A change in the sunny weather experienced so far this week over the long “four-day” weekend starting today, Good Friday, may put off visitors planning to descend on the coast, and Camber Sands in particular, but who knows?
The easing of the government’s lockdown rules has already seen parks and other open spaces overwhelmed this week by crowds hardly keeping “social distances” to prevent the transmission of the Covid virus – and a further wave of the pandemic is always possible – as Europe, and France in particular, is now discovering – and our lead story this week emphasises the need to keep following the rules.
However the pandemic did not stop crowds massing on Camber Sands last year – which had been preceded by our MP announcing a multi-agency response on this issue, but we have yet to hear what this plan involves.
Park and ride?
Commenting on last week’s article Tony Edwards asked what was the solution to the “Camber problem” and a Rye News story the previous week had referred to a supplementary planning document about Camber produced in September 2014 for Rother District Council which refers to the need for a comprehensive traffic management strategy, including a park and ride scheme between Rye and Camber.
This, the document suggests, could be on land between the edge of Rye and the Salts Farm turning from the A259 towards Camber and, if it followed the example of St Ives in Cornwall, traffic would be limited through Camber at peak periods to residents and permit holders once the car parks in Camber were full.
In St Ives, visitors can reach the beaches by a minibus from additional temporary car parks on the edge of town, or by train on the branch line from St Erth from a large car park with its own station near the main road to Penzance – and a local equivalent could be re-opening the tramway that used to cross the golf course between Rye and Camber taking visitors to the beach as well as to the golf course.
Something similar is provided in Dartmouth during the very busy regatta week with a park and ride on the edge of town, controls on the cars coming into the town centre, additional temporary car parks, and additional services on the historic steam train service from nearby Paignton.
In the meantime though it would be interesting to see what actually results from our MP’s multi-agency response promised last summer.
Image Credits: Nick Forman .
Interesting article. I forget about the multi-agency response promised last year: apparently Ms. Hart, Rother District Council, Sussex Police, East Sussex County Council and Camber Parish Council were to produce a plan to manage the situation (July 2021) – was anything ever published? Who would know this? Genuine question …
Every time somebody says “reopen the Rye & Camber” I wonder if they’ve noticed the giant gravel pit lake (Northpoint) that completely blocks the route! Also, good luck persuading the Golf Club to rebuild it; they effectively killed it off after the War.
The relevant agencies do meet and discuss their strategies for Camber – Rother DC, County Highways, Police, Coastguard, Ambulance, Waste Contractor etc. This will be what Sally-Ann Hart means. I have attended such meetings as an observer.
This year there is the advantage of Civil Parking Enforcement, which means parking restrictions can be enforced by fines. Also the car park ticketing machines have been upgraded so that cars won’t have to queue to enter.
Thank you. Are the minutes of these meetings published anywhere?
No, not published. It’s an operational matter for the agencies, but I can say I’m impressed by the professionalism of those involved.
RNLI lifeguards on Camber this weekend, easily spotted, they’re the ones in the big red coats.
On July 2nd 2020 the Rye news reported that a new multi agency plan was to be drawn up to manage the summer difficulties at Camber Sands. A meeting chaired by our MP had met to discuss this – does anyone know what the plan is, or if anything happened?