Your letters - September 19

Think ahead

THE furious correspondence that accompanies any change or proposal for change in Bexhill is totally dispiriting to me, a fairly recent Bexhillian.

I arrived in time for the drumming out of the Sea Space proposals and have witnessed the challenges to the De La Warr Heights and Baird Court developments and the squalor of major non-developments at the Grand Hotel and Hollenden House.

Grudging approvals have been given to mediocre proposals and the usual suspects have gathered their petitions.

It seems clear to me that there is absolutely no strategic grasp of the current situation of the town, no agreement to how it might change and no acceptance that sacrifices are necessary to create a better future.

The town is tatty, commercially unattractive, offering little in the way of decent employment and almost nothing to absorb the energies and enthusiasms of its pre-retirement residents.

It is inevitable that its large proportion of retirees will watch their every penny, so the spiral of decline is likely to continue without a major nudge.

It's 'Edwardian heritage' is largely-neglected, poorly-maintained and commands rents that make it uneconomic to restore to an acceptable state. Meanwhile the gems of the Pavilion and the Old Town are widely reviled and ignored respectively.

Bexhill must be the bane of Rother DC '“ a disaster in the making with no appetite for change of any sort. So, while they can concentrate on Rye, Battle and the less bellicose villages we can hardly expect their best efforts for this ungrateful town. Hence, perhaps, the daft waste of the Devonshire Square Piazza and the Colonnade proposal.

As a purely retirement town Bexhill will just slide further into failure and dereliction.

We need a local debate to see if that is what the majority want. With a radically different mandate, however, it is at least possible that the town could develop its commercial and tourist activities, providing life-blood for its future.

Short of building a theme park, the DLWP is the one magnet we have to attract significant numbers of visitors. Given a decent hotel and a selection of 'destination' restaurants and shops, we can keep them here long enough to spend a great deal more than all those locals who complain about the food and ticket prices at the DLWP!

The problem is that nobody in their right mind will build a top-class seaside hotel without a sea view. Save Our Seafront be damned, seafront space needs to be found for a good hotel.

In the cold light of day, the seafront is already marred by the awful amusement arcade, a succession of failing cafes and a low-budget floral effort, so the loss of a rather pathetic crazy golf course would seem a small sacrifice.

We also need a Tourist Information Centre for our B&Bs and smaller hotels.

So, let the forward-looking townsfolk take up the cudgels for change.

Who will set up a petition trolley in Devonshire Road? I'll be the first to sign it, and I'll build the website to gather support from the online community.

David Woolf

De La Warr Road

Half baked

Your Editorial Comment on the subject of Pebsham playpark and recreational areas sat nicely alongside the two full pages of readers' letters objecting to the way in which Rother Council, plus their "Consultant Camp-Followers", were attempting to impose their grandiose ideas on the council taxpayers.

With a few exceptions (Charles Clark and Stuart Earl come to mind), it seems that not too long after being elected our local politicians not only start to follow their "party line" in all matters, but look for the sort of self-glorification all too common in their national political leaders.

Advised by "experts," they come up with half baked ideas that will only involve Joe Public footing the bill! Frank Wood, in his letter agreed with the old saying," There are no group of people so consistently wrong as The Experts!

In a democratic society the remedy is easy: "You put them in, you get them out"! Sadly, only a small part of those entitled to vote do so, and those that do mostly vote on ingrained party lines.

Perhaps more of our concern should be on the very few people who, for various reasons, offer their services to elected positions.

Perhaps We get the Government that we deserve?

Dave Sully

York Road

Town vandals

I HAVE just returned to the town after some time away and am stunned to learn of the proposals by Rother Council to vandalise the Bexhill seafront, I can only conclude that a significant clique of councillors is in the grip of a manic affliction.

If I had to identify the temporary madness in question it would be a close cousin of St Vitus Dance - by the name of St Leonards Dance. This condition causes sufferers to cast envious, blinkered eyes to the east and is marked by futile attempts to imitate what the Joneses next door are doing. Our green-eyed councillors see the lorry-loads of euro-cash being dumped on St Leonards on Sea (and the reservoirs of distemper being slapped on the seafront facade) and greedily want to play the same game in their own little backwater.

But Bexhill is nothing like St Leonards and what may work in St Leonards will not work in Bexhill. To start with, there was no Decimus Burton in Bexhill and consequently no comparable unified development concept and little design consistency - not least because of the triumphantly discordant and dominant Pavilion. The town therefore does not lend itself to the type of imposed quick fix now being proposed. In the circumstances, I suggest the Council should remove its biassed blinkers and start taking a hard look at Bexhill itself - and not the towns down the coast.

KAY LEONARD

Little Common Road

Party poopers

HOW many people who are now worried about the seafront proposals are those very same people who last year voted this lot of councillors into office?

When will the electorate realise that the habit of simply voting in local elections for a political party that one has always supported, is no guarantee that the local representatives who are elected will listen to our views?