Rye mayor, Andi Rivett updates you on his busy diary and seeks your views on the wild Salts and additional parking controls.
Fundraising times
Rye Hospital has a number of fundraisers on at the rugby club and I was delighted to attend their quiz night recently (which raised £535) and their big screen film night which was a lovely evening with a lot of new people coming along to enjoy the show.
They have a music night on Saturday, August 13 and another event coming up that sounds like great fun if, like me, you can remember back to the 1970s and It’s a Knock-Out. Well, it’s coming to Rye on Saturday, September 3 so, after the flower and produce annual event at the community centre (which is always a delight to attend and see how clever our green-fingered allotment holders are) I will be cheering on the teams at the rugby club on the 3rd.
007’s author and a crafty cheque
A few weeks ago. I had the great pleasure of attending a fascinating talk on The Shady Life of Ian Fleming, by the incredibly knowledgeable Brigadier Hugh Willing. The event, hosted by the Craft Club, which raises funds through Rye Golf Club, was packed, and the audience enjoyed every minute of the twists and turns of the author’s life, much like his fictional character, James Bond.
A Craft Club cheque for £2,000 was formally presented (see top photo) on Wednesday, July 20 at the town hall for those recently displaced Ukrainians and their hosts living in Rye and the surrounding area.
The craft club, with its distinctive elephant logo, was founded at Rye Golf Club in 1991 to raise money for three charities, namely Save the Children, RNLI and SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen), but on this occasion an exception was made in order to help local Ukrainian families.
Since its establishment the craft club has recruited over 30,000 members world-wide and raised over £300,000, mainly through golf competitions at Rye and several other affiliated golf clubs. The craft club has in the past contributed a substantial amount to the Rye lifeboat, which is in regular use and one of the fastest and newest in the RNLI fleet.
Parking controls to spread?
Some residents – especially those living in the Grove, Love Lane, Bedford Place, Military Road and North Salts – will have recently received a letter from the county council about on-street parking and asking them to give their views on a number of proposed changes to the civil parking enforcement scheme.
I urge residents to respond to this consultation because, as we know, there are a lot of pinch-points in the town which need some action, and it would be really helpful for the council to know your views. The town council will also be responding and information on how this will be done will be publicised shortly.
Better wild? Or best tamed?
I would be really interested in your thoughts about the state of the Salts between the old putting green and Rock Channel East. Some have said that they like the fact that Rother has left it to go wild.
Others are very concerned about the fact that it appears to be very limited in the plants that are growing there and some may even be dangerous; that it is an environmental hazard as even the most astute dog walkers cannot find what their dogs have left behind; and others have mentioned the potential fire hazard.
Rye Town Council would like Rother District Council to get this cut back, so that kids and all generations can enjoy the full recreational benefits of the area and also that Rother should put up a goal post for youngsters to have a kick about after school and exercise. Your thoughts please!
And how are you on a raft?
The sea festival (of which I am the chairman) is not long away now and we are looking for more teams to enter the raft race and tug of war. There are also a few pitches left if you would like a stall on the Salts and we hope you’ll all come along and enjoy this family-fun day on Sunday, September 11 from 11am to 4pm.
Talking of the sea, I actually managed to get some sailing in this weekend on a beautiful wooden vessel. Oh, and we are singing sea shanties at the Waterworks pub on the evening of Wednesday, August 3 – come along me hearties and join in!
Image Credits: Rye Town Council .
Regarding the long grass on The Salts: it lifts my heart to see it. True, it may not be a sea of wild flowers this year, but it takes time for that to happen – and there are still plenty of butterflies and other invertebrates enjoying it (the insect population in the UK is down by 75% compared to the 1970s owing to pesticide use and habitat loss). There are plenty of places in and around Rye to walk the dog or kick a ball or have a picnic, why not leave the Town Salts be, to benefit some non-human Rye residents? We are, after all, in the middle of a biodiversity crisis.
I was in the Salts playground with friends (and our kids!) just yesterday and we all commented on how much we liked the ‘rewilded’ patch. It’s something different, and a good use of the land. It should definitely be retained, in our opinion.
As with any meadow, if it is left until about now (August) to be cut and the hay cleared, more and more different species of wild flowers will gradually find a home there over the years; especially if a scattering of yellow rattle seed is made. As a result, many different insects will come to visit – and stay. I’m thinking mainly of bumble bees that love Knapweed flowers at this time of year, and lovely daytime Cinnabar moths lay their eggs on Ragwort (a much maligned plant because it is poisonous to ponies, but you don’t see many of those on the Salts) to produce those delightful black and yellow striped caterpillars.
You have hit the nail on the head: a wildflower meadow takes many years to establish and requires planned work each year, cutting the vegetation, allowing it to dry, shaking out the seeds and removing the cuttings. (A wildflower meadow requires a lean soil for the most attractive plants, which is why the cuttings must be removed). Problem is that the public will never understand this, expecting instant results, and local authorities need consistency of policy and execution over many years. I have some experience of this through my time on Fairlight Parish Council.
Many local authorities rotovate and plant poppies and cornflowers. That is a form of gardening, not a wildflower meadow, but it’s attractive and no doubt some insects benefit.
Beautiful to see an attempt at a wildflower meadow but as Andrew Mier states it does take a while to establish, and requires skill and maintenance. Give it a couple of years and maybe check it is the councils intention to develop a wild environment. It’s great for the birds and bees. Go and kick around on the other part of the Salts …
My grandmother lived in Fishmarket Road so I spent a vast amount of my childhood playing on that particular piece of grass and in my opinion I think it looks awful.