The Christmas season was clearly coming to an end this week, not because of the weather, but because a lorry with a cherry-picker arm was busy going around the town taking down the Christmas lights.
However remnants of Christmas remained in shop windows early in the week and they had not all vanished with Epiphany/Twelfth Night on January 6.
The New Year has however started and we should hope that Rye will see more in 2016 of the drive, enthusiasm and co-operation which made “Great Expectations” a great success.
That day showed businesses, volunteers and a wide range of organisations working together for a common cause and we will see more of that in 2016.
And it was also a day when the sun and the moon (see photo above) shone on Rye and on the variety of people and organisations which go to make up this historic town.
But the New Year brings new challenges. Sorting out the neglected Landgate so that, at very least, becomes a stable, cared for, ruin will take a lot of co-operative effort – as will the economic development of the town which the Town Council is looking at.
Rye is not going to suddenly become a southern powerhouse overnight though, because major change often depends on major spending – and improving the local traffic infrastructure, for example, is not going to happen tomorrow. High speed direct links to London are probably, at best, at least six years off, and a by-pass (with at least eight possibilities mooted at the end of the 80s) is even further off.
Change then depends on what we can do locally (and not just the council, or local businesses, or indeed enthusiastic volunteers, but everybody together) and how we can make Rye work better, and be better known, and be more attractive – not just to visitors, but also to people wanting to start a business – who do not need to rely on new roads or better trains.
So 2016, like 2015, may present some challenges, as well as some rewards ; and Rye News – and all its volunteers and contributors – wish you and yours well in the year ahead. Happy New Year.
Photo: Ray Prewer