The future of Rye’s public toilets will be discussed again next week when Rye Town Council meets. The agenda at the town hall on Monday October 14 also includes new consultation on the Rye Neighbourhood Plan and the future of the Rye Creative Centre.
The public toilets on the Strand and Gun Gardens in Rye were closed last year because of cost cutting at Rother District Council. Both were re-opened in the summer after Rye Town Council agreed to use money from reserves for repairs and maintenance. Volunteers spent many weeks making the toilets fit for use.
Monday’s meeting will discuss whether to pay for either or both toilets to stay open this winter, or to decide to close and re-open them on April 1. The cost to stay open for five months (November to March) is estimated to be almost £18,000.
The meeting will hear the latest from Rye Chamber of Commerce and its plans to use a £25,000 Levelling Up grant to upgrade the toilets on Station Approach. The Chamber hopes to develop a longer term plan as Rother District Council has only committed to maintaining the toilets until April next year.
Councillors will also hear how the Rye Neighbourhood Plan has needed to be updated after five years. A six week consultation on the latest version of the plan is expected to begin next week.
The future of the Rye Creative Centre will be discussed too. The centre, on the site of the former Freda Gardham school on New Road, is home to around 60 artists who have been given notice by landlord Martello Developments that they should be prepared to vacate the premises from June next year. The report to council says the developers intend to build homes on the site once work on the nearby tidal wall has been completed.
The meeting at the town hall begins at 6:30pm.
Image Credits: James Stewart , Peter Mould .
Why not make a small charge to use the toilets. That, at least, would go some way to off-set the maintenance fees.
Is the creative centre, Freda Graham school on New Road still owned by ESCC (on behalf of the community)? If not, when was it sold? If so, can it be sold with restrictive covenants to ensure that it can only be developed in line with the needs of Rye? Is it possible to avoid a repeat of the school site on Ferry Road? (which was sold by ESCC)