We go out of our way to avoid political bias
I DO like to start the day with a good laugh and Rother district councillor Ian Jenkins certainly provided one in Mailbag of October 24.
He starts by misquoting me - if he had taken the trouble to properly read your earlier report he would have seen I did not say 'everybody thinks Bexhill should have its own town council' - I said most people thought that.
And of course as Battle Town Council chairman I was simply stating the view I have heard repeated expressed by Battle Council Tax payers.
In fact I do not recall hearing any Battle resident championing the present arrangements, but as I try to be objective I allow there may be those who are quite happy to see their council taxes being spent on the likes of the De La Warr Pavilion and the Bexhill seafront.
I invite those that so think to let me know, because I do like to have a balanced view.
But as I have been elected to represent Battle residents I only really want to hear from them.
Cllr Jenkins goes on to say that I take the usual Liberal view on costs. Many readers may assume from reading that that I am a Liberal Democratic Party member/voter/supporter. I am none of those.
For the record may I also say I have never been and do not expect ever to be a member of any political grouping.
Furthermore, I would not be a town councillor if Battle Town Council were not totally apolitical.
The truth is we go out of our way to avoid political bias. Strangely, we find that a great aid to objective thinking.
It is tempting to go on, but I know readers grow weary of such bickering; instead I finish by saying that in the last paragraph of his letter Cllr Jenkins accuses Battle Town Councillors of not having a balanced view on national and local issues.
Surely that is a somewhat sweeping statement which appears to be based upon a bare scintilla of possible evidence. It is certainly not something I expect my fellow councillors to take kindly to.
However, no doubt they will think, as I do, that so long as we receive the support we do from Battle Council Tax payers we need not particularly concern ourselves with the views of the Rother District Councillor for Ticehurst and Etchingham - who just might be grinding a political axe.
Ron Harris
Chairman
Battle Town Council

Bexhill needs its own town council
COUNCILLOR Jenkins last week attacked a number of local matters. I do however take exception to his use of the capital letter 'L' for Liberal in the case of Battle town councillors and did he really mean a liberal view? Town and parish councillors throughout Rother are not political posts.
However Liberal Democrats are very concerned as to cost to the local taxpayer and it cannot have escaped his notice we consider the Council Tax to be one of the most inequitable taxes in existence and campaign for its abolition at every opportunity.
As to the matter of a Town Council for Bexhill, Cllr Jenkins will, as the Cabinet member with the aim of building stronger, safer communities, be fully aware of the part played by local town and parish councils.
Had he been a regular attendee at the Rother Association of Local Council meetings he would know the view taken by the rural parishes is that Bexhill misses out in full representation in not having its own Town Council.
The recent proposals to give the Bexhill Town Forum a stronger voice are flawed and a satisfactory result will not be achieved without the use of the ballot box.
It is also possible the Bexhill seafront improvement proposals would possibly not have been so poorly received if they had first been presented and fully discussed with town councillors and not merely district councillors.
Bexhill Liberal Democrats, with the support of rural members, have been campaigning for some time on the streets of Bexhill for a town council and have been receiving cross party support.
They have publicly acknowledged there will be some set-up cost involved but once established there would be advantages from which the town does not currently benefit.
As central government seeks more and more to find financial savings it might be realised better representation would be achieved by town and parish councils receiving the full acknowledgement, which they do in many places, as being the first layer of local government.
The more expensive district and county councils could then be amalgamated to form a unitary authority. As turkeys are unlikely to vote for Christmas I suspect it unlikely that our district and county councillors like this suggestion.
Mary Varrall
Vice Chair
Rother Association of Local Councils
Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate

Chamber setting a fine example
THAT the Rye Chamber of Commerce is now hitting the headlines as the most sucessful trade organisation in the town is, it has to be said, largely due to the retiring Chairman, Derick Holman, who has led his committee through some turbulent times.
His able lieutenants such as Sara Nixon and Christopher Strangeways, to name just two, have given much to help to Derick over these last few years which has caused it to be put on the map.
The splendid initiative of cardboard collection which now has the accolade of 'Best High Street Recycler' finalist for the National Recycling Awards requires recognition.
The Christmas Lights has also taken off and with the able leadership of Peter Cossick the Christmas Festival has shown what the Chamber can do when their mind is put to it.
It all shows what can be done by a group of dedicated members and shows up starkly against the Rye Hotel and Caterers Association which seem to be, in comparison, in total disarray.
No wonder their membership is rising with accommodation providers joining the Chamber. As Derick says: "We have a clear strategy for going forward with new and exciting projects".
I wish Derick's successor, Neil Cunliffe, as the Chamber's newly-elected chairman, the very best for the future.
Perhaps it is the Rye Chamber of Commerce we should be looking at for leading on the marketing of this town.
It certainly appears they have the ideas and the enthusiasm to push this project forward.
It is so vitally important that marketing is given top priority, especially in these troubled times of financial unrest which is hitting the retailers and other businesses in the town so hard.
Granville Bantick
Rye town councillor

Pool for Battle?
BATTLE residents will hopefully recall that in April 2007 the Battle Local Action Plan, drawn up from responses to a questionnaire to residents, listed a number of aims that the Steering Group remains keen to follow up.
One of those aims was to provide a heated covered community swimming pool in Battle and was supported by 83% of respondents.
Additionally there was high support in a separate consultation with young people carried out by the Youth Development Service.
More recently the government has announced its initiative to provide free swimming for the under 16s and over 65s and we wonder how Battle residents might be catered for under this initiative.
The BLAP Steering Group would welcome any letters of support from individuals and organisations in pursuit of our aim to get a pool for Battle.
Please write to Swimming for Battle, c/o Alison Norwood, BLAP SG, 11 Mitre Way, Battle, TN330BQ email alison.norwood@virgin.net.
The next meeting of the Battle Local Action Plan Steering Group is on November 26 at 7pm.
Anyone interested in supporting the Steering Group achieve the aims of the Action Plan is welcome to attend.
Alison Norwood
Mitre Way, Battle

Christmas fears?
EVEN though we're enjoying some of the best weather of the whole year, today marks just two months until Christmas Day!
The festive period can be a very expensive time of year, and we at the Legal Services Commission urge people to start planning their finances now to avoid a New Year debt crisis.
With thoughts turning to hitting the high street in search of pre-'Christmas rush' bargains, I encourage people who see themselves getting into money problems to get advice to prevent crippling credit card bills hitting doormats in the New Year.
Legal aid funds a helpline, Community Legal Advice - 0845 345 4 345 - which offers free, quality assured advice on debt, housing, education, employment, welfare benefits and tax credits.
Advisers can help people access benefits and create a budget to plan debt repayments - which can help pay for Christmas costs.
Debts accrued over the Christmas period, can leave you struggling to pay for essentials like food and heating when the January bills arrive.
Our helpline sees a huge increase in January from callers suffering from unmanageable debt. This doesn't have to be the case.
Every family needs to budget for expensive times like Christmas, but for families who will really feel the pinch it is essential to get the right advice now. Get help by calling Community Legal Advice on 0845 345 4 345; or by visiting: www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk
Geoff Mountjoy
Regional Director
Legal Services Commission, South Region

Great experience
MAY I thank the superb employers in Hastings, Bexhill and Battle who have been kind enough to take one or more of Year 11 students at Helenswood for their work experience placements. You have done our young ladies proud providing them with a memorable time and firing them with enthusiasm in many cases to get the grades required to follow in your footsteps.
We do appreciate the extra effort taking a student puts on your daily routines but if you could hear some of the comments fed back to us from staff and girls alike you would certainly know how much we really do think that you are all great!
Nicky Cusack
Teacher in Charge of Careers
Helenswood, Hastings

What an insult
WHAT insensitive and demoralising comments to a very dedicated and hard-working team of local people that have managed the Battle Tic over several years in sometimes quite difficult circumstances within the Gate House, Battle Abbey.
The comments that have featured so strongly in our local paper over recent weeks from local community leaders and sections of the business community have been very negative, insensitive and demoralising towards the present TIC team.
The location of the present TIC might not be the best but I'm positive the local team strived to give the best possible service to all that have contacted them in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
They have always promoted local business, tourism, the natural beauty and exciting history of our town and district to the very best of their ability and I think any future comments with reference to the TIC should reflect this.
I believe that as a life-long resident within Battle and Rother district, I and many others promote and love the area we are so privileged to live in, so let us make the best of the opportunity, location and support the team we have at the present, and send a positive message to all that might read about our special town.
Bob White, Stephen white
Coronation Gardens, Battle

We actually swim!
SO Linda Graham thinks that the over 60s are 'elderly obstructions standing chatting in the shallow end of the swimming pool'. She had better think again - I began swimming again last year - having lost my confidence. I now swim up to 50 widths in 45 minutes, twice a week (I still lack confidence to swim to the deep end).
Some of my colleagues are also well over 60 - and none of us stand and chat. We go for the exercise - if it were free we would go three or four times a week. Get in touch with reality Linda.
PAT SALISBURY-RIDLEY
Cadborough Cliff, Rye

Election choice?
IT IS always good to read in the Battle Observer about Cllr. Sue Prochak, Liberal Democrat leader of Rother District Council, on how she slams the Tories with her small party. That is her 'job'. But Sue you are a political animal and what do we have in 2009? Two elections - European and East Sussex County Council. The date Sue is June 4 (sorry Sue cannot help you). Could you please let me know what election you will fight. Do hope it will not be the European Elections as MEPs spend a lot of time out of the county.
GEOFFREY GOODSELL
Levetts Lane
Bodiam

Population warning
FOLLOWING a recent absence, I have just caught up with Barry Jones' letter in the Observer Mailbag for October 3.
Clearly, he and I share the same view of wind farms and their (to put it as its most polite) shortcomings.
But, it was the final three paragraphs and the reference to 'population control' where he made the most salient point.
It was at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries that the eminent, though controversial, economist and demographer, Thomas Malthus proclaimed that the rate of population growth would outstrip the ability of society to sustain itself.
It was therefore necessary to take positive action to achieve population control or suffer the calamitous consequences of food shortages and starvation. The gloomiest of his predictions did not materialise. Gradually, over the years better agricultural methods produced higher food yields and people tended to have smaller families.
But today, with a vastly increased and growing world population, and with the prospect of conflict over the availability of diminishing and finite resources and of habitable space, the Malthus scenario has greater validity than when first advanced, some 200 years ago.
Large areas of this planet are subject to famine, a shortage of clean water, while great tracts of vital and irreplaceable forest are being destroyed in an effort to create more land for food production.
At home we are ever more conscious of running out of space to accommodate the conflicting needs of housing, agriculture and other industries, transport, wildlife and recreation.
Yes, even the daily nightmare of finding a place to park the car is a small, but very real, symptom of the overall crisis.
In the final analysis each of the world's problems has its genesis, directly or indirectly, in the simple truth that the planet has an unsustainable level of population.
So, what is to be done? Apart from attempts to increase food supplies by genetic modification of plants, with all its attendant risks, and some futuristic speculation about man colonising outer space, no-one, least of all our politicians, seem prepared to face what is now the paramount issue for humanity.
But an effective answer to that question has to be found.
In the meantime, if anyone has any ideas would they please send them on a postcard to H.M. Government, care of The Asylum, Westminster and ensure it arrives before Armageddon.
P R BELCHAMBER
Whatlington Road, Battle

Time for Rye to take a bow
THE last two weekends have seen two highly-successful events in Rye which I was lucky enough to attend.
Both stimulated such enthusiastic praise in my hearing from visitors -seasoned conference and events participants - as to prompt this letter.
The first was the two-day Medieval Seas conference (October 18/19) under the auspices of the Rye Partnership, hosted at Rye College and chaired by historian and former Mayor Jo Kirkham.
The present Mayor and the Rye Partnership Chairman were there throughout the first day and Ann Cockerham, Principal of the College, gave over her entire weekend to the Conference, even dishing out food at the lunch counter alongside Alison Rowland of the Partnership (how many heads in England would do this, wondered a conference speaker from California?).
I heard comments on the excellent organisation which allowed plenty of opportunity for questions, discussion and making new acquaintances.
The impression of welcome was reinforced when the speakers - historians and marine archaeologists of England's Seas, the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean - and the participants drawn to the town to hear them set forth in 'off' hours to get acquainted with Rye itself.
Their pleasure in its aesthetic delights is unsurprising, but how nice to hear over and over again what a friendly place they found Rye to be: staff of shops and restaurants take a bow!
Staff of hotels and B&Bs too, because while guests seem to have spread themselves over the full price spectrum of accommodation during their nights here every comment was a positive one.
The invited speakers - nearly all of them first time visitors - expressed their wish orally and in writing for another conference in Rye and their determination to visit again. One keynote speaker reported it was the most enjoyable conference of the many he has attended. High praise indeed.
The second event was the Rye Museum's Discovery Day on October 25, which featured a return visit by Queen Elizabeth I and two ladies-in-waiting (now of the Storington Museum).
Accompanied by Rye Elizabethans, including the Rye Order of Longbowmen and a growing number of camera-happy Rye visitors, she processed through the town, stopping at Grene Hall (now best known as 'the house with the crooked chimney') where she probably stayed in 1573, and the Ypres Tower and Medieval Garden and later a local restaurant for lunch, all the while chatting with the people she met.
The Queen spent much of the afternoon with a fascinated group of children (and parents), answering a stream of questions about life 'back then'; the children particularly liked the bits about chopping off heads.
It was evident visitors to the town (as well as Ryers) thoroughly enjoyed themselves - one young lad from Eastbourne insisted on seeing, doing and asking about everything on offer all day long.
But it was especially satisfying to hear the Queen herself (much in demand for such occasions) was expressing the same sentiments as the visitors of the week before: an exceptionally enjoyable day, such a welcoming and special town.
Problems, issues, disagreements there may be - as anywhere - but it's worth recording that in the eyes and minds of visitors Rye can still come up trumps.
Jean Floyd
Watchbell Street, Rye

Do not lecture us on financial prudence
OH DEAR, where does one start to respond to Cllr Jenkins (Observer Mailbag, October 24).Let's take his points in sequence.
1. Ron Harris is very well able to answer for himself, but delighted as we would be to welcome him, we have received no application for membership of the Liberal Democrat Party.
More seriously, Battle Town Council has always been fiercely proud of being non political and Cllr Harris is an outstanding advocate of that principle.
Do not believe, Cllr Jenkins, that simply because someone expresses an opinion contrary to yours, they are necessarily motivated by party political prejudice.
2. The jibe about the financial prudence, or otherwise, of 'Liberals' looks simply foolish at a time when Vince Cable is the commentator of choice on the economic crisis, and your own Shadow Chancellor has been labelled a 'twerp' by the Tories' house paper, the Daily Telegraph.
3. The Liberal Democrats are very well aware that a separate town council for Bexhill has cost implications, but the cost arguments are far from one-sided and there are many other considerations.
All we want is a sensible grown-up debate on the subject. Why are you and your chums afraid of that?
4. Shame on you, Cllr Jenkins, as a representative of Rural Rother, for supporting the preposterous waste of money embodied in the 'Next Wave' proposals for Bexhill seafront.
Do not dare lecture us about financial prudence while you support that unmitigated farce.
5. Margaret Emeleus is a personal friend, and a true friend of Battle. She and the 'Battle in Bloom' group have done a fantastic job. But she is not an elected representative. If you really want to know what the people of Battle think, try swallowing your petty political pride and ask the elected representatives of Battle who sit in the chamber opposite you.
6. And as for the TIC, I don't think my views are printable!
Cllr Jenkins and his pals on Rother are out of touch. Seven years ago the electorate of Battle gave Carl Maynard a big 'thumbs down' when he stood for the county council: little that he has done since taking over at Rother will persuade them they were wrong in their judgement.
Jeremy Field,
Chair, Battle Branch
Liberal Democrats
(former Battle Town Councillor)
Virgins Lane, Battle

A question of choice?
THE recent case of 23-year-old Daniel James, paralysed from the neck down, whose parents took him to Switzerland for assisted suicide highlights the situation in Britain.
Suicide is no longer illegal if one is capable of committing it, but for those who, for whatever reason, are physically unable to obtain the means there is no choice.
Many people will sympathise with the situation Daniel's parents found themselves in and will understand his desire not to continue living a life of total dependency.
Others will disagree and would not wish to avail themselves of this option in similar circumstances, but surely they should not prevent the choice of assisted suicide being available in this country to those who wish it.
Clearly there need to be safeguards but independent research published in October 2007 of studies in the Netherlands and the state of Oregon have shown no evidence of vulnerable people being at risk of pressure to choose voluntary euthanasia.
Belgium allows adults 'who are in a futile medical condition of constant unbearable physical or mental suffering that cannot be alleviated' to request voluntary euthanasia.
Even Italy, despite pressure from the Roman Catholic Church, allows patients to refuse care and discussions are taking place on 'living wills'.
May I suggest that anyone who wishes the choice of voluntary euthanasia with appropriate safeguards to be available in Britain contacts Michael Foster MP.
I am aware that he personally opposes this choice but I am sure he would wish to be aware of any strength of feeling on this issue within his constituency.
Anyone wanting more information should contact Dignity in Dying on 020 7479 7730 or at www.dignityindying.org.uk
LYNN JENKINS
Austen Way, Guestling

Self-indulgent pedantry
IN A letter to the Bexhill Observer last week, Mr Alan Haydon (director, De La Warr Pavilion) complained of the thuggish behaviour shown by some visitors to staff at the centre - and rightly so.
Mr Haydon was also worried about the image such behaviour would project to visitors from outside our community.
But, when there recently with two friends from outside the community. the first message they saw on entering the Nathan Coley exhibition was 'Put down the book - Pick up a gun'. What sort of message is that supposed to send?
In my opinion, the display itself was a load of self-indulgent pedantry, not helped by the fact that in a completely darkened room at the far end of the exhibits, my frail friend fell over the impossible-to-see low benches.
When we complained about this we were told that there is a warning sign. If that was so how did four people mange to miss it?
Why, instead of the usual run of abysmal art displays cannot Rother put on exhibitions Mr and Mrs average can relate to?
For example, works by local artists and shoolchildren, or photographic dislays, again by local people?
But I may be wrong, because on Saturday, I heard over the radio that Rother District Council had won an award, in part because of the exhibitions at the De La Warr Pavilion. Unbelievable!
Any time now I expect to hear they've won first prize for their wheelie bin collection system.
John Hill
Glengorse, Battle

Praise for 999 services
I HAVE nothing but praise for the ambulance service, paramedics and the 999 ambulance telephone contacts. You do a great job.
I would like to say a big thanks to Cole and Tim (from Hastings depot) Andy from Westfield, and Bob & Neville (from Rye.)
A very big thank you for taking care of my husband Ted who was taken ill early Sunday (October 26) at Broad Oak. Also many thanks to the staff at the Conquest Hospital.
Vi Hinkley
Broad Oak, Brede

Why no debate?
I SHOULD like to comment in response to Conservative accusations last week. The point being made about the decision to award the Tourist Information contract to English Heritage was the Conservative group had already made the decision behind closed doors prior to the meeting.
What was evident to observers in the scrutiny meeting open to the public, was none of the Conservative group spoke, apart from Cllr Lendon, who was excluded from the group's pre-meeting. Why not have the debate in public? This sort of behaviour will only confirm in residents' minds that politics has no place in local government.
Lib Dems believe political loyalty has no place in scrutiny meetings. On every training session on scrutiny, both within and outside Rother District Council, it is always emphasised scrutiny should be non-political and the main purpose is to reflect the voice and concerns of the public and its communities and improve delivery of public services.
Cllr Sue Prochak
Leader Lib Dems, Rother District Council