

Mayoral puzzle 1

YOUR front page last week announced that Bexhill had elected its first French Mayor. Whilst Cllr Douart is to be congratulated on his appointment and will surely do well to establish a French connection for Bexhill, there is puzzlement in the rural parishes as to how a Town Mayor came to be elected by the town when there is no Town Council to do so.

It is my understanding that Bexhill's Charter Trustees comprise Rother District Councillors from the Bexhill wards and therefore the mayor is not directly elected by the town. I also suspect that, since the mayor is elected in this way, it also becomes a political election by the ruling group in Rother. This is clearly illustrated by the names mentioned in your article. What other reason is there for a long serving Old Town Ward Councillor not being elected whilst a Councillor, newly elected last year, is favoured as Deputy Town Mayor. In other towns in the District, the Mayor is elected by the Town Council and in recognition of community service given by that person.

This is yet another reason for Bexhill to be allowed to have a Town Council to ensure that people are truly represented by local people serving their local community as we do in the rural parish areas.

MARY VARRALL

Fontridge Lane, Etchingham

Mayoral puzzle 2

I AM delighted that Cllr Patrick Douart has become Mayor of Bexhill, (Bexhill elects its first French mayor, May 23).

The mayor of a large town like Bexhill is, traditionally, chosen by the town council and is someone richly deserving of that high office. The Town Mayor is our principal civic representative, at home and abroad and Cllr Douart will carry out these duties with aplomb.

But Bexhill doesn't have a town council. It has Rother District Council. One political party has a majority on Rother and, therefore, on the so-called Charter Trustees. (They were introduced when Bexhill lost its borough status in 1974).

The choice of mayor is, then, done along political lines because the ruling party has decided not to allow properly elected members of other parties to hold any office on the District Council.

As a direct consequence of this decision the Deputy Town Mayor is a newly-elected Conservative with one year's experience of being a Bexhill councillor! She was chosen for political reasons in favour of a well respected opposition member, who has given many years of service to the town of Bexhill-on-Sea.

If elected next year, the Deputy Mayor will be the fourth mayor in a row who had given only one year's service to Rother when selected.

Martyn Forster (Cllr)

East Bexhill Division and St Michael's Ward

Drive on stilts

AFTER reading your comment in the May 23 issue of the Bexhill Observer I consulted the internet to find how far the A259 case is progressing; in fact it is moving slower than the traffic at Glyne Gap on a busy Tuesday afternoon.

To date, the cost of all the plans and meetings, telephone calls, costings and rejections must be equal to a goodly portion of the total project.

Clearly there are many planners and others involved who can all see problems in the toonumerous proposals for roads and alternative schemes, such as light transit railways, but solutions to the problems are virtually non-existent. We have at present, in the A259 from Bexhill to Hastings, a crooked seaside lane hedged with buildings, which produces the present gridlock.

The existing proposals could smooth out some of the kinks, but would cost a fortune and give us only a slightly better-engineered gridlock, with inferior traffic management. Unless we depart boldly from the present route and dimensions, the Bexhill-Hastings A259 link road will never handle the future traffic level, especially when the stretches to the east and west are improved. This indeed, is the South Coast Strategic Route, so we need a new approach.

I believe we could solve the present fiasco and produce a solution for future requirements, as far as they can be foreseen, with an elevated road, built on stilts, in the style of the M4 at Chiswick, and running from west of Little Common to Ore. Present traffic might indicate that twin dual carriageways at least, as in King Offa Way, would be necessary except where forecasts of heavier traffic may be indicated.

Access and entry should be provided at principal points, with use for single-stage lengths allowed only by emergency traffic. Exit roads should be designed to prevent tail backs jamming exits and encroaching on the elevated carriageway. With a conservative speed limit of even 60 mph and an average speed of 40 mph one could travel the total distance from Little Common to Ore in 20 minutes at all times!

This solution could, to a degree, free the task from the tangled maze of problems associated with re-engineering the present A259 and much of the essential co-ordination with other surface projects. Implementation would put us in favour with the ED and relieve East Sussex of having the most heavily polluting road in the country.

All we need is the money.

J. D. EDWARDS

Cooden Drive

Pipe pleasers

WHAT a wonderful sight the pipes and drums made as they marched round our town.

A big thank you to the organisers and can I suggest please that they try and make this an annual event, but bigger with more bands - maybe over the weekend?

And dare I suggest that they put on a show, not only on the terrace at the De La Warr, but maybe a concert inside?

Again, thank you and well done the organisers.

Peter Morgan

Harewood Close

Scope anger

I AM writing in anger and sadness because funding for the Parent Scope Service from Sidley Community Association is about to cease. I have received support from this Service for many years, through some difficult periods in my life, and have found it invaluable.

My home visitor, Jen March, is being made redundant after 12 years wonderful service.

Jen has been so supportive to me and I literally do not know what I will do once her visits cease. It is a backward step to stop this service, and I cannot believe that withdrawal of funding for such a vital support to the community is deemed acceptable. This service is essential to the families of Sidley and I am appalled that it is going to stop.

JULIE ELLIS

Watergate

Hospice thanks

THROUGH your paper I wondered if it would be possible if you could pass on my grateful thanks to Claire Pepper and all daycare staff at St Michael's Hospice, they do a marvellous job, especially taking us to see Hello Dolly in Eastbourne. The outing was truly memorable and so well organised.

SUE LAWRENCE

Crowhurst Lane