A successful bid at auction has brought Camber Fields back into local ownership. Frank Langrish, who tenants and farms this 70 acre grazing land just across the River Rother, engaged in a tense battle of wills at Savills’ auction on Monday May 9. Opposing him was a mystery telephone bidder with a large purse who relentlessly forced up the price. Langrish was equally determined to win and finally clinched the sale at £154,000.
Michael Eve, on behalf of the Rye Fund, also attended the auction held in the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square. He commented afterwards that the auctioneer had introduced the lot 180 by promoting the development opportunities of this site adjacent to the iconic town of Rye. “The outcome means that the historical setting of Rye rising across Romney Marsh is preserved at least for the foreseeable future”, he said, “but the story doesn’t end here. It’s up to us to ensure that Rother spends the money for the benefit of Rye“.
This piece fails to mention the irritation caused to the Steering Group of the Rye Neighourhood Plan (also interested in the process) by the fact that there was no consultation by Rother officers prior to the sale. The Steering Group did raise environental and flood risk issues but these seem to have been “played down” in the description of the lot. The fact that there are emerging findings of the Plan for this area of Rye also seems to have been overlooked.
It would be useful to hear the response of the Chair of Planning at RDC on why Rye Town Coucil were not consulted.
Why was the Home bid ignored?
In whose power was it to put this piece of land forward for auction without clarifying the flooding risks? Was it in the legal package?
The Town Council should demand an investigation from our so-called representatives on the Rother District Council – an investigation into why the Town Council was not informed well in advance of this intended sale; why the auctioneer was allowed to sell it as ‘development land’; what collusion there was within the RDC between officers and politicians; why the RDC Planning Department did not discuss the intended sale with the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group.
The whole affair has illustrated the nonsense of ‘local consultation’ as carried out by Rother District Council.
Once named the worst local authority in the country, has the time come to apply that label again?
As the more we hear about the sale of this land, more questions need to be asked,why was it auctioned so quickly, knowing the environment agency would need to aquire at least a third of this land,good luck to the farmer maybe to clear matters up on the persistent rumours around the town, the farmer will tell us how much the environment agency paid him for this piece of land,that they needed to upgrade the Eastern Wall of the river rother, because trying to get answers out of elected Rother district councillors, is like trying to get blood out of a stone.
Seeing John Tolhurst’s recent comment above I had to remind myself that the article itself is dated 2016 when Rother was under different political control.
I don’t see how Rother Councillors or officials can be expected to answer questions about a subsequent sale to which they were not a party.