Business concerns about the introduction of CPE (Civil Parking Enforcement) with parking meters and traffic wardens in Rye will be raised when the DfT (Department for Transport) consults on the proposals from ESCC (East Sussex County Council) which need Parliamentary approval, Rye Town Council (RTC) decided on Monday night.
Meanwhile the working group set up by RTC to look at the town’s long term parking needs and an appropriate strategy for this will be asked to also press on with this work – covered to some extent in Rye’s just-agreed Neighbourhood Plan..
But current developments in Parliament over leaving the European Union, and a possible General Election, are already delaying the legal process of introducing CPE.
ESCC council leader and local county councillor Keith Glazier made it clear again that the proposals were only intended to cover existing parking restrictions but they would look carefully at any points raised during the three-week consultation – which currently may not be before the middle of next year.
He also repeated that ESCC would review CPE’s operation in about a year after it was implemented.
When the DfT consultation is announced it is likely that RTC will discuss CPE again, but in the meantime inconsiderate and/or unlawful parking will continue to be a problem.
Festival praised
Rye’s Mayor Cllr Mike Boyd, reporting on recent events he had attended, said last weekend’s Festival of the Sea had been very successful and was “all the better for being on The Salts ” rather than Strand Quay.
Cllr Glazier, reporting back on ESCC issues, said problems with the A259 were matters for Highway England who had made it very clear that there was not much chance of Rye meeting the criteria for a bypass.
However the A259 and Highways England were also presenting problems in Winchelsea where there had been a rock fall on the main road resulting in a loss of parking spaces.
Rye’s new Liberal Democrat Councillor on Rother District Council (RDC) Howard Norton said the new council (no longer Conservative controlled) was settling in under its new leadership.
Heritage Centre
Centre manager Louisa O’Shaugnessy said they had been very busy and had dealt with masses of calls and enquiries but actual sales were down on last year and the budget forecast.
RTC discussed the centre and council finances overall in private session later in the evening.
Elsewhere the RDC is looking at its overall planning/housing strategy and Rye Neighbourhood Plan Vice Chairman Anthony Kimber reported that this strategy was consistent with the recently approved Rye Neighbourhood Plan (RNP) and had been discussed at length with RDC officers.
He added that the RNP included issues such as land stability, and the RDC would have to take this into account in relation to any proposed development or works in Military Road.
As a result of RDC’s review of voting arrangements it is likely that the polling station currently at Badger Gate will move back to Tilling Green Community Centre in Mason Road.
Flexible freemen
RTC decided to make the appointment of Honorary Freemen scheme more flexible by changing the specification of “20 years voluntary work” to “at least 10 years” which would cover those who retired to live in Rye as well as long-term residents.
Former Mayor Cllr Jonathan Breeds was asked to continue his investigation into whether Honorary Freemen could have a badge, sash or something similar to mark the honour.
It was agreed that the maximum number of Freemen was sufficiently flexible already.
Flyposting condemned
The Town Council agreed a new policy to remove unauthorised advertising material and the Jazz Festival was criticised for not removing all its notices from lamp-posts.
Cllr Andi Rivett was asked to provide more detail on his proposal for recognising local businesses as, while it was thought to be a great idea in theory, various practical issues raised concerns – and the devil could be in the detail.
Editor’s note: No detail of the formal consultation on Civil Parking Enforcement in Rye (and Rother generally) announced this week by East Sussex County Council is available before Rye News is published, and a number of people present at Monday’s Town Council meeting understood from the ESCC council leader that the CPE papers had been passed to the Department for Transport by ESCC as Parliament has to agree the proposal.
Image Credits: Kevin McCarthy , Rye News library .
I think they should also consider disabled parking in Rye, the blue badge system only works with street parking. I have a disabled daughter coming to visit soon and the only way we can use her blue badge is to park in the street in Rye. Have they ever tried parking during the day in the street with enough space to open the back and get a wheelchair out? The council car parks have a very few disabled bays but you still have to pay so what is the point of the blue badge in that case. I think the councillors ought to borrow a wheelchair and see how they get on!
Its was interesting to read in Rye news the councils decision to clamp down on fly posting in Rye, does this now mean the removal of a housing development sign,that was finished a decade ago but still adorns a lamp post in the town, also signs put up on private premises like the derelict site in winchelsea road, down on station approach, and the old freida Graham site, I ask what are they allowing and what not, just last week a sign that had permission at strand quay, was removed despite being on private property,and advertising the Rye harvest music festival, which raised over £2,500 for cancer research, at the moment it seems okay for some, and not others, the council need to address what is allowed, and what is not, because at the moment what we have seen recently and over the years, it seems it’s not a level playing field.
Parking tops council meeting – thanks to Charlie Harkness for his wide-ranging article. In the paragraph which mentions ‘problems on the A259’, we are told that Highways England say there is little chance of Rye getting a bypass because we don’t meet the criteria. What are these criteria? I wonder if they are the same criteria used by the Minister for Transport in July 1987 when his department’s official report stated that Rye needed a bypass and, specifically, ‘…South Undercliff carries unacceptably high levels of traffic, and, as traffic volumes increase, the situation will deteriorate.’ This was thirty two years ago and, lo and behold, the Channel Tunnel opened and the situation has deteriorated many times over! If the situation was unacceptable then, why is it tolerated now that things have become many times worse and scientific studies have proved how much damage is being done to the health of those living next to such roads?