We have just passed the third anniversary of the first Covid lockdown, when all we were allowed to do outdoors was to take our permitted exercise, everything else was cancelled as we were firmly included in the world-wide pandemic. Getting out for a permissible brief walk really broke the monotony and probably kept a lot of us sane. However, here we are, just over three years later and whilst Covid is still very much around things are beginning to feel like they used to.
The following photographs were all taken whilst taking some exercise on March 30, 2020 and form a pictorial record of an empty Rye. No visitors. No traffic and no visible forms of life on our streets. Empty shops with posters in the windows explaining why they were closed, car parks with no cars, no traffic jams or road works, no delivery drivers, commuters or tourists, just an eerie silence.
It was a time when all our lives changed, our habits had to change and for the foreseeable future we had very little control over our own destinies. The pandemic had a profound effect on the whole population; it was a period in our lives we survivors will never forget and something we hope never to have to witness again.
Image Credits: Nick Forman .
What bliss that time was…peace, warmth, nature blooming, ,birds singing , friendly people on their walks.
No car traffic, pesky visitors…intruding on ones privacy. I realised how stressful that is… lovely seeing the children enjoy freedom and cycling …and some with their parents..
Politeness …almost how one imagined the 1950’s.
Soaked up on library books.
Thank you for sharing the pictures..
Is it not odd to have disdain for “pesky visitors”? … Rye couldn’t exist without visitors. The overwhelming majority of businesses cater to visitors. And due to a ridiculous amount of AirBnB’s those properties would be constantly lifeless, not to mention the empty hotels and B&B’s. Rye is ultimately a tourist destination.
Andrew if you read my comment ..no ‘pesky visitors ‘
INTRUDING on ones Privacy.
It did not say all visitors are Pesky.
We used to use the word pesky in the family, meaning a slight nuisance with a smile in the voice.
But the point is the visitors that peer through the window.of one’s own home..or indeed take photographs.
Not the people who visit who support homes, hotels, cinema, museum, ect.
And why the other comments on AirB&b causing few homes available .when these properties are being used by the visitors that are spending in town of Rye…they also keep cleaners and agents paid too..
My original comments were to the point of how some things during Covid lock down had a blessing for many also…not all negative..
Visitors and a tourist trade are now the lifeblood of Rye but the ridiculous amount of airBnB’s are what are destroying the town, look out of your window at night and most of the town is in darkness, second homes are empty most of the time.
At one time these houses would have been lived in, shops would have really been local businesses catering for local people.
How many of the shops in Rye are really “local businesses”?
All tourist towns have their overpriced shops for the tourists and wealthy second home owners to spend their money but that’s all Rye is these days.
Any threat of a super market is quickly dashed by those that can afford to shop in the expensive shops that Rye does have.
There should be room for all walks of life to live comfortably in Rye, Tenterden which is a far better shopping experience for both tourists and locals has two super markets catering for both ends of the market, so why can’t Rye?
Local elections are coming up and the only party to approach me is Labour, the young lady talked a lot of sense.
Looking at Rye of late and I for one will be thinking long and hard at who’s going to get my vote.
Hello, Tony. Sorry you’ve not had a visit from me yet(!), but as I’m canvassing in person, on my own, it may take me a while to get round to you! The Lib Dems campaign is not run from London, and is consequently a little less well funded, but totally local and equally dedicated. I should also say, we’re wholly-focussed on the District Council elections…
I couldn’t agree more about tourists, and we all recall the impact The George’s closure had on the High St – empty restaurants and shops, and no lucrative weddings eg. That’s just one business that is an enormous draw for Londoners and Europeans – even for American visitors this year. Yes, we may have a few little local grumbles bcs we live here, but we’d be crazy to thumb our nose at visitors.
Air BnBs and second homes are a different issue, and ones which have become a huge problem across the country. Like every political issue, it’s bigger than any canvasser will tell you on the doorstep. Planning, taxation and licensing regimes like those being discussed in Wales, could put the brake on this market, but it’s also about much, much bigger issues in our society and economy – wealth distribution and social mobility, the value of the pound and the difficulty of travelling abroad…
And there’s the concomitant problem of housing for local families, as Air BnB and second homes soak up property and inflate the market. Rother’s established a Council owned housing development company which will begin to address this problem, but like everything, it’s related to much bigger issues, and for me, it always comes down to the electoral system and about how Britain plans strategically and generationally – right now, our event horizon is five years or less.
To go back to the hyper local again, and specifically shops, I spoke to a lady the other day who bemoaned the expensive ‘DFL’ shops. I know what she meant. But the answer is not to have none of our fab upmarket, cosmopolitan shops, but to have a mix! And to have the entire High St open for business every day, being mutually supportive to other businesses. (Who knows whether one of those little old ladies off the coach from Burnley has just won the Pools…?) Personally, I would expect people wanted to come to a living town, not a ‘snow globe’ tourist town where nobody actually lives, works or shops – More Bridport, less Port Isaac.
As ever, it’s not binary, it is all about balance, and the fulcrum is, of course, the centre…
Thank you Guy for your post and your attempt to call on me the other day, unfortunately I was out but it does demonstrate the power of the Rye News.
I have one or two issues that I put to the Labour candidate, my first is the astronomical amount I pay in council tax for a flat in Rye, why a flat is graded as band D is beyond me? yes, I know I bought it in full knowledge of the costs but that doesn’t make it fair.
The Labour candidate also brought up about their suggestions to stop the boat people (her words), my main issue with housing refugees is the amount of service veterans living on the streets, no hotels or cheap homes for them, also it very much depends on what part of the world you come from on how you are received in this country.
I’m not expecting any great changes in Rye, it’s heading down the same road as many of the towns and villages in Cornwall which have had to take drastic action to stop them becoming ghost towns, very much owned by the wealthy looking for a retreat or ridiculously expensing holiday homes.
Hi, Tony
I was really sorry to have missed you as I’d like to chat under any circumstances!
You raise a couple of really interesting points.
Your Band D Council Tax is essentially set my central govt, and it’s based on what the property was worth in 1991 in England. Band D, as you know, represents property valued between £68,000 and up to £88,000. You can get your property reassessed if you think it’s in the wrong band – for instance, bcs neighbours with similar properties are paying less. Of course, property in Rye has only been going in one direction in the last decade, so we’re all in the same boat, locally, and I’m not sure whether it would profit you to get it reassessed, Tony… But your question might be more about what you’re getting for your £2389.17 per year. In short, it’s divided up between various bodies (Police, Fire, Social Care etc.) with the biggest chunk (about £1400) going to East Sussex County Council. Rother get about £198. After a decade of austerity, most cash-strapped councils around the country have had to put Council Tax up. Between 2011-2016, the last administration at Bexhill didn’t raise Council Tax at all and just expended reserves. That’s great for we property owners, but it’s not so good if you rely on threadbare council services… And post Covid, post Ukraine, in the midst of a cost of living crisis, Rother DC are now effectively 5 years behind where their finances might be bcs the last in incumbents didn’t make hay while the sun shone… However, the Rother Alliance has still managed to balance the books. So, we all want to pay less tax (I know I do!) but we have to pay for local services too. It’s the perennial conundrum and it all comes down to political choices and central govt funding. In certain places, like Merton, for instance, the Lib Dems have advocated for rebates in Council Tax to alleviate pressure on people during the cost of living crisis. But the short answer is, as you probably suspect, there’s no quick fix… It’s a facet of how our society and economy is set up.
Can you bear any more, Tony?!
Veterans sleeping rough was something I was very interested in back in the 90s, when I think things were even worse than they are now. I tried in vain to get a documentary commissioned and had some contact with The Oswald Stoll Foundation. It’s obviously still a big problem, as is the mental health of veterans – and of course, the two issues are often related. What I’d say is, re ‘migrants versus veterans’, it’s not either/or, in my opinion. Both are being let down by the govt. We have individual moral and legal obligations to both our own veterans and to refugees and asylum-seekers. Strangely, the fates of these two groups are ironically intertwined. Many of the homeless former servicemen who went to war in Gulf War 1 went under the auspices of UN SC Resolution 678. The UN’s part of the same international rules based system that protects refugees and which Britain played a huge part in establishing. The human rights that protect people in dinghies effectively protect you and me too. That’s why Braverman’s policies are so cynical and so corrosive to our own interests. Many of today’s refugees are, of course, running from Iraq, a country we destroyed and destabilised without that second UN resolution… So, Britain owes a duty of care to both groups, and migrants don’t displace veterans: the former are the responsibility of the Home Office, the latter of the Veterans Minister, Johnny Mercer. In terms of ‘solving’ the migrant crisis, there are a few things we can do:
1) Don’t wage devastating illegal wars in the first place! And perhaps restore international aid to previous levels.
2) Ensure HMG has solid relations with Europe etc so failed asylum seekers and economic migrants may be returned.
3) Process applications. There would be far less need to house migrants in hotels if the Home Office worked, and successive Home Secretaries hadn’t sought merely to make cynical political capital out of human misery. There’s lots more to say, but I’d best leave it there, Tony, as I dare say that’s the longest reply in the history of Rye News!!
An interesting post Guy, thanks
Tony is so right on his comments about our town, gone are all the first time buyers houses,which kept our young in this town, South undercliffe, Rope walk,Tower Street, and many others,where has it all gone wrong, we the few Ryers left would like answers from whoever gets elected soon, and not empty promises.
Although tourists are vital to our town, so too are the people who live and work here. Before long, we will end up as a ghost town, when during the winter, overpriced holiday rental properties lie empty.
I have personal experience of a family member being made homeless by being priced out of the market due to high rental charges by those with second homes used as holiday lets. He has been ‘sofa surfing’, and still trying to run his business. I believe in Cornwall even the local fisherman cannot afford housing in their own communities due to this.
I would like to see holiday let second homes charged quadruple council tax. If the owners can afford this, so be it, but it would be nice to think that it would release properties back onto the market for young families that are struggling with high rentals. I wonder how the owners of these properties sleep at night with the knowledge that their ‘investment’ is causing homelessness and poverty to so many?
How I agree with your comments, Margot! I live in Hastings Old Town (grew up in Guestling Green and went to school in Rye-hence my love of reading Rye News). I often remind the affluent visitors who consider buying a property in this area that we are essentially still a fishing village and long may that remain. As you so rightly pointed out, our younger fishing families can no longer afford to buy, or even rent, in their own town and this leads to their having to either remain living at home with their remaining family, or choose an alternative career. Neither are acceptable. We have over 60 air b&b properties in our small town and they are slowly dividing our wonderful community. It would be great to see the introduction of a raise in their council tax, which may lead to owners renting their properties AT REASONABLE RATES, to existing families and older residents. We can live in hope!
Of course it’s all very well the candidates standing for the forthcoming elections, but none of them have got answers to the acute social housing problem in the town, sadly nodoubt when some are elected this serious problem, will be swept under the carpet again,for another 4 years.
Have some faith, John. Why would you volunteer to be a District Councillor if you didn’t intend to try to help people?
There is a ‘simple’ answer. It’s to build more social housing, which is what Rother is planning to do through its housing company. But as you imply, it’s not a quick fix bcs, like nearly every area of public provision, it’s been utterly gutted or wrung dry for private profit. Obviously there’s the challenge of planning, infrastructure etc too.
Insofar as the scale of the challenge is concerned, I’m rather in agreement with you, John, but I’d be a pretty rubbish candidate if I didn’t believe things could actually change. I do, by the way! But we all need to get on board, and ditch a lot of the tired, failed systems of government.
Cheers,
Guy
Rye 2020 looks like ‘Anytown 2020’. I live in what is a larger town but one that has dependencies similar to those of Rye. My abiding memory of that time is of the signs in all the shops. The chains had professionally prepared explanatory notices. The small, privately run ones were more creative; little, heart-felt apologies, often decorated with hearts and other hand-made images. Above all, they all expressed the promise to be back soon (and a promise is more than a hope, but some probably hid a real fear for the future).
It was all terribly touching and I didn’t return until it was all over.
all right saying Airbnb brings visitors to stay in the town, apparently over 300 at the last count, but this just erodes the locals now getting a foot on the ladder, as most of these properties were first time buyers. Over the last few years the town has lost numerous events, as more locals have passed on,with no replacements,and until this problem is resolved, it is not for the wellbeing of the town.
Seeing the pictures of a empty rye have made me very sad and I realise just how traumatised I have been over the last 3 years. I’m only now living a normal life albeit still alert. I’m sorry I can never look at the lockdowns through 1950s rose tinted glasses. It was hell for some of us.