Your letters - February 5, 2010

Folk festival will not cause any problems

MAY I reassure the few residents of Sedlescombe who are concerned about the small Telham Folk Festival moving to the Pestalozzi Village for four days that having helped at Telham for 17 years, I can't recall any crime or disorder. Take a look at Telham, it was in the same state after the weekend as before, but the families and friends who attended sat and enjoyed a mixture of world class folk musicians and young bands trying out in a friendly safe place.

The new site sounds like a contained environment, no crossing the A2100 to and from the car park. With Rother District Council licensing committee, police, etc only giving the go ahead if they are happy with the arrangements, as they have always been at Telham, I really think those people who are worried can sleep easy in their beds.

Liz Beeching

Whatlington Road

Battle

EU needs us more than we need them

I SUPPORT most of Richard Meade's comments (letters 29/01/10) and have huge admiration for Daniel Hannan, our Eurosceptic Conservative MEP, but Richard is quite wrong in inferring that if UKIP pulls us out of the political EU then our export trade with Europe would be seriously damaged.

The EU exports more to Britain than we export to it, so it is the EU which needs us more than we need them, as is proven by Britain being the second highest contributor to the EU budget! Besides which, the EU accounts for around 50 per cent of our manufactured exports (about 20 per cent of our GDP), but Britain trades with over 120 other nations including ultra-communist North Korea - just as we have in the past and will in the future. The reason is simple: British businesses and merchants trade with foreign businesses and merchants - not with politicians - for it is the consumer who decides what he or she buys. Furthermore, the self-protectionist EU is a signatory to the World Trade Organisation, which prohibits discriminatory trade tariffs – including an independent and free Britain!

The EU Commission has confirmed categorically that if we left, our trade with its member states will not suffer! Or are committed Europhiles calling their beloved unelected EU Commission, liars and ignoramuses?

Surely politicians should be rubbing their hands at the prospect of diverting the 14bn we give annually to the EU into bailing Britain out of Gordon Brown's bottomless black hole of debts and allowing us to freely invest in Britain, the NHS, Armed Forces, manufacturing... as we see fit?

Don't forget, under the Lib-Lab's beloved Lisbon Treaty, British tax-payers will eventually become legally bound to bail out failing Eurozone economies even though we are not in the Euro! The Greek economy is now in dire straits - surprise, surprise! Why? Well, Greece was allowed to join the Eurozone in 2001 even though it failed miserably to meet the exacting criteria for entry. Other EU member states, France and Italy included, also fiddled the books to gain entry, but admitting Greece was a naive political face-saving gesture to promote the Euro. Now that folly had come to haunt them - and us hard pressed British tax-payers!

The sooner we leave, the better!

Barry M Jones

Beckley

To cheat or not to cheat in The Game?

JUST before Christmas I read Catch 22 with the Rye Readers Group little knowing that I would be plunged into a similarly insane world on Boxing Day, when I took part in the Winchelsea Streete Game, from which I see no escape. Last week the Marshall Marshall (the anti-hero of this tale) explained in these pages that The Game is steeped in centuries' old traditions of chicanery, Spanish practices and down-right unfairness.

Then why oh why was The Blue Team robbed of its victory for the underhand crime of practising, as discovered by the video official who supposedly spotted evidence of suspicious hand signals? Surely if indeed we did break the rules we should be applauded for upholding the ancient traditions of skulduggery that define the true spirit of The Game, rather than being penalised by the Marshall Marshall. You play a game where you are expected to cheat in order to win and then have your victory taken away for cheating - Catch 22.

I can only put it down to the Marshall Marshall's desperate disappointment in his purchase of a Bombay beard, Mumbai moustache twinset job-lot, when he really only wanted a Gujerati goatee.

Andy Yossarian Stuart

West Street, Rye

Disabled folk still penalised in Battle

I WISH the new Boots chemist in Battle High Street every success, and was pleased to notice that they have a 'Disabled' door entry button. However, this does seem to be rather strange, as there is a step up to enter, thus rendering it totally inaccessible to wheelchairs and scooters!

It seems the disabled folk of Battle must still be penalised, as I have heard, via Greg Barker MP, that no disabled access/egress to the railway station is envisaged until after 2015. However this is good news for my descendants!

Ruth Rymell

Marley Gardens, Battle

Well done to New Inn during snow

On behalf of the residents of Winchelsea I would like to thank Julie, Louise and Rachel who have kept the New Inn going all through Christmas and the cold snowy weather.

They have been intrepid, not only in working hard but creating a happier and more relaxed atmosphere in the pub.

S Hargreaves

Rectory Lane, Winchelsea.

New homes should not replace eyesore

Re your heading "End of an Eyesore"

It would seem obvious to anyone that the restricted site of the boarded up houses in Fishmarket Road, cheek by jowl with heavy traffic, is a grim and dangerous place to live, whatever the quality of the new housing. No one should be condemned to live there and permission must surely be refused for new development.

This is an opportunity to create an imaginative attractive public space, thus avoiding a future "eyesore".

John Haddock

Castle Street, Winchelsea

Local planning matters

LAST week I replied to Charles Piggot's letter (Mailbag January 22) saying, among other things, that I found interesting his explanation of the origins of the words 'pikey' and 'gipsy'. That letter was not published because the editor felt that some of my other comments might be misunderstood by the lady who is infringing planning laws by making her home (known to most of your readers) on Powdermill Lane.

Strangely enough (some of your readers may think), always provided, and I stress, always provided, this development is not extended by her, or anyone else, I don't have a problem. It all looks neat and tidy, and I'm sure she has organised effective sanitation and pays her local taxes.

The problem is, of course, that once one person chooses to ignore planning laws, and gets away with it, others may be tempted to do likewise. But having said that, when you think how our local planners ignored the fact that Highlands Farm (behind Battle Hill) is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and gave permission for the building of over 250 homes there, one can have little objection to the Powdermill site - always provided!

John Hill

Glengorse, Battle

Attempt to shame irresponsible owners

Margot Dixon has understandably misunderstood the situation regarding the filled dog pooh bags she encountered at the western end of the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve.

These bags are the result of the actions of an overzealous resident of Winchelsea Beach, who has a strong objection to dog owners allowing their pets to foul the footpaths.

For many years this person has been bagging the excrement and leaving it lying on the paths in an attempt to "teach" dog owners to change their ways, and she is undeterred by the fact that this has obviously had absolutely no effect on the situation.

The fact is that, while it is against the law to litter the paths with plastic bags, there is no obligation on dog owners to clear up their dog's pooh on these footpaths, nor are there any dog waste bins to put the waste in.

To the frustration of most of the residents and the visitors, who object to these plastic bags, and although the local police have informed me that it is the council's responsibility, Rother RDC has so far refused to do anything to stop this.

The situation has become worse now that well-meaning people have started collecting the bags and placing them at the end of the footpath to the beach from The Ridge.

If the bags are moved, the person responsible no longer removes them once a month when the wheelie bins are emptied, but leaves them indefinitely. No-one else is responsible for removing them, so there they stay!

Many residents of Winchelsea Beach would welcome suggestions as to how we can stop this unfortunate and distressing behaviour.

Elizabeth Hojlund

by email

Harbour should have been top of cash list

Last week's Rye Observer reported my comments urging Bexhill to hand back 250,000 to Hastings.

This is not about Hastings vs Rother. I know that many of our friends in Rye and Eastern Rother also have concerns about how Rother target expenditure in the Bexhill area to the disadvantage of Rye and district.

That 250,000 was specifically earmarked by Government to tackle youth unemployment in Hastings, one of the most challenged areas in the South East. For that cash to be handed to relatively wealthy Bexhill seems like madness when so many youngsters in Hastings are struggling to find work.

Hastings and Rye together have significantly greater needs in terms of employment opportunities than Bexhill Town and if Hastings is to spend employment cash outside the Borough the needs of Rye Harbour should have been top of the list.

Michael Foster DL MP

House of Commons, London

Town Council fought hard to stop houses

Mr Blackman's statement that no Rye Town Councillors attended the land north of Udimore Road Appeal Inquiry at Rye Community Centre (Letters, 29 January) is incorrect: the current Mayor, Sam Souster, was present every day.

At the Town Council's Planning & Townscape Committee meeting held on 18 January this year Cllr Osborne expressed frustration about the limited response to his efforts to invoke public interest in the possibility of development on land north of Udimore Road during the early stages of the evolvement of the Rother District Local Plan. As I recall it did take a little while for local opposition to galvanise and build up momentum.

The Town Council consistently and vehemently opposed any development on the site at every opportunity, and Rother District Council devoted considerable resources to defending its decision to refuse outline planning permission.

Richard Farhall

Rye Town Clerk.

Tributes on Harold Day at Abbey High Altar

Recent press correspondence about Harold Day is very timely.

Your correspondent is correct that there are no flowers laid at the statue by 'The Fountain' in St Leonards, but if they had visited Battle Abbey they would have found the site of the High Altar covered in wreaths.

Unfortunately English Heritage doesn't see fit to commemorate this day in our history and charges wreath layers to enter the grounds.

They also close early at 4pm because it is 'out of season' meaning that those of us who live locally, and work cannot get to the site before closing time. I asked for it to be opened later and was told I would have to pay the overtime of the gate staff.

I took time off work to lay a wreath myself and was profoundly moved by the things I read that day.

There are many who believe that in this part of England we should celebrate our Saxon heritage. In 2006 the Hastings Bonfire effigy was William, not Harold, with an arrow in his eye. Often you will also see the head of 'William the Bastard' carried in the parade.

I am sure that if anybody has any ideas of how to celebrate the Saxon spirit on the anniversary of the Battle the Hastings Week committee would be interested to hear their view. They are there to celebrate Hastings with all its historic links, not just the Norman conquest.

For starters I feel that we all should write to English Heritage to ask that they stay open later on this special day and that they should not charge pilgrims who want to remember our last true King, and yes let's start a campaign to at least have the Saxon Dragon flying alongside the Papal Gonfalon of Normandy.

KEITH LEECH,

Collier Road, Hastings