Your Letters - January 9
We welcome your letters - email them to rye.battle@trbeckett.co.uk Please include your name and address if your letter is for publication.
Please clarify
NOW I don't know accurate this is, but someone told me over Christmas that farmers (and other landowners) are paid 20,000 a year per wind turbine sited on their land for a period of 30 years. Can't be true, can it?
No Government would shell out that sort of cash, our cash, over such a long period for a currently marginal and no doubt soon outdated benefit, surely?
FRANK BARNARD
Tillingham Lane, Peasmarsh Rye
Post Office shambles
RYE Post Office is a disgrace to the Town and Rye Town Council or Rye Tourist Board should do something about it immediately.
The 'shop' looks as if it has had a burglary with almost nothing on the shelves.
One of my granddaughters has the misfortune to have a birthday on January 5, and as I needed to post her present I wanted to buy a mailing box over the counter, there being no padded envelopes available.
I was told to go over the road to buy a box and some tape as they, (the PO), had no-one to run the 'shop' and therefore could not stock such items.
I challenge any member of RTC to go into any main Post Office in any town in the South East and find such a lack of facilities for the general public. The local village post offices that are still left, run a much better service and put the town to shame.
The Tourist Board, or whatever they call themselves these days, should have insisted that basic amenities are met in a public service whoever runs it, as visitors to the town will be rightly unimpressed.
GILLIAN TUGMAN
Northiam
999 'inappropriate'
MR Wood, Chief Exec of the local Healthcare Trust, urges us to dial 999 for an ambulance only in an emergency. (December 26 2008).
Maybe he would be interested to hear the following:
My 86 year-old mother lives in Rye. Recently she fell and grazed her leg badly on a Saturday morning. It needed to be cleaned and dressed. She did not need admission to a hospital.
She lives alone and I live more than an hour's drive away.
I rang the Memorial Care centre at Rye to enquire about minor injuries care.
Nobody there could help her, I was told. 'Ring 999 for an ambulance to take her to Hastings General Hopspital' they advised me.
We tried her GP's surgery. The on-call duty doctor service there wasn't interested either.
They told us to dial 999 for an ambulance to take her to Hastings.
So Mr Wood, please note; there is no community help for elderly people, no district nurse, no minor injuries unit.
Your own employees are telling people to ring for an ambulance for minor matters.
No wonder the emergency service is being used inappropriately.
J. ELLIS
Byng Road,
Tunbridge Wells
Time to resign?
RE: Robertsbridge Post Office Row
I AM very pleased that David Claydon and common sense have prevailed.
Judging by the unhelpful and downright nasty comments and rumours that have been put about concerning Mr Claydon, I can only imagine that some of the members of the Parish and District Councils have taken this matter personally and allowed their feelings shape their judgments.
Perhaps it is time for some to follow the example of their former colleague (presumably Jack Smith) and tender their resignations.
PAUL BUCHAN
Robertsbridge
The true facts
MAY I congratulate Mr John Elston for his informative and accurate account of the biased campaign by councillors to keep Robertsbridge Post Office open.
He is to be commended for letting the community know the true facts of this whole fiasco.
Mr Claydon has bent over backwards to keep the post office going despite the bigoted intervention by some parish and local councillors.
This has wasted months and incurred unnecessary expense for rate payers, which appears to have been of no consideration to the councillors and clerk.
There are also rumours circulating, which maybe should be aired that certain councillors are now quietly trying to have the Post Office moved to other premises in the village.
Maybe they should learn from their past efforts and realise the community wants Robertsbridge Post Office to remain in the extremely competent hands of Mr Claydon.
HAZEL SHARMAN
Robertsbridge
We must shop locally
I'VE read with interest the exchange of letters about the change of use for the old Post Office in Robertsbridge. I've been struck by the challenge it highlights of developing a sustainable village. We've all seen villages that now have no shops, no pub and little sense of community. We are lucky in Robertsbridge on a number of counts:
- we have people who are brave enough to set up and run businesses here,
- we have people who are prepared to give up their time to serve the community on our Parish Council and -
we have a thriving range of community groups and activities.
In order to keep Robertsbridge in good shape we all need to be prepared to actively support those factors. In practice that means we should try and shop locally whenever we can - small shops may cost more but they don't benefit from the economies of scale that larger businesses can get. The price of having successful local shops is sometimes having to pay a bit extra, but on the up side it reduces car travel.
No local council can get it right all the time and people make the best decisions that they can given the information available to them. This may mean that some decisions seem unfair or sub-optimal.
We should all ask ourselves if we'd be prepared to take on the responsibilities as a member of the Council.
Whilst we may wish that Robertsbridge can stay as a small village, the unpalatable reality may be that we need more houses to be built here to ensure that we have enough customers for our local shops and enough pupils for our schools.
It may also be that there are times when we have to give up some shops because they are no longer viable and the unacceptable alternative is for someone to be bankrupted.
Let's hope we can find ways as a community of making decisions that are genuinely in the interest of the whole community whilst not jeopardising individuals.
That means we need to be willing to really listen to the issues facing people and look at how can continue to develop Robertsbridge as a sustainable village.
ED GRIFFIN
Robertsbridge
A bad signal
NO doubt at this time of the year the police are surely understaffed and, with the little crew they have, must be extremely busy.
Therefore it was with almost total disbelief that I and other neighbours in our area in Fairlight found ourselves visited by the police in connection with an EDF van that had its aerial vandalised. I can almost hear it now over the police car radios - 'stop all serious crime investigations and proceed to Fairlight immediately. We have a case of a broken van aerial.'
Seriously though, this should be given zero priority over other, serious, crimes that are happening every day. I and others would like to know what next. A missing recycle bin lid?
Finally, can we wonder if it is normal practice to send a police car out to investigate this sort of thing, because if it is, I am surprised there are any police left at all to tackle any other crime.
M. ERENDS
Broadway
Fairlight
Help for 1,300 families
I AM pleased to write that the 24th Surviving Christmas Project has been successfully completed. Over 1,300 local families in need received food vouchers during December and 450 food hampers were delivered over Christmas, mainly to elderly or housebound people.
Despite an increase in the number of people attending, all guests were able to enjoy themselves at our three day "Open Christmas", where in addition to good food they could choose clothing from the clothing store and have their hair cut by one of the hairdressers.
In all over 4,000 people in Hastings, St Leonards, Bexhill and Sidley were helped by Surviving Christmas during the festive season.
None of this would have been possible without the help and generosity of local people who donated not only their time but also food, gifts, clothes and monetary donations. Thank you to every one of you for your contribution.
Our thanks go out to ALL our volunteers, especially the two new chefs and hairdressers, who worked tirelessly for the three days, and also to the young people from Darvell Bruderhof, who worked so hard both in the preparations and the clearing up afterwards.
Thank you to the local schools, churches and organisations who raised much-needed funds and collected food, clothing and gifts for us.
We do appreciate their continuing support and special praise must go to St Richards College in Bexhill who raised the magnificent sum of 1,500 in addition to collecting a van load of goods for us. Last, but by no means least, we are indebted to the local Trusts and Charities who loyally support our work each year.
We are also most grateful to Richard Stevens for his Sox Appeal, the Observer and Sainsbury's for tin collections, and local businesses and schools for the loan of equipment.
On a personal note I would like to express my sincere thanks to Eileen, our Vice-Chairman, and Shirley, our part-time Administrator, who worked hard to ensure the success of the project when I was unexpectedly absent during the final month's preparations.
Our Appeal is not yet closed so if you have donations collected over Christmas please send them in to the address below. Looking forward in 2009, we are seeking people to run in the Hastings Half-Marathon on our behalf – please contact survivingchristmas@tiscali.co.uk.
With best wishes for 2009
JUDITH WYCHERLEY
Chairman, Surviving Christmas
PO Box 290
Hastings
TN34 9DT
First class show
I MADE a New Year resolution to say something nice about the De La Warr Pavilion, and I can do that straight away, for my wife and I attended the Christmas Circus there, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Every act, with one exception, was British, and all were absolutely first class, with a young juggler and a team of Hoola Hoopers, outstanding.
But as we had arrived early for the circus we took the opportunity of visiting the Ben Nicholson abstract art exhibition; entry is free to local residents, and visitors pay 5 or 3.50 for OAPs. In my opinion these charges should be reversed - i.e. free for visitors and OAPs, whilst local residents should be paid either 3.50 or 5 for going!
So endeth my De La Warr Pavilion New Year resolution.
I wish the Observer staff and all your readers a Happy New Year
JOHN HILL
Glengorse, Battle
Parlour shame
AT THE start of this new year, as my wife and I look ahead, we are filled with much foreboding. We face the prospect of dead bodies carried within yards of our front door, day and night, seven days a week.
This is something which, in our wildest dreams, we never imagined would happen - particularly in a village we love so much.
It is sad that our local councillors - clearly concerned about the arrival of this funeral parlour in a beautiful corner of Northiam, so close to where people live - have been powerless to prevent it.
It is sad that in spite of clear disapproval from all the neighbours, the undertakers have pushed ahead with an insensitivity which is staggering to behold.
The thin end of the wedge is that local police, clearly with the kindest of intent, have asked if we would move our car, which they admit is perfectly legally parked and causing no obstruction, so that there is plenty of space to bring in dead bodies.
We must show respect for the dead but would ask that similar regard be shown to the living.
LINDA AND ROGER HISKEY
Ewhurst Lane, Northiam
Foolish policies
ALONG with the terrifying mess the Labour Government has made for all of us in its mishandling of the nation's finances there are other major issues which are rightly the cause of great anger and concern for our people, who now realise how completely they have been let down by this Government because of its arrogant, doctrinaire foolish policies.
One of these issues is, of course, the scandal of uncontrolled immigration with the resulting swarms of unwanted foreigners and the burden of a multiplicity of foreseeable problems imposed on our indigenous population, who have never voted for the disaster or multiculturalism.
But, another area in which our people have been totally let down is in relation to crime and the Government's ludicrous policies for dealing with it. The statistics on re-offending and the oft repeated statement "it is easier to get drugs inside prison than outside" is irrefutable evidence of the Government's monumental incompetence and failure in this field.
In many places the streets are in the control of the low life who should be behind bars not to play ping pong or watch telly to learn the hard way that their behaviour will not be tolerated.
Only then will decent people, particularly the elderly and those living alone be free to go about their lives without the fear and dread with which they are presently blighted.
Within the last few days it was reported in the national press that the rate of fatal stabbings has reached the level where every week across the country five people die from stab wounds and a stab victim is admitted to hospital every 72 minutes.
It is against this background that on January 1 I came across this little gem. Labour MP David Hanson, in his capacity of Minister for Prisons, is reported to have given an instruction that prison officers are not to refer to prisoners as "inmates" because it might offend them; and furthermore, prison staff are expected to treat prisoners with "dignity and respect".
It has clearly not occurred to Mr Hanson that our prisons are full of criminals who need to earn respect by irrevocably changing their ways until which time their sensibilities are not society's greatest priority.
What better evidence is there of Labour's inversion of civilised values, its denial of elementary common-sense and its total unfitness to govern.
P R BELCHAMBER
Whatlington Road, Battle
Insult to pensioners
I WAS interested to read the report in last week's "Rye Observer" of Rother's Cabinet meeting on December 30 in which it was stated that the Council hopes to keep its Council Tax increases for the coming year under the Government's five per cent capping limit by cutting spending and raiding its reserves.
It occurs to me that by continually raiding the reserves just reduces the income that accrues from them, but with interest rates continually falling of course the income is becoming less and less. It seems folly, however, to continually raid reserves, and at the same time using reserves to part pay for such grandiose schemes such as the Bexhill seafront project at a time of financial stringency and economic turmoil.
The comment made by one local District Councillor at this Cabinet meeting adds insult to injury when he said that 26% of the Rother population was claiming free bus passes which was costing the authority 750,000 a year as a suggestion no doubt that this could be a saving to the council tax payer.
At this time that must be an insult to the many pensioners who do not have their own transport and depend on buses to move around, and who without the free bus pass would not not be able to afford the cost of public transport, and would undoubtedly increase their sense of isolation.
CLLR GRANVILLE BANTICK
Rye Town Councillor
What does the EU care?
FURTHER to the closing down of the Post Office in Tilling Green, your correspondent says that it was making a profit.
This was perfectly true until the E.U. took charge of all the money-making parts of the Post Office, but when nothing was left except the mail, the local proprietors were not able to continue.
This is a great loss to the local community, but what does the E.U., based in Brussels, or some such place, care about that?
CATHARINE STRAKER
UKIP, Peasmarsh
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Weather for St Leonards-on-Sea
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: -7 C to 1 C
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