Your letters - October 17

Hotel views

Some residents evidently do not understand the limitations of the district council's powers. Their plaintiff cries for the council to 'do something' about our run-down and shabby town centre display this lack of knowledge. Since in most cases the district council is neither landlord nor tenant of the buildings in the town centre they can do very little about the empty or very shabby shops. To their credit where they have a responsibility they have made improvements for example the Library.

What the council could do is procure the development of a modern hotel on the pitch and putt site, which would have splendid sea views and could have a good class of modern design. Mendelsohn and Chermayeff's proposals in 1935 included a Hotel on that site and it remains a good idea.

A hotel on this site would have the best sea views on this part of the coast from Beachy Head to Fairlight. It would add immensely to the town and to the De La Warr Pavilion as a destination and could be more of a catalyst for regeneration in the town than anything else in the power of the district council to achieve because it would bring in visitors who would spend money in the town centre in connection with the excellent but at present sparsely attended exhibitions and concerts at the De La Warr pavilion. Such a hotel could be stepped back from the sea front with terraces fronting the sea. This arrangement would preserve the views of and from the pavilion.

Let me tell the self-appointed leaders of the 'Save our Seafront' brigade tucked up in their cosy homes in Little Common and elsewhere that the sea is always interesting, never more so than when it is releasing its pent up energy in a south westerly gale and sending waves crashing on our shore. The club of hardy souls who daily enjoy lunch and refreshment at The Sovereign Light will testify to that.

What we require is for our council to show some leadership. I hope that sufficient of the silent majority will turn up at the exhibition at the De La Warr pavilion this weekend and make their views known by responding to the council's request for comments.

E Potts Lt Cdre (Retired)

South Cliff

Rainy day

DAVID Cameron earned much praise last week for his re-statement of core Conservative values.

He denounced big government, recommended the destruction of "all those quangos" and emphasised the importance of sound money and common sense.

By contrast, in a carefully-orchestrated performance at the council meeting on September 29, Conservative councillors demonstrated just how far removed they are from the vision of their national leader when they adopted the Next Wave seafront development project at a minimum additional cost to local taxpayers of 3.5m. All this in order to satisfy another unaccountable quango and thus obtain a further 1m of taxpayers' money.

Most of this sum is to pay for six underground bars and bistros behind the Colonnade. The balance is to pay for a Disney-like "modernisation" of the West Parade seafront based apparently, according to the council leader, on Seaspace achievements in Hastings!

No convincing economic justification has been advanced to justify the project which is ill thought out, financially imprudent and wrongly directed at the De La Warr Pavilion as Bexhill's supposed economic saviour.

Involved in the above, directly or indirectly, are SEEDA, Seaspace, CABE, the Arts Council and English Heritage - all big government quangos spending taxpayers' money to impose external agendas on local communities without their consent.

Only four Conservative councillors were sufficiently open-minded in their assessment of the proposal to challenge it with reasoned arguments.

It is to their lasting personal credit that they stood up and were counted.

Councillor Vereker's demolition of the proposal was devastating and clearly unsettled other councillors as they dutifully complied with the manic gestures of their leader and sat on their hands.

Councillor Vereker referred to the need to "keep our powder dry for a rainy day." That day must surely be imminent and I cannot believe that in such circumstance a Conservative council plans to spend a further 3.5m of our money on a hole in the ground and a seafront modelled on Hastings.

But then, of course, the council leader does not live in Bexhill - he lives in St Leonards!

John Lee

Southcourt Avenue

Think carefully

The council's exhibition of its costly new modern look for Bexhill's seafront is now on today (Friday) and tomorrow from 10am - 4pm at the Pavilion.

If you like the designs and think we should spend nearly 4 million of our precious rates reserves on this plan then vote for it.

However, if you don't think it is worth spending a huge chunk of our money, and if you think it could be better spent elsewhere in the town, then don't vote for the plans and state your reasons on their form.

Remember, the costs for these plans could escalate and eventually, one way or another, you could be paying.

Margate, just recently, found that their seafront plans soared from an estimated 7 million to 50 million and had to be abandoned after much money had been spent on planning etc. Think carefully '“ this could happen to us.

But, above all, go to the exhibition and let your own feelings be known.

Jackie Bialeska

Cantelupe Road.

Tell us

TODAY and tomorrow Rother District Council will be displaying and consulting on the Next Wave proposals for the Colonnade and the western seafront (West Parade) in the Studio at the De La Warr Pavilion from 10am until 4pm.

This will be your opportunity to have the detail of the scheme explained, study the plans and then say whether that is what you want for your seafront.

Save Our Seafront would encourage you all to attend the exhibition and then to be sure to include your own comments if you find the tick-box questions provided do not give you enough scope to express your opinion.

You may like the proposals, or you may prefer something completely different. You may even want no change at all apart from the renovation and renewal of the existing seafront.

You may already be aware of these proposals but for many of you this will be your first (and possibly only!) chance to examine the finer details and to say what you want.

The total (estimated) cost of these proposals is 5.1m so it is really important that if this money is to be spent, it should be in line with what Rother council taxpayers want.

It's your money that will finance these proposals and you can influence what your seafront will look like in the future.

SOS are also interested to hear your views and would be very grateful if you could let us have them too. We can be contacted by post at 5 Copse Road, Bexhill TN39 3UA or by e-mail to [email protected]

Jean Bishop

Chairman,

Save Our Seafront

Clear message

WITH regard to the public consultation over the Next Wave proposals, it is to be hoped that in addition to comments made on the proposals, respondents to the survey will send a clear message to our big-spending council that the middle of a global financial crisis is not an appropriate time to be expending 65% of our capital reserve fund on tarting up the seafront.

J. Hodson

Cooden Sea Road

Amateur policy

WITH regards to Philippa Coughlan's letter in your paper last week, we are surprised to hear of her concerns and disappointed that she did not wait for a reply from Alan Haydon before sending a letter littered with inaccuracies and false assumptions to the local press.

We are therefore following suit and replying to Ms Coughlan via the letters page of this newspaper.

We have a very good relationship with Bexhill's two amateur companies, BATS and BLODS, and talk to them and meet with them on a regular basis to ensure that their visit here runs smoothly and with our full support .

As they will both perform at the Pavilion in November, we have talked to senior members of both groups as recently as last week. Clearly Ms Coughlan is not part of these discussions.

As stated in the contract they sign, groups who hire the Pavilion are not included in our print. However, the BATS show is listed on our website www.dlwp.com through which we receive bookings. BATS can provide us with posters which we put up, free of charge, outside the building and along the seafront and we are happy to discuss with them any marketing or audience development activity that might help them.

This activity was very effective, we are told, when used by the BLODS last season and we continue to work well with that group. BATS have yet to respond to these initiatives and, at the time of writing, we have not yet had any further publicity material from them.

There is no dislike for amateur companies in the Pavilion; our core value is quality, whether professional or amateur.

The BATS are heavily subsidised by Rother Council Tax payers and their audience figures both at the Pavilion and at venues outside (as reported in this paper last week) are very poor. This should be of concern.

We all work towards creating an audience for the different activities that we offer and at times have to refresh some long-held views on those activities and how attractive they are to an audience base with ever-changing demands

We look forward to welcoming BATS to Pavilion in November.

Sally Ann Lycett

Head of Communications

De La Warr Pavilion

New era

HOMECALL, the home visiting scheme for blind and partially sighted people, enters a new era in its history.

The charity has faced many challenges since it's inception back in 1985, and the latest challenge was met with great fortitude here in Bexhill.

It seems, therefore, an appropriate time to once again thank every single individual, group, organisation and business who supported me in my campaign to raise sufficient funding to enable the charity to continue its support of visually impaired people living in our community.

To be very honest I hardly dared believe it to be possible but with the unstinting support of John Dowling, deputy editor of the Bexhill Observer, the campaign seemingly captured the imagination of the town.

As is often the case here in Bexhill the community rose to the challenge! Many people either connected or unconnected to Homecall worked tirelessly raising monies at so many different events.

The future of Homecall in Bexhill is secure for the time being but we will be continuing to hold fund-raising events on a regular basis in order to ensure the longer-term survival of the charity. Please continue to support us if you will.

For myself it has, indeed, been a journey. I feel privileged to be taking Homecall forward and with the support of our trustees I can only say we will do our very best.

Jenny Private

Peartree Lane

Poor feedback

A REASON why there is a poor feedback from "public consultation" is I think due to poor notification of the events, the staging of which cost the taxpayer a considerable amount.

Important items such as this, seafront hotel, cycle routes etc, should have a leaflet drop to all households, followed up by the local councillor enlisting the consensus of opinion, as does Cllr Charles Clark.

Because not everyone takes the Observer or visits anywhere that a notice can be seen, how can an individual be aware of major alterations in our area?

K B Beckett

Glyne Drive

Cafe decision

THE Government makes it illegal for a cafe not to have a toilet and hand-washing facilities. The Sovereign Cafe apply for the necessary planning permission and are refused!

Surely the council are breaking the law by taking this quite outrageous action if they are ignoring a legal requirement.

Peter Melton

Cambridge Road

Hope foundation

I WONDER if through your paper I can thank everyone who has supported our Hope Foundation Trust Charity shop over the last six months. Since opening on April 12 we have been constantly encouraged by people's support and generosity. Through your support we have been able to start building the rehabilitation centre in Lamka, North East India.

So a big, big thank you to all and may we continue to enjoy your custom.

I am shortly to visit India again, and I was hoping to take some football shirts with me. Football being an international 'language' - I know that the local young people would appreciate a football shirt from one of our Premier league teams. So, if you have one that you no longer need, (doesn't matter what size) then I would very much appreciate your help.

You can drop it into the shop at 25 Sea Road, Bexhill. Thank you

DEREK PETERSON

On behalf of Hope Foundation Trust

Radio gift

On behalf of Hospital Radio Hastings I would like to say thank-you very much to the Bexhill Carnival Committee and also their sponsors for choosing to support Hospital Radio Hastings as one of the charities benefiting from the 2008 carnival.

Hospital Radio Hastings is a local registered charity based at The Conquest Hospital and broadcasts 24 hours a day to the patients. We have a dedicated team of members who are all volunteers.

Some visit the wards and collect requests to play for the patients which gives patients the opportunity to hear some of their favourite songs and music during their stay in the hospital. Some do regular programme presenting while others help to keep things running smoothly with secretarial work, technical support and attending fund raising events and also giving talks about our work to groups in the community.

We are entirely self-funding so we really appreciate the support given to us by Bexhill Carnival this year. Generous support like this helps us to continue our service to the patients who are mainly from the Bexhill and Hastings area. We are pleased to have been a part of an extremely well-organised and successful event and thoroughly enjoyed our Friday evening and Saturday at The Polegrove. We look forward to next years carnival and once again thank you from us all at Hospital Radio Hastings.

Wendy Butler

Hospital Radio Hastings.

Kidbrooke days

I feel I must write in reply to Mr Marshall's comment on Kidbrooke School (last week's letters page). I was lucky enough to attend there in the late fifties and early sixties. At that time the school did have 2,000 girls students (we were the baby boom generation after the second World War).

What the school offered was a diverse range of subjects to study in the then 4th and 5th years. We had the choice of doing commercial, tailoring, dressmaking, millinery, catering, plus of course, academic and languages.

Not many schools at that time offered such a choice. How many offer anything like that now under one roof ? That I left with no qualifications then was down to me and lack of parental interest.

It was only when I went on later to study for GCEs at Adult Education that I realised what a golden opportunity I had missed.

No matter what the size of the school it all really depends on how good the teacher is and parental support.

Lynne Love

Pebsham Lane

Care today

I WOULD like to thank the Carnival Committee for their kind donation to the MPS Society.

I only learnt of this voluntary support group last year, after my grandson was diagnosed with Sanfilippo Disease, a very rare degenerative disease.

My grandson was born four years ago a beautiful little boy. He was very active; did all the usual things babies do and grew into a healthy, strong, toddler.

He gradually stopped talking. Then he started walking on his toes and became unsteady on his feet, falling over frequently as he walked.

Eventually, after blood testing, my daughter was told he had Sanfilippo, which is a mucopolysaccharide disease.

When my daughter told me this, I asked: "What are the doctors doing to do? Will he need an operation? Will he have to take medication?"

To my shock the reply was that at present there is no cure, no treatment whatsoever.

On the internet we went and found the website of the MPS Society.

For 25 years they have been there to help families. They put people suffering with MPS in touch with each other. They publish specialist books and information on living with the disease. Most importantly, to my mind, they fund research that may lead to treatment and therapy.

The MPS Society says "Care today, hope for tomorrow."

One child every eight days is born with MPS-related disease. Every year hundreds of parents contact the society.

So well done. A lot of hard work went into organising the Carnival. Lots of people had fun and various charities have benefited.

Susan Hollidge

College Road

Coffee cash

IN addition to your news item in respect of the Macmillan Cancer Support, I would like to say that my daughter Angela and her husband Paul have had a coffee morning in their flat and made a super 140 towards the Macmillan Cancer Support. Their flat is in Knole Road.

Also, a wonderful sum was raised with a coffee morning at Catley Court.

Denys Carden

Sutherland Avenue