Rye College student leadership team met with the recently elected MP for Hastings and Rye, Helena Dollimore on Thursday, November 7. Bel, a year 11 student leader, and member of the Rye News Press Club at the school, sent us this report.
During the meeting, our student representatives queried Ms Dollimore on local and national issues such as the sewage leaks (and our dissatisfaction with Southern Water), changes in funding for state schools and the effects of climate change. We also discussed how inflation has affected us as a community through the changing cost of canteen food prices, train and bus fares.
Ms Dollimore was impressed by the work our team has already put in to make changes since our own election; our year 7 disco was a huge success, and we’ve raised over £400 for local charities such as Warming up the Homeless through our bake sales and non-uniform days. We shared our future plans with Ms Dollimore; our interest in improving recycling at Rye College and support for our LGBTQ+ students.
Everyone in the meeting found the conversation with Ms Dollimore very interesting. She gave us very helpful advice on how to improve our team and offered a fascinating insight into how parliament works through describing how acts are put through. She shared how, although the system is old fashioned, she still thinks it works well, as it gives politicians the opportunity to talk through decisions in greater depth while they wait to walk through to cast their votes. Ms Dollimore, however, did say that parliament wasn’t all she had expected as its much louder than it’s presented on TV, and acts take a long time to put through.
Image Credits: Rye College .
“During the meeting, our student representatives queried Ms Dollimore on local and national issues such as the sewage leaks (and our dissatisfaction with Southern Water)”
That would be the same Ms Dollimore who has still failed to involve herself in the Fairlight Pathfinder Project, running for the past three years, that now includes the whole wastewater system from Fairlight to Rye Harbour with £ millions being spent by Southern Water on it.
A small group of Fairlight residents took on Southern Water six years ago and ended up engaging with them and being included in one of their Pathfinder Projects three years ago. This has resulted in 5 kilometers of wastewater pipes being surveyed robotically, after which much has now been lined with epoxy resin to seal them against the ingress of tree roots and ground water, the cause of most of the wastewater overflows. A number of illegal connections to the wastewater system were identified and have now been sealed off. There is much else being undertaken as well.
This is a good example of how actual engagement with the offending company works, rather than Ms Dollimore’s, seemingly preferred, method of virtue signalling by shouting from the sidelines along with the likes of Feargal Sharkey and Chris Packham.
That is a lesson that hopefully these students will hopefully learn as time goes by.
There will be an open village Pathfinder Project meeting in Fairlight Village Hall towards the end of January so perhaps Rye College would like to arrange a visit to it and gain a better understanding of the problems and their solutions. More details can be obtained by emailing lowerwaiteslane@gmail.com
So glad that Ms Dollimore was impressed by the “Warming up the Homeless” scheme run by the school students. Perhaps she might extend her concern to the pensioners whose Winter Fuel Allowance was taken away, as one of her party’s first measures when coming into power!