Tell us why you didn't vote?

Dave WalshRotherfield Avenue, Bexhill

Overall the coverage by the Bexhill Observer of a recent Rother Council “debate” has been exemplary and demonstrates that its Readers

Charter means what it says!

The numbers of letters published has been proportional to the amount of disquiet generated by what can only be described as a perverse decision.

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Twenty per cent of the Bexhill population was (effectively) ignored. I suspect this will be a great deal more than vote in an average by-election and that many of the 39,000 who didn’t express a view may have also wanted their own Town Council.

Some may have been put off by the ‘rumours’ I heard circulating however, that better local representation would automatically raise the Council Tax level. It’s capable of going up by itself anyway as we all know. The question to ask is how well is that income is being managed?

As Carole Woodland said (letters, 5/1/18) “Bexhill would have more control over where money was spent”. A non-politically aligned mayor and a numerate town manager might help with that process, but one thing at a time eh?

Readers may know that the Sheffield PPI Tree Clearance Scheme has been alarming, decimating and desecrating local communities. The cost of removing this dangerous menace was said to be £50k a tree. The local Residents Group then obtained a price of £3,500 each.

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As one member said: “Why didn’t they get two quotes like everyone else?”. There will need to be a further “groundswell”. Could perhaps the Observer encourage some of those residents who chose not to vote to write in and let us know your views please?

It is your potentially wonderful town after all.

For an independent view see the Guardian Weekend Magazine feature (Saturday, 5/1/18) “Let’s move to Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex: it confounds expectations”.

I recall Mr D from the music business. He didn’t seem to go far from the station really. I wasn’t aware of a Bob Marley gig in Bexhill but then Tom didn’t seem to know that Mr Marley moved, with his mother, from the Caribbean to Delaware in the USA (as located by Earl De La Warr 400 years ago) and worked in a factory there for 18 months. This isn’t fake news. It’s not just Rother Council that’s a small world!