Your letters - September 26

Market forces

Re: Anglo Continental Market

ONCE again, we had a busy and successful market, the sun shone on Bexhill for all of last weekend.

How good it was to see the centre of town so very busy with shoppers and visitors on both Saturday and Sunday. Lots of visitors were in town enjoying the market, our shops and a day by the sea. The cafes and restaurants were really busy all weekend. The promenade was enjoyed by thousands of people taking advantage of the lovely weather. This is what we need, plenty of visitors to our town to help our town centre traders. Several of the stall holders are existing town centre businesses and we know they benefited by promoting their businesses at the market.

This market only takes place because of the goodwill of so many people and organisations, many, many thanks to the Bexhill 100 Motoring Club for providing such good, experienced marshals, many thanks to Rother District Council for help and assistance. A big thank you to Verdant for the street cleaning, morning and evening. Grateful thanks to our local police for their help in getting a parked car towed away from our road closure area on Sunday morning and for the presence of the Community Support Officers over the weekend.

Thanks to Stagecoach for putting up temporary notices on the bus stops and for providing a temporary bus stop on Marina - it was really helpful for passengers. Many thanks to C-Side cafe for providing the refreshments for the marshals.

Thank you to the traders and residents of Devonshire Road for parking your vehicles elsewhere and for generally putting up with the disruption this market can cause you.

Most of all, thank you to the residents of Bexhill, without your support this market would not be worthwhile, we asked you to support your town centre - and thousands of you did - thank you.

SUE SPICE

Bexhill Chamber of Commerce & Tourism

Curate's egg

Re seafront refurbishment

THE council's proposals are a veritable curate's egg but they should not be entirely thrown out.

First the good parts:

The Sovereign Cafe is retained with more seating outside east and west. This is as it should be but, unfortunately, Bexhill is not actually on the Mediterranean yet. More sensible would be for the Council to put its money where its mouth is and provide toilets for the cafe.

Trees in the De La Warr car park - not a bad idea, though the proposal is for rather a large number of trees. Fewer, larger trees and a budget for their initial protection from wind and on-going maintenance might be better. Why not some trees on the promenade?

A direct route form Sackville Road to the promenade is a good idea. I have seen quite a lot of people getting over the wall and traipsing across the Pitch and Put to avoid going the long way round the Crazy Golf. But the proposal is for a walkway wider than the promenade - an architect's fantasy?

Street calming at Sackville roundabout and at the Devonshire Road junction - a good idea to stop some of the 'boy racers' amongst us.

Development of the Colonnade - a good idea in principle and long overdue.

As it exists, the Colonnade is extremely tatty and adding depth to the site by excavation and seeking to attract a mixture of shopping, cafes and restaurants is a good idea.

However, the proposals come with several bad parts, which might render the whole entirely spoilt:

The excavation proposed at the Colonnade is unduly large and it would be better to tackle the development in phases with the first phase at the western side of the Colonnade. That way, the existing cafe could continue in operation and expenditure could be limited until the commercial appetite for the development is known.

The renewal of the seafront shelters with stainless steel shelters is a thoroughly bad idea. They look like nothing so much as some sort of open 'pissoir' supported on steel legs. They certainly offer no protection from a north wind.

The proposal to 'tidy up' the area near the Park Road junction with West Parade by removing the shop, children's sundial and wishing well is a bad idea. The sundial is educational and interesting and doesn't clutter up anything and the shop serves a public need in this location. Not everyone will want to walk to the Colonnade for their ice creams, even if it does offend some architect's view. The bollards shown in the proposal drawing strike me as just as much a clutter. The promenade should be punctuated with several cafes and the council should not seek to centralise everything at the Colonnade.

The replacement of seating with stainless steel benches is a daft idea. The great majority of seating on West Parade is, in fact, of one design with cast iron ends and backs and arms and it would be perfectly possible to retain this design in new locations on the seafront.

The removal of the fishermen's access to the promenade in line with the ramped access to the beach to the west of the Sovereign Cafe and its replacement with an access to the promenade 100 metres further west, is simply perverse and ridiculous and shows us all how little the architects have thought about it.

On balance, Councillor Ensor is right. The Council should refer this proposal back for further consideration by a working group who should come up with a much more business orientated plan for the seafront. What the seafront really needs, to add evening activity, is a hotel next to the pavilion, as Mendelsohn and Chermayeff planned.

GEOFFREY LAWSON

Maple Avenue

Be sensible

I WALK along our prom very often and thought maybe that is the reason I don't notice that it needs knocking down and rebuilding.

So I thought "Let's go and have another look" - and I am still of the same opinion. There is nothing wrong with it.

True, it can be improved. But by sensible, cost-effective measures - not with a 5m grandiose scheme.

I would love to see some statues along the prom - maybe of people who are or who have been important to the history of our town.

Some nice lighting to enhance the prom and flower beds at night.

I agree the Sovereign Cafe is rather tatty and ugly - so how about building another one by the shelter by the Clock Tower with all the facilities it needs by today's standards. It would be near enough to serve the park and the museum as it seems they are not having a cafe.

Then the shelter could be re-erected where the old one is knocked down.

All the shelters can be repaired and painted to match the ones on De La Warr Parade.

The putting green and crazy golf should be greatly improved and flood-lit in the evenings so people can play for longer. It would bring in some revenue.

How about putting in a bowls or petanque area? People could use their own or hire there.