The dilapidated state of tourist information boards was recently brought to our attention by Geraldine Bell, who lives at Vidler Square in Rye. “The panels at Winchelsea Beach and at Pett Level are in particularly poor condition”, she writes, “their wooden frames are almost at collapsing point, and the narrative and pictures on both of the boards are deteriorating fast. I for one like to read these and other history boards whenever I am in the area and always point these out to family and friends who visit”.
One of the panels at Pett Level gives information about the sunken forest, where tree stumps and branches emerge from the muddy foreshore. The forest dates back some 10,000 years before the sea encroached to cover it.
Another board tells the fascinating story of Smeaton’s Harbour at Winchelsea Beach, which took 70 years to build and was abandoned within a year, rendered useless by the coastal movement of shingle across the harbour mouth.
Both were installed by the Countryside Commission for East Sussex County Council, but are no longer funded for maintenance. In response to an enquiry, Dr Barry Yates, manager at the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, indicated that Sussex Wildlife Trust will take on responsibility for the information board at Winchelsea Beach.
Meanwhile another organisation, the coast and marine division of Natural England, has also been approached. Its spokesman has offered the suggestion that a local conservation group, the Pett Level Preservation Trust, might be encouraged to maintain the board at Pett Level, as it manages a site within the Dungeness Romney Marsh and Rye Bay SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Natural England designation). This will be followed up.
The whole saga shows how government cuts operate to transfer the burden of maintaining services and assets from the public realm onto the shoulders of the voluntary sector.
Photo: Geraldine Bell