Three members and the clerk of Rye Town Council organised a ‘meet and greet’ on Sunday, September 26 to hear bikers’ thoughts on the noise and disruption that causes residents so much disturbance, especially over the summer – as well as to promote safe and responsible riding.
Alongside the Motorcycle Action Group, the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership, Sussex Police bike and the Institute of Advanced Motorcyclists, they engaged with a number of bikers. The overriding feeling among the mainly middle-aged riders was that they would welcome a police presence in the area to stop those who drove dangerously and noisily. They asked for more signage along the Strand to ‘leave quietly and not disturb residents’ as many where unaware that Strand Quay was housing for older residents.
Most of them came to enjoy a Sunday morning ride, meet up with old friends over a brew and a bacon sandwich, and were very interesting to listen to. None of them wanted to be tarred with the same brush as the poor riders, hence welcoming police action on illegal exhausts and careless driving. A couple were actually policemen from another area enjoying the morning off, and another group helped youngsters in Kent to drive safely and understand fully the consequences of motorbike riding.
The mayor, Rebekah Gilbert, deputy mayor, Councillor Andi Rivett, and Councillor Chris Hoggart were grateful to the town clerk for organising the morning and enjoyed chatting to the groups of two-wheeled visitors, many of whom brought family back to Rye at other times to enjoy the whole town. Rebekah said: “Everyone was very happy to chat with us, and were sympathetic to residents who are cheesed-off by antisocial riding. We saw no bad behaviour or senseless driving whilst we were there for about four or five hours, and the message was loud and clear that not all bikers are the same. The next step is how to engage with those bikers who do have illegal exhausts and ride carelessly, and we will continue to work with Sussex Police to tackle this.”
Image Credits: Richard Farhall .
I have always found the bikers to be very respectful.
As always there are the minority who do not abide by any rules
The same as some residents who complain about children, noise and basically about anyone enjoying themselves
Please no more signage, there is too much already in Rye and it just gets ignored, the street scene gets cluttered and the town’s character becomes like every where else.
The high visibility police van, not so good weather and social media may have contributed to a quiet day at Strand Quay. I think some of the loud noise generators are from the Rye area and know when to keep a low profile. When noisy bikers make their presence known at the quay, they need to be taken to task by the quieter majority present.
The day was a complete farce, the bikers had clearly been told to keep away, instead of a full car park, there were barely 10 or so at any one time. They arrived quietly, no one revved their engines to show how noisy they could be, no one rode away at twice the speed limit. If every Sunday was like that there would be no complaints, but as any local resident will tell you, short of a downpour, it is never like that in reality
I am very impressed at the initiative of meeting with the bikers. Can I put a word in for those of us who live along the route to both Rye and Hastings. I live in Brede on the A 28 and I would really appreciate it if the bikers could be reminded of the 30 mile speed limit through the villages. The correct speed seriously reduces the amount of noise.
Obviously you would not see any “bad behaviour or senseless driving” in the 4 or 5 hours hanging around Strand Quay as the motorbikes will have drastically slowed down to park or be stationary. It happens on the approach to Rye that matters. Try spending that 4 or 5 hours on Military Road or any of the other major approaches to Rye. Adding signage to Strand Quay will be completely ignored, a waste of money and ugly. Just as the signage for a 30mph speed limit on Rye Hill is completely ignored by bikers and many vehicles.
The boundaries of Rye, all roads, need speed tables. They are like elongated speed humps but far less intrusive (Google it). But work to make traffic slow down. Put them at the 30mph markers, and it will be some help. But in respect of the New Road/Camber, put the 30mph sign the far side of the Camber turn, and make the entire junction a speed table. Problem is police have next to no resource, and turning out on a Sunday at 7am (which is when we always get the first speeding bike in summer) is seemingly not possible. Now if Rye Town Council actually wanted to achieve something…
As a biker that has been visiting that car park for many, many years and have now moved down here, my opinion is ‘respect the neighbours and locals’ signage in the car park itself would be by far the most beneficial. I know they may be a little unsightly but I’ve known many pubs to do this over the years to great effect.
Also, there is a much greater respect for 30mph limits than there used to be when I was a young rider, I might have changed over the years but you get riders seem to respect built up areas more than we did. There will always be a fee but it’s possibly that they can’t afford a Ford STI yet.
Andrew get some of your friends together and monitor the speeding offenders,just like the village people around us do,and then report the evidence to the police, with an absent Rother police force in Rye, its the only way you will curb the motorbikes and cars, speading into Rye, by taking it to the traffic police.