The autumnal weather has arrived, the evenings are drawing in and before you know it we will be revving ourselves up for the Rye firework celebrations which this year are on Saturday November 12 (a date for your diaries).
This annual bonfire pageant is one of the most visually spectacular events in the Rye cultural calendar and brings a substantial number of visitors to the town, an important night particularly for our local hospitality businesses and accommodation providers. But with all these extra visitors there is an annual issue which also has to be addressed: the clearing up afterwards, street cleaning and disposal of all the extra rubbish left in the streets.
Having previously lived in the centre of Rye, I can speak from experience when I witnessed what was left on the roads and pavements after the bonfire celebrations. Litter everywhere, broken bottles and glasses, empty food wrappers and coffee cups left “for someone else to clear up” and in general terms there was rubbish along most of the route in the town centre. However, despite all of this, by early morning the next day the streets were miraculously returned to normal and if you didn’t know any better you wouldn’t have known the town had been visited by thousands of new visitors.
Private contractors, Biffa are employed to keep our streets clean and it is they who descend on Rye town centre to clear the decks and thankfully they do, because the following day, Sunday November 13 we celebrate Armistice day and the town needs to look at its best for this very special occasion.
Rye News understands it costs Rother District Council over £3,700 for Biffa to clean up in Rye after the bonfire pageant. In Battle, it costs around £3,300 and in Robertsbridge over £2,000 and it appears Rother District Council are having internal discussions about the possibility of recharging the clean-up costs to the respective bonfire societies. This is not a formal proposal at this stage and has not been adopted by Rother District Council who intend to speak personally to each bonfire society before doing anything further.
In real terms, £10,000 or more needs to be raised annually to fund the pageant, money raised all year by volunteers who put on numerous fund raising events to pay for the spectacular firework display which we all enjoy. An additional cost of £3,700 would be a very big ask so it will be interesting to see how things pan out.
We will publish an update in due course and there will be further details about this year’s bonfire pageant in Rye News nearer the time but in the interim, a quick reminder that this year’s procession starts at 7:50pm from Mason Road in Tilling Green, the bonfire will be lit at 8:45pm and the fireworks are scheduled to start at 9pm. Don’t miss it!!
Image Credits: Nick Forman .
Thanks for your article, Nick. The Rye Bonfire is surely the town’s most attended annual event and generates a huge amount of money for local businesses. It also produces a lot of rubbish, which needs clearing up. What I find interesting is how Biffa can charge £3,700 for this service. It seems a bit steep. Even if they employ a couple of large cleaning teams (say, ten men, with two vehicles) for five hours at double-time, that’s about £1,250, plus the cost of diesel and so on, perhaps another £250. This means Biffa’s profit for the work is at least £2,200, probably more. If the Council still employed its own rubbish collection teams, the saving to RDC — and now to the bonfire societies — would be enormous. If I were the president of the bonfire societies in Rye, Battle and Robertsbridge, I’d be offering that my members clean up the three towns after the bonfire events. They could do this for free, saving themselves thousands of pounds in clean-up costs. After all, the societies organise these events and should clean up after them. In these straightened times, I can understand how the Council doesn’t wish to pay to clean up public streets and pavements after bonfire pageants. The Rye Bonfire and fireworks are still a great experience for most folk.
In reality though, Rye Bonfire is one of the smaller societies in Sussex and already short of volunteers for the morning after the event. It’s an idea, but hardly possible to implement. As with all voluntary groups the bonfire societies rely on a stalwart few who do all the hard work before and after the events.
Is there a comparable, not necessarily bonfire, event in Bexhill? Are they going to charge that society or group as well? Or is it another case of if its not in Bexhill RDC don’t want to know?
Have you any idea as to whether late night trains will be laid on in both directions, at 10.30pm or preferably 10.45pm It takes a while to walk back from the bonfire field to the station. This will prevent some cars from coming into Rye. In previous years it has been a great help but sometimes the managers in Ashford have no idea that the bonfire is happening – so don’t plan for an extra train. Could you tell them, please.
Last year trains were cancelled from around 6.30pm due to the bonfire night and the risk of overcrowding. There were no trains in any direction that were stopping at Rye. I was returning home from London and got to Ashford around 7.15pm and South Eastern paid for a taxi to get me from Ashford to Rye which cost £60.
Lewis forgot to add in the charges that will be made for disposal at the tip which will be quite considerable but probably not enough to justify £3700 !!
It’s depressing to read about yet another attempt by officialdom to kill off the unique experience of bonfire celebrations in Sussex. Public indemnity insurance – at crippling cost – is a requirement and the health and safety regulations have banned the use of anything that makes a flash or noise in the procession so that everyone marches along in silence. Every year there seems to be further encroachment on what is a unique expression of English tradition. The Sussex bonfire celebrations are important expressions of tradition and should be a greater source of national pride and protected as such.
I’d just like to point out that Bonfire Society members do take part in the clean up operation. Including the cricket pitch and all areas surrounding The Salts. The event is free thanks to the hard work of Rye and District Bonfire Society and it takes an enormous amount of planning and the generosity of society members and local businesses for it to happen. It would help massively if everyone attending this marvellous event bought a programme, dropped a few more coins in the collection buckets and tins on shop countertops around town or attended the various fundraising events held throughout the year.
All litter is unnecessary, and clearing up a waste. The organisers should certainly deal with the consequences – having to might motivate them to minimise the waste left on the streets.
Once again petty bureaucracy rears its ugly head, Could this be another ruse to try and stop Bonfire Processions. When I was secretary back in the late 1970’s we went out on Sunday morning and the band of volunteers would clean up what mess there was left without the use of large mobile vacuum cleaners just a broom shovel and tractor and trailer to put it on.(usually burnt on the ashes of the Bonfire not taken to the tip). Maybe in those days the public took pride in their country and took their rubbish home unlike today which seems the norm to leave it behind. I also thought that it was a council duty to keep our streets clean and the duty of the Bonfire Society was to clean any detritus pertaining to the procession spent torches etc. I know the Bonfire Society collects the torches on the procession but a few always creep out of hiding so a general check is no doubt done to ensure the roads are safe.
What a sad comment on our society that people think it is ok to leave all this rubbish ‘for someone else to clear up’. In such straitened times, with inevitably more cuts down the line, I can well understand why Rother may wish to pass the cost on, and as a council tax payer in Rother (admittedly one who has never had any wish to attend such events) I can think of many things the money could be better spent on. I don’t see it as an attempt by officialdom to kill off anything, just an attempt at financial efficiency.
There is mention of the huge amounts of money that are earned by local businesses during the event – perhaps they should be approached to make a contribution towards the clean-up,
I don’t understand how the Council can balk at a clear-up cost of 3.7k, and for an event that is inherent part of culture?! Keeping the place tidy, is, after all, part of the purpose of the existance of a council. It is also only the equivalent of a mere 3 property’s worth of Council tax!
Why on earth should anybody else now take on the funding for the work RDC are supposed to be doing?!
I suggest that, instead, RDC tighten their ample belts or maybe reduce their staffing, if they now expect people to pay contractors for the work they don’t want to do any more.
Unfortunately all local councils have had their funding cut to the bone by central government and have to prioritise their spending, concentrating on vital services. Of course the wonderful Bonfire nights bring income to local businesses but the main point is that the public have become too happy to leave litter for others to clear up. The same thing happens at the coast in the summer.
So Rother district council wish to talk to the bonfire societies about the cost to the taxpayers for clearing up after these yearly events, which is nothing compared to the drain each year that del awarr pavilion on bexhill seafront costs us all across the district
There is some evidence on the internet that Bexhill holds some sort of event on Bonfire Night, but it does not appear to involve a procession or any other unseemly events, so perhaps it does not generate much in the way of rubbish – or it stays on site.
However perhaps the time is long overdue for RDC to change its name to one which more accurately describes its activities – such as Bexhill District Council – because I suspect shortly we will be surcharged on our rates to “save Bexhill Town Hall”, while “our” (only in theory) District Council allows Rye’s Landgate to continue to rot.
And I suspect Camber’s residents will have even more to moan about Rother District Council’s performance as I note the latest (Oct/Nov 22) “Pendulum” magazine for the Rye Team Ministry reports that, as a result of “an unprecedented level of violence and disturbances in the village this year”, the church of St Thomas in Camber stayed closed during the week over the holidays.
Rother’s solution to Camber’s problems however was limited to more yellow lines – which possibly boosted RDC’s car park revenue – but did little for Camber as a whole. However typically, and consistently, the District Council does seem to see the district outside Bexhill just as a cow to be milked.
Charles Harkness
My memories and experiences of Rye bonfire go back to the 50’s and 60’s when my parents were involved with the bonfire boys, a lot of people don’t realise just how much work is involved in laying on a two hour show on one night of the year.
The hundreds of torches were made and stored, the bonfire was built of faggots and these were all made in the woods by the members, no mean feat I can tell you.
Back then it was very much a local event, floats from local businesses on the back of open trucks, almost every one in the town was involved in some way or another but probably like today the crux of the work was down to a nucleus of dedicated members who worked all year round to make sure it was a success.
What wasn’t so much of an issue back then we’re things like H&S, costs of clearing up etc
It does seem sad that an organisation that is unpaid and raising money for charity is having to spend its hard earned money on clearing up etc
The day will come when it becomes just another event that is not viable and will be lost to history, some in Rye will be pleased but many will mourn the day.
Is there an elephant in the room?
LITTER.
Could money be spent on educating people to put it in bins? Or take it home. Could volunteers spend time around people with bin bags?
Penalties. Fines on the spot. ?
It is intolerable that visitors are able to abuse our beaches and our streets.
I do believe the time has come to say NO!
Enough is enough.
Less tatt sold on the streets would reduce the amount of rubbish left.
Float or folks dressed up as part of the procession around the theme of rubbish.
Bit of street theatre to provoke thought. Maybe a dash of humour to get the message across!
Great idea jane!
Morning
I have emailed my concern to Rother that we need this and how much trade is brought to our Rye on this day/night .
Think we could leave black sacks around the town to help
Pubs have to use plastics which are just thrown after use !!!! Black sacks would help and venues could inform customers that they are to dispose into sacks
But saying this ,i think Rother should continue to clear rubbish ,but people should also be a little more responsible
Hopefully we can resolve this problem together with all parties involved
Cllr G Stevens