Tilling Green to feature in festival

Rye Festival organisers say they are looking at staging two events at Tilling Green Community Centre, the former Tilling Green School building, when the festival takes place in September.

And Rye Town Council agreed a £500 grant this week to make that possible,

There was some discussion as to whether the grant should be awarded. Cllr John Breeds said: “I can’t see why they can’t put on events at Tilling Green anyway. We have given them money in the past and it has not really been acknowledged.”

But Deputy Mayor Cllr Bernardine Fiddimore said: “I don’t think £500 is an awful lot of money.

“Tilling Green has been a poor relation up to now I would be delighted to see something happening there.”

Lord Ampthill said: “It would be excellent to have something at Tilling Green and undoubtedly these events will cost more to put on than they will bring in.”

There was some concern over the sound quality of the community centre with Cllr Mary Smith commenting: “The venue does need to be brought up to the expectations of an audience. The acoustics are very poor.”