Bin lorries to go diesel free, awards for local beaches, views on anti-social behaviour, and a new forum for debate.
Veg oil fuel for rubbish collection
The company that collects Rye’s rubbish will have a new fleet of diesel free vehicles from June 2026. Biffa Municipal has been given a seven-year extension to its contract with Rother District Council following a meeting of the council on July 29.
The extended contract also includes the new food waste collection service set to begin on April 1, 2026. Capital funding had been received from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to cover the cost of purchasing both the food waste collection vehicles and the kitchen and kerbside caddies.
Rather than diesel, the new fleet of waste collection vehicles will be fuelled by hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), which the council says “will reduce carbon emissions by up to 90%.”
Award winning beaches
Both Camber Sands and Winchelsea Beach have been awarded a Keep Britain Tidy “seaside award”. Neither beaches qualified for the society’s top accolade – the blue flag.
To win the award beaches all over the UK were assessed for safety, litter, environmental information and water quality. Blue flag beaches must meet the “excellent” water quality standard as set out in the EU bathing water directive and seaside award winners must meet the “sufficient” standard.
Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, Allison Ogden-Newton OBE said the seaside awards are presented to the best beaches in England and celebrate the quality and diversity of our coastline. “The awards are a credit to the collective efforts of beach and site managers, volunteers, residents and businesses who have worked tirelessly to maintain, protect and improve some of our best-loved and most popular blue spaces and we’d like to take this moment to recognise and applaud them.”
Anti social behaviour consultation
Drinking alcohol in public in Camber and aggressive soliciting for money in Rye are parts of the Rother District Council’s “anti social behaviour public space protection order” which is under discussion. An online survey runs until September 2 asking whether or not to renew the current order or to extend it when it runs out in April 2025.
A spokesperson for the council said it hoped to draft a new order for full public consultation in the autumn. “The council would particularly like to hear from residents, businesses and services in or near town centres and public spaces. We would like to hear from local organisations involved in housing and homelessness, low-income and crime and anti-social behaviour. We are asking for input from all the town and parish councils in Rother.”
You can fill in the survey here.
Time To talk
A chance to discuss and debate issues that affect life in Rye is being proposed by what’s being described as the Rye Forum. A small group led by Kenneth Bird and Harvey Gillman met at the St Mary’s Centre to explore possibilities.
The debating group also hopes to explore potential solutions, says founder Harvey Gillman. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a forum in Rye – a place where people could come together freely and respectfully share ideas. People are constantly searching for meaning, for agency – by which I mean making decisions for themselves – how can we support that and change things if needed?”
If you would like to find out more please email harveygillman@gmail.com.
From the Rye News what’s on diary
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Image Credits: Kt bruce , RN , Nick Forman , James Stewart , Natasha Robinson .
Great news about the Rye Forum! It could fill in the gaps on numerous local issues hanging in the air.
How about a music forum, to focus Rye on opportunity to learn music? We are losing live music since Covid
There are many more musicians here than appear obvious