What can the town council do?

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[Editor’s note: The return of the bikers after the lockdown has prompted a lot of comments and, as often happens with many other “issues”, the call goes up for the town council “to do something”.

However, town and parish councils are right at the bottom of the local authority ladder with very limited powers to do anything, so Rye News asked Rye’s town clerk to explain “who is responsible for what “]

As a general rule anything to do with the fabric of roads, pavements and footpaths is the responsibility of the relevant highways authority (East Sussex County Council [for most roads] or Highways England [for the A259 and other major roads]). East Sussex County Council is responsible also for social services and education.

Among other duties, Rother District Council (RDC) is responsible for environmental health and housing. Environmental Health has been tasked with ensuring that retail businesses and takeaways are following the government’s social distancing and Covid-19 control measures and in Rye, most of the recreational areas (like the Salts) and facilities are provided by Rother.

Sussex Police is responsible for ensuring drivers and riders adhere to speed limits and that their vehicles / machines are “road legal”. Until civil parking enforcement (CPE) is introduced (probably October 2020), Sussex Police is also responsible for on-street parking violations. Thereafter, responsibility will pass to the county council.

Access to the area on the Strand Quay frequented by bikers is permitted or, more accurately, not discouraged, by the Environment Agency (part of DEFRA, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs).

Rye Town Council cuts the verges in Rye that are owned by the county council and provides a town steward service to supplement the public domain work undertaken by the county and district councils. It also provides a general and visitor information service from the town hall – currently by email, phone, post and messaging only.

The only statutory duty the town council has is to provide allotments if six or more parishioners demand that they be provided. The town council sub-lets the Freda Gardham playing field to Rye Rugby Club, owns the skatepark, the heritage centre (now leased to a charity) and two residential properties – one of which is let at a discounted rent to a household with a strong local connection with Rye.

Rye Town Council has no powers to temporarily close roads, enforce social distancing, require Rother to fully open the public conveniences – nor mark 2m spacing on pavements.

[Editor’s Footnote: The town council also has a planning committee which can comment on proposals to RDC which is the planning authority, who must take into account Rye’s recently agreed neighbourhood plan when making decisions]

Image Credits: Nick Forman .

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks, an interesting article.

    It always makes me smile that a few people who complain to Rye New – at the moment top of the complaints pile are: the forever issue of parking; motorcycle noise; use of Camber Sands by outsiders etc. feel that Rye Town Council should ‘do something’ about it. This article makes it clear. All they do is: pay someone to cut the verges, lease out a field and a visitor centre, and provide allotments (if 6 parishioners wish it). Mind you they all dress up every now and then and I’m sure that makes us all feel better.

    The local power (such as it is) is with Rother District Council, based in Bexhill, and East Sussex County Council, based in Lewes, although local government is easily overridden (planning, health, highways, social care, education) by big government at Westminster. The only way your complaints are heard is to make a nuisance of yourself to our local MP, the hapless Sally-Anne Hart. She may be able to influence local decisions by threatening intervention.

    Although born in Rye, I lived and worked in London for many years – in partnership with many London Boroughs (equivalent of a county council in E. Sussex). Some were controlled by Conservatives, some by Labour and even one by Lib Dems (Sutton) Most of the officers (people paid to run social services, environment etc.) were noble and trying to do their best for clients. On the other hand the local councillors (elected representatives) were: inept, hopelessly partisan to their parties, and at times downright dim with little understanding of how anything is achieved. I put this last bit in as I believe nothing will change for local people where we have this sham local democracy. All the real power is at Wesminster – not Rye Town Council. It is really time for a complete re-think of local democracy – yes, let the Town Council dress up: it still makes some people feel better.

    Stay safe …

  2. Thanks for this,
    It almost makes sense although I have to admit I have always found the ‘pyramid’ of local democracy a bit of a puzzle and this makes some of it clear.
    I will often use the FixMyStreet website to report local problems and most of the time it works sometimes not. I believe it was run by the Ministry of Justice but as it’s asking now for donations so maybe not. You can view the outstanding issues n your area but it’s important to note somethings are not fixed. Which brings me back to the above article as I often get a response pointing to another authority which leads nowhere. So for the common responsible council taxpayer how to get action on particular issues? I wish I knew as I have tried complaining to my local MP and got nowhere. As an example I complained about bike noise on the Lydd road as we often get irresponsible bikers with exhausts that you can hear from Jurys gap to Lydd as they use the road as a test track. I was signposted to the police website operation crackdown, difficult to navigate with no means of complaining about this problem, and in my opinion requires a complete redesign / overhaul or removing. I don’t consider myself a serial complainer just someone who has come to Rye for a quiet life.
    Does anyone agree that it’s difficult to get action on particular issues? take Camber as an example, completely abandoned recently to people without any social conscience, parking that would not be allowed elsewhere just ignored by the authorities.

    • I so agree with you. I am in the process of writing an article about how the situation that Camber faces and has to endure? How would that be solved if it happened in ‘Middle Class’ Rye ?
      Would like to talk to you about it.

  3. We love Rye, and we used to visit at least 4 times a year, and thought of buying a house and moving to Rye for good. However, 10 years ago we noticed the bikers, who are nothing but a noisy nuisance, going round and round Rye, and the awful noise was incessant, every Sunday, every holiday, starting very early and going on and on and on. This put us off coming back to Rye. As for this idea that they bring business to the town, why should all the residents have to put up with noise and disturbance just so a chip shop can make a bit of money? (Incidentally, a really good motorbike makes very little noise.) The only solution is really to ban them altogether, let them go and mess about on their bikes wherever they live. A great many of them are old enough to know better.

    [This comment has been slightly edited to meet our guidelines]

  4. I wish it could be arranged for the police to do a spot check of the motorbikes at Strand Key. It is obvious by the noise level, that baffles have been removed or tampered with, for the specific purpose of making more noise. This is an illegal practice. Surely, the police should be requested through Rother if need be, to become involved in what is a legal issue, and one that spoils the peace of Rye and the environs.

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