Lord Ampthill, one of Rye’s two councillors on Rother District Council (RDC), told a recent meeting of Rye Town Council how shocked he was by the state of the town’s last surviving medieval gateway, the Landgate, into our historic town.
And he left the impression that he had not actually been inside to have a look himself before now.
He said the mess and smell (mainly bird detritus) was down to the Landgate not having a roof, and someone should have done something before.
However the ancient borough of Rye was wound up in the 70s and its assets, including the Landgate, transferred to Rother, who have not put a roof on it for over 40 years.
And his list of essential work to be carried out shortly does not include a “roof”, however temporary, so the men with the hoses (shown above) will be back again shortly in all probability to do yet another clean-up.
This seems very short-sighted, but there is a long held belief in both Rye and Camber that Rother’s main interest is in collecting parking charges and giving very little back in return.
No doubt his Lordship will draw attention to the lifeguards which Camber now has (after a few drownings) but surely they were required long ago since Camber regularly attracts 20-30,000 to its beach on a sunny weekend (as it did recently).
Many of those arrive by car, coach or motorcycle, and Rother indeed has one very large car park just off the beach behind the sand dunes (and a small one further on).
But another decision which may also come to haunt his Lordship is the recent Rother decision to let Smart Parking run car parking in Camber.
Smart Parking is a global company based in Australia and if you search “Smart Parking” on the web you will find lots of stories about their activities – but possibly RDC officers never made such a search.
The parking (on Rother’s private land) relies to a great extent on ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) which is not known to be fault free.
However the general advice on the web is to appeal fines you believe to be false or inaccurate by using POPLA, the independent appeals service.
Judging by the number of comments and stories that have already appeared in Rye News and elsewhere Smart Parking appear to be doing a very good job of upsetting visitors – and I wonder whether they are used in Bexhill at all (where the RDC and many of Rother’s councillors are based).
Watch this space therefore as Smart Parking and the Landgate will continue to be ongoing sagas – no doubt to the surprise and shock of Lord Ampthill.
Photo: Rye News Library
When is any work to start on the Landgate? I am glad that a visitor has expressed their disgust at the state haven’t we all what do the Councillors have to say? I have commented earlier about the cobbles ,well in places they are now totally covered by weds. Disgraceful
When is any work to start on the Landgate? I am glad that a visitor has expressed their disgust at the state haven’t we all what do the Councillors have to say? I have commented earlier about the cobbles ,well in places they are now totally covered by weds. DisgracefulMaybe but what else can I do
Re the Landgate issue about the roof I must agree with Charlie Harkness. While we are all very pleased that money for the clean up has been made available one has to wonder at the stance of no proper Roof will be on the menu.
It seems very clear to everyone and specially to the people who have now been inside and have realised the damage to the structure of the Landgate and birds because of no decent roof, the opinion of Rother/East Sussex seems to be still that there is not enough money.
I was at a Rye Town Council meeting recently where we were told that most of the damage/pigeon problem was because the ‘flapping’ netting at the top was not an adequate protection. When I asked if that is not reason enough to provide a bit more money to afford a roof after the clean up and stabilisation we were told it would be too expensive but the netting would be replaced with tougher netting, how short sighted.