A new donation post has gone up in Rye Harbour outside the public toilets. There are also donation posts in the car park. Many similar facilities in other parts of the county require the user to pay a fee.
Icklesham Parish Council took over responsibility of the car park and public conveniences in Rye Harbour in 2016. Jenner Sands, Clerk to the council said: “This was a very important project for the Parish Council as we wanted to ensure that the car park remained free to use for both residents and visitors. Running the car park and toilets costs the Parish Council around £21,000 per year. Some of these costs are covered by donations collected from generous car park users. However, with the ever-increasing energy costs the Parish Council are keen to keep costs down for residents and so it is hoped that this extra donation post will help generate more donations to keep both facilities running on a donation basis.”
Please, when you visit this beautiful part of Sussex remember to put a donation in the collection posts. Help the council to carry on providing these facilities free, every little helps.
Image Credits: Kt bruce .
The bird reserve must think all their Christmas’s have come at once, free unlimited parking provided by the council while their members spend all their money in the visitors centre.
Or does the bird reserve make a contribution towards the £21k it costs to maintain the carpark.
I do not object to the car park and toilets being free at the point of use, the village shop, pub and cafe welcome the trade. If there was a charge to use the toilets I leave the results to your imagination, as occurred during lockdown when the toilets were locked shut.
Some residents from Tram Road use the car park as there is pressure on parking space in Tram Road.
The wider issue with regard to the Nature Reserve and parking is the lack of parking for coaches and vans, as the car park currently has a fixed ceiling pole at the entrance.
During the summer months locals, pedestrians with children, pushchairs, wheelchairs, dogs etc have to take the risk of negotiating a way to pass parked coaches which remain stationary on the road OUTSIDE the car park, leaving no safe route for the pedestrians. There is no designated footpath, pavement, safe space or refuge for pedestrians on that piece of road.
These coaches are usually carrying school parties, though often random coach trips utilise the same opportunity of “Free Parking” which may make the company’s day-out-deal more profitable for them.
It is probably not beyond the wit of the parish council to use a portion of the donated money to install a raisable pole on the entrance gantry (even possibly one operated by technology?) to allow coaches access to a section of the car park – alongside camper vans, visitor’s vans (often carrying group’s bicycles) all of which also currently left on the road outside the car park.
I have tried in the past to interest the Sussex Wildlife Trust staff at the Discovery Centre of this issue, even spoken to the coach drivers, written to the Trust and cc’d to Icklesham Parish Council. The lack of response was deafening, apparently it is no one’s responsibility. Especially the Sussex Wildlife Trust/Discovery Centre, who categorically denied responsibility in any way for the coaches, even given the suggestion of moral debt to the village.
But then, it’s only public safety at risk, so that’s all right then, apparently.