Winner of Battle roundabout design announced

Kenneth Higgs’ proposal for two knights representing King Harolds defeat to William the Conquerer was chosen by Battle Town Council.

His design will go on the roundabout at the top of the High Street to commemorate next year’s celebrations.

Mr Higgs was proud of his success and said he was looking forward to seeing it come to life.

He was part of the organising team for the 900th anniversary party in 1966 and he said it was apt for him to be a part of it again 50 years later.

Members of the town council chose to prefer the proposal for the town’s five wards to go down to three under the ongoing electoral review by Rother District Council.

The district authority are currently reviewing the electoral wards to make sure each has a similar amount of constituents.

So the town council were given the option to give a preference on how Battle should be divided and chose three councillors instead of four.

Cllr Glenna Favell described the idea to have one councillor each for Battle South, Central and North as ‘much cleaner’ and said it served the town better.

The alternative is to have four councillors instead of five, with one representing Battle & Marley, two for Battle Watch Oak and one for Guestling & Westfield, which would include parts of Telham.

Currently cllrs Kevin Dixon and Kathryn Field represent Watch Oak & Marley, cllr Gary Curtis serves Telham and cllrs Eleanor Kirby-Green and Emily Rowlinson represent Netherfield.

The consensus at the meeting was that by having less district councillors, they would be more likely to attend town council meetings and report back from Rother.

In other business, the council will be writing to HSBC to express their concern about ‘the closure of yet another bank in the town and the effect it will have on the town, particularly elderly residents’.

Mayor Margaret Kiloh said this would show the council is aware of the impact the bank’s closure would have.

Cllr Claire Davies was allocated to the environment committee and cllr Paula Fisher was made part of the external relations committee.

The idea for a town warden to enforce parking abuses was rebuffed by police as their powers of enforcement cannot be delegated.

So the only option to change parking enforcement is to decriminalise is, which is the responsibility of Rother District Council to decide.

Councillors were disappointed by the news as this is an issue many in Battle are concerned about.

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