Seaford achieves what we can't
As we get closer to finding out how much our council tax will be for the year 2010/11, I am minded to wonder why Seaford, with a population more than twice that of Newhaven, has a town council which charged its residents £52.55 less than Newhaven (and even £5.17 less than South Heighton Parish Council) for a Band D property in 2009/10 yet still manages to have a better appearance as far as flowers and tree planting goes, as well as a fully accessible and maintained beach.
Speaking of beaches, who pays the annual maintenance costs for shovelling Seaford beach back into position? Is it Lewes District Council? Or East Sussex County Council perhaps? In which case it would seem the residents of Newhaven while unable to use their own beach are subsidising Seaford's beach.
If I remember correctly last year Newhaven residents saw an increase in Council Tax for Newhaven Town Council in the region of 16 percent, to be used in an attempt to re-open the beach.
Why do we have to pay for this when Seaford gets its beach maintained for free? Couldn't LDC or ESCC cough up the same amount they spend on Seaford's beach to help get the breakwater into a safe state of repair?
If it is just left to crumble into the sea, then surely it will come to represent a danger to some residents and businesses just as failure to maintain Seaford's beach may to its residents.
I am old enough to remember the 10-foot drop down to Seaford beach from the road level and the wooden groins spaced every so often along the stretch, there didn't seem to be much flooding going on then, just a lot of waves crashing over the road when a storm came in at high tide.
I wonder how the cost of repairing/replacing the groins would have compared to the cost of shifting shingle every year forever more until the UK succumbs to rising sea levels.
Michael Young, Newhaven
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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