Town forum in need of support

It is not going from strength to strength - but you can help.

You can nominate yourself to be a member anything up to the elections on September 3, not just until June 30.

You have to nominate yourself by email at [email protected]. You cannot write or call because I am told there is no phone number or address.

If they really want new members, they should welcome you.

Before the latest committee took over, the forum was losing some of its spark, although its penultimate meeting on parking attracted 250 attendees including the crime commissioner Katy Bourne. However, in general, it did indeed need some help.

The new crew were supposed to regenerate it, but in the last two years, numbers of attendees have dropped alarmingly and there is much unrest among the members of the forum.

The presentations are mostly repeats of presentations I have heard at old forums and members of the public have had little chance to present their own problems and ideas.

There are almost no councillors present, no proper minutes and no real discussions, only lectures and questions. Nothing results from it, unlike the Marina presentation, which prevented the move of the planned zebra crossing.

Remember the days when two elderly men ran the forum, the place was packed, the meetings lively.

Everyone came - councillors, officers, fire officials, police, etc. Then it was a real voice of the town and its residents. I have fond memories of it.

So don’t be put off by that draconian list of qualifications required to be a committee member. The forum needs normal, sensible people with a knowledge of the town and its history, and a keen interest in what is planned for the town.

One of those people could be you. Bring some of the sparkled back into the old forum. We must not lose the only scrap of democracy left until we get our own town council or area committee.

Please support your own Bexhill Town Forum.

V.Y. Barnsby

Sackville Road

Bexhill

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