Opportunity to buy
Local government re-organisation was discussed at Rye Town Council on Monday, July 28 with councillors agreeing to express an interest in taking on assets currently owned by Rother District Council (RDC), including public toilets and car parks. RDC, along with East Sussex County Council, is likely to be replaced by a new unitary authority. A decision is expected later in the year.
Mayor Andy Stuart told the meeting it was worth exploring for the town to make sure Rye did not miss out. “We are in a holding pattern and nobody really knows what’s in store, so we have no idea about costs, but some may be affordable for us.” A survey of Rye residents is likely to follow.
A recent RDC meeting confirmed the council was unlikely to approve the sale of any assets with a commercial value.
Development and the Rye Neighbourhood Plan were also discussed. You can read a full report here.
Also on the agenda
Councillors also agreed to support Rye Harbour Sailability with funding for a new accessible boat. The charity received widespread approval for their successful fundraising and passion for helping youngsters with mobility issues learning to sail.
Twinning Rye with Montreuil-sur-Mer in Northern France is being discussed again, with councillors again expressing approval for the idea as long as it is cost neutral to local tax payers. They agreed to discuss the idea further in September.
Councillors approved a new ten-year lease for Rye Heritage Centre, praising them for their hard work. “They do so well for our town and long may it continue,” said Cllr Creaser.
Planning notes
Plans for the new Aldi on Winchelsea Road were discussed at Rye Town Council’s Planning and Townscape Committee which also met on Monday, July 28. The meeting agreed to continue to support the proposal subject to outstanding issues (surface water, parking, traffic) being sorted. The linked plans for retirement housing were again vociferously opposed, with councillors united in the need for new affordable homes in Rye for those on the minimum wage or working in hospitality and retail.
The meeting also heard the controversial West Street street lamp, which has recently been replaced, was unlikely to be restored and discussed fears about the spread of invasive weeds, especially ragwort, on the Iron Salts.
Questions to Sussex Police
You have just a few more days to get your questions in ahead of the Rye News interview with Commander Simon Yates, the officer in charge of policing in Rye.
You can email them to info@ryenews.org.uk or leave a comment below. Questions need to be with us by Friday, August 8 at the latest.
Rye Art Gallery summer fair
An exciting two-day summer fair on is being held at Rye Art Gallery on Saturday, August 9 and Sunday, August 10 from 11am onwards with all proceeds going to support the conservation and restoration of the archive spaces of Rye Art Gallery.
The event is taking place inside the gallery, and outside in Ockman Lane (off East Street) and on the terrace of the gallery with splendid views across the marsh. It includes stalls selling prints, paintings, posters and ceramics by local and regional artists, plus stock clearance of scarves and t-shirts at 50% reduction. There will be a Pimm’s bar, tea and cake from Katya, all accompanied by folk music from Terry Hulf and the Marsh Players.
A big draw will also be the raffle with the top prize being a beautiful en plein air painting by Karl Terry.
On offer will be curatorial tours of the Arts and Crafts house, Ypres Studio, bequeathed by Mary and Howard Stormont to form an art gallery for the town. This was combined with the house of artist Eileen Easton at 107 High Street.
On show as part of the Artists in Focus exhibition are new paintings by Emma Turpin and Melvyn Evans, plus works by Edward Burra including a large early landscape of the west of Ireland and costume designs for Don Juan by Burra and William Chappell.
Rye Art Gallery holds an important permanent collection of around 700 works of art and archives focusing on British art of the 20th and 21st century by major national and regional figures including Edward Burra and Paul Nash, who both lived in Rye, also Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Ivon Hitchens, John Bratby, Eric Gill, John Piper, Fred Cuming and many others.
The museum at East Street has a spruce up
The 3 East Street site of Rye Castle Museum has had a smart facelift with the large doors, window frames and surrounds painted by the team at Heritage Decorating (featured in last week’s Rye News) and gold lettering supplied by Care Signs.
The site was originally a bottling factory for beers in 19th century and was linked to 101 High Street where the beer had been sold. The large doors were put in in the mid 1800s when the lower floor of the house front was taken down to give better access to the factory. The iron work is older, from around the 1760s, and was taken from a staircase at the rear of 101 High Street and fitted to the doors in about 1880s / 1890s.
Image Credits: Jim Cameron/Geograph https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/232336 cc https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/, Peter Connock , Kt bruce , Harris Partnership , Juliet Duff , Geoffrey Austen .
I see the council is concerned about the spread of weeds on the Salts, to be honest the field looks an even bigger eye sore than normal, at present there’s cricket, a fun fair and a field full of weeds so where do visitors sit and let the kids play?
Locals complain but as always it falls on deaf ears and I also notice there’s no rewilding in the citadel public areas.
Is the headline over the photograph of Strand Quay Toilets misleading ? “Opportunity to Buy” – as I understand it this building and the wc building in Gun Garden are being offered for lease by Rother District Council. This was confirmed at a meeting with Cllr McGurk last week to be at an advanced stage, Cllr McGurk agreed to report back with answers to a number of questions raised by volunteers at Rye Heritage Centre, about the practicalities of this arrangement .