Rye Town Council met Tuesday night, May 4, in a fog of uncertainty asthe ability to hold remote meetings ended on Thursday, May 6, as elections took place nationwide for a variety of bodies – though locally it was limited to the Sussex police and crime commissioner, East Sussex County Council, and one seat on Rother District Council.
A council meeting might be held in late June, with social distancing and possibly in the Tilling Green Community Centre, but much may happen between now and then – at national and international level in relation to Covid – which may affect what many organisations and businesses can, or can not do, so in practice power has been delegated to the town clerk to take decisions, as it was last year.
In the meantime the mayor and deputy mayor were re-elected for what are usually two year terms of office, and members were appointed to various committees, working parties and outside bodies.
However the planning committee which followed on from the full council meeting had two points of interest. Firstly the Environment Agency appeared to have nodded through a planning application in a flood risk area where the usual rule is that no living areas like bedrooms should be on ground floors at risk from flooding.
Landslip risk poses a threat
The other was that Rye’s citadel, and some other local areas, are unstable and an article next week will feature the landslip risks that exist in the area when vegetation is removed and the rock below is exposed to heavy rainfall – with possibly disastrous consequences. And we also hope to report next week on the giant crane at the Kino on Wednesday which had to do some heavy lifting.
Rye’s town hall is however open to visitors, even if the council can not meet, but with strict controls (see top photo), though the information point apparently attracted few visitors over the bank holiday weekend – possibly because of both the weather and roadworks affecting Lion Street (caused by the giant crane and related engineering).
The council did however decide to award a grant to the local Music Well charity and will be checking council finances to see if it can offer more later as demand on the charity’s services has been growing in these difficult times.
Image Credits: Nick Forman .