After Rother District Council (RDC) received complaints about land and homes near the Ferry Road level crossing under planning legislation it has issued a “clean it up” order under Section 215.
Following the decision of two major supermarkets to abandon plans to develop the Lower School site in Ferry Road, Rye behind the cottages (pictured above), work has been going ahead on restoring the cottages, and the one on the far right (next to the Queen Adelaide public house) now has a “sold” sign outside, and one next door (to the left) has a “for sale” sign.
Work on the third cottage along (shown with a skip outside) is also progressing rapidly but, until this week, work on the fourth cottage (No.31 on the far left) seemed to have ground to a halt leaving a lot of building debris in front – which however appeared to be being cleared up earlier this week.
At the same time fencing around, and the gate into, the site behind the cottages (see photo below) had been vandalised with rubbish accumulating on that site.
Planning permission has been sought to enlarge the fourth cottage (on the left) in order to split it into two homes, and to have a parking space in front as well. But Rye’s town council had opposed the latter because they thought it would be a traffic hazard so close to the railway crossing.
Plans for housing on the Lower School site behind the Queen Adelaide, where the planned supermarket was going to be built, have also stalled because of the number of houses proposed.
The planning application a year ago for the site has also been delayed by other issues such as the risk of flooding, as well as the closeness to the railway line.
Indeed the presence of the fire station in the road opposite, and the growing volume of traffic along the Udimore Road (in order to avoid Hastings), might require traffic lights or even some redesign of the level crossing.
An entrance further back to the site along Ferry Road, where the Queen Adelaide is, would involve demolishing the pub, which will be empty shortly as Bob and Celyne, the French couple who have been running a computer business and music nights there, are returning to France.
In the meantime the gateway to the site behind the pub (shown left) has been partially demolished, along with some of the fencing which runs along the pathway to Tillingham Avenue.
When, and how, this site – once designed for a supermarket, and then for a new school – will be developed is still very much in the air therefore. In the meantime the row of derelict houses is being improved and sold on, but not necessarily as badly needed affordable homes for local peoples.
Photos: Rye News library
Image Credits: Kenneth Bird .
The wooded area of this site has nightingales and turtle doves which can be heard from the railway station and up into the town. Surely this makes the site an SSSI???? We took Jackie Lait to hear the nightingales singing!
Could it temporally be tidied up and become a picnic area, as at the moment it is just wasted ground
What a brilliant opportunity to take down these buildings and the pub.
Widen the road to allow access for the fire station and provide a landscaped car park and picnic area on the old school site.
The bridge over the rail station can be up graded to provide access to the town.
There must be room there for 300+ cars. Entrance on Ferry road and exit on The Grove.
Just think of the revenue for the town and has got to reduce the chronic parking problem in the town.
Then why not pedestrianise the high street and allow more visitor friendly businesses to take over the properties that the banks have abandoned.
This could then free up Gibbets Marsh for a supermarket to be sited.
Surely Rye needs something that creates jobs and business opportunities before developing dead areas for houses that only puts extra strain on already over stretched public resources.
Pedestrianizing the high street would be a brilliant thing to do.
You could have pavement (or road) stalls in place along the high street which would draw more people in generate more income for the town and existing high street traders etc.
Even have the market move up there on a thursday to free up the existing car park.
It would be such a positive thing for the town to do and to give it that little extra to set it apart from other tourist towns.