This is not party political issue

From: C. Byrne, Marina, Bexhill
Bexhill Observer lettersBexhill Observer letters
Bexhill Observer letters

I was pleased to receive with the 2017 Council Tax Demand, a leaflet about the Bexhill Community Governance Review. This review could restore to local people some of the decision-making powers which were lost when Rother District Council was created in 1974.

However, the leaflet (an expensive, one-sided colour print) provides little information for the thousands of Bexhillians who are not online and cannot use the www.rother.gov.uk/CommunityGovernanceRev-
iew website link. Those citizens are told to speak to their local councillors or go to the town hall to collect an information booklet.

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Surely it would have been cheaper and more effective to include in the council tax mailing a double-sided black and white explanatory page, together with a paper response form to enable everyone to take part?

There is a pattern here: Rother District Councillors have already blocked increased local governance for Bexhill in 2005 and 2013. Many local people believe that by restricting access to information (including the booklets and paper response forms), councillors hope that a small number of people respond to the review, allowing them to block progress yet again.

Four thousand local people signed the 2016 petition, which forced Rother to hold the Community Governance Review and it is vital that everyone now takes part in the actual review. The deadline to respond in March 31, 2017.

If you have internet access, or can get to Bexhill Library to use the free computers, please look at www.rother.gov.uk/CommunityGoverna-
nceReview. You will see hundreds of responses from local people, most demanding that Bexhill should have a town council. There are also discussions on the Bexhill-on-Sea Group on Facebook.

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Half of Rother’s 930,000 population lives in Bexhill but this is not reflected in Rother’s ruling Cabinet, where Bexhill councillors are only a small minority.

Bexhill is by far the largest town in Rother and most of Rother’s massive new residential developments are in Bexhill. Yet Bexhill is the only Rother town/village without a town or parish council and therefore does not automatically receive a share of the levy paid by the developers.

This is not a party political issue but an issue of fairness and civic pride for all who live or work in Bexhill.

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