On Thursday 7 May Rye will have the opportunity to elect local representatives to serve on both East Sussex County and Rother District Councils.
Rye News has given all prospective candidates the opportunity to summarise their positions, especially in relation to their vision for how they intend to represent and support Rye and the surrounding villages.
These statements are the opinions of the candidates themselves and, as such, have not been edited by Rye News.
All seven candidates for the Rye and Eastern Rother ward for East Sussex County Council are listed below, in alphabetical order.
Dan Bradley (Reform UK)
From youth leadership to community representation
I’m Dan Bradley, and I care deeply about the people and places that make up Rye and Eastern Rother. This is my home — it’s where I work, where I volunteer, and where I’ve spent years supporting young people through community programmes. That experience has shown me just how much potential our area has, and how important it is that local voices are genuinely listened to.
Many families I speak to tell me the same things: it’s getting harder to find a home locally, services feel stretched, and decisions made elsewhere don’t always reflect what our towns and villages actually need. I want to help change that by focusing on practical, community-led solutions.
What I want to work on with you
Homes for local people
Young families and essential workers are being priced out. One approach some communities are exploring is ensuring new homes are used as primary residences rather than second homes or holiday lets. Others are looking at community-owned housing models that keep homes affordable for local people long-term. These are conversations worth having here too.
Protecting local services
With council reserves under pressure, residents often feel they’re being asked to pay more for less. Some towns have introduced small visitor contributions at busy tourist spots to help maintain toilets, car parks, and local infrastructure — easing the burden on residents while supporting the services everyone relies on.
Fair planning for Rye and Eastern Rother
People want a say in what gets built and where. A stronger role for town and parish councils in shaping development could help ensure decisions reflect local priorities rather than being imposed from outside.
Green growth that works for us
Traffic in Rye and Camber is a real issue, especially in summer. Seasonal shuttle services have helped other coastal towns reduce congestion and protect their landscapes. Alongside this, many communities are pushing for higher biodiversity standards in new developments to protect the countryside we all value.
My commitment
Through my work with young people, I’ve seen how much this area can achieve when it’s given the right tools and the right support. Whether it’s roads, flooding, youth opportunities, or rural services, I want to make sure our community’s voice is heard clearly and respectfully.
If you see me around town, please stop me for a chat. I want to hear what matters to you and understand the challenges you’re facing. Together, we can work towards practical solutions that genuinely reflect the needs of Rye and Eastern Rother.
Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative)
Rye and Eastern Rother villages are very special. My vision is simple – protect what makes our area unique while ensuring it thrives for the future.
This is a time of real change. With local government reorganisation ahead, the decisions taken now will shape our communities for decades. My priority is to ensure Rye and Eastern Rother are not overlooked, but recognised, supported, and given a strong voice at the heart of decision-making. We cannot afford to get this wrong.
This election is about who can deliver, not just make promises. We need serious, responsible leadership, not slogans. Reform UK and the Green Party offer easy answers but show little understanding of the real pressures facing communities like ours. Reform’s record in local government is already a warning – look at Kent, where promises have not been delivered, leaving a £46 million funding gap and higher council tax.
The alarmingly radical Green Party no longer resembles the party it once was.
A former district councillor and MP, I am a hard working local representative with a track record of achieving results – securing funding for flood defences and road repairs, standing up for local services and facilities including Rye Pool and championing local concerns, such as successfully opposing the plan to use Pontins to accommodate asylum seekers. I know how to navigate the system and get things done.
We all live the everyday challenges – pothole-ridden roads, poor transport links, and patchy digital connectivity. I will push for fair funding to fix roads properly, improve infrastructure, and strengthen support for local services so that people and businesses can flourish. I will also work to protect our natural environment, support fishermen, and tackle pollution.
As always, I will champion those who need support most and be a visible, hardworking local voice, listening, acting, and delivering for Rye and our villages.
Jimmy Hyatt (Independent)
My family and I came to Camber in 1984. My parents took on a family business that later expanded to include cafeterias, retail beach shops, and the Dunes Bar and Restaurant, which we ran for 20 years. In that time we’ve had the usual ups and downs of seaside seasonal businesses — weather dependent and dictated by the financial climate.
Over 40 years of trading we’ve seen many changes, but one of the biggest blows to our local economy came from Rother District Council’s decision to charge an exorbitant £30 flat rate for car parking. This was an eye opener for me — a decision by local authorities that directly impacted businesses to the point they struggled to exist. Since then I’ve had a keen interest in how councils operate and whether due diligence is truly on the agenda, bearing in mind that local employment disappears when businesses are forced to close.
I’ve often thought these kinds of heedless decisions happen because councils lack councillors with first-hand, frontline experience and the foresight to understand the consequences of their actions. I’m sure most residents in Rye and Eastern Rother can relate to similar examples. I don’t say that condemnatorily — there are many good, hard-working councillors doing their best — but real local knowledge is sometimes invaluable.
I’ve had a short spell on Camber Parish Council, 20 years as a licensee in hospitality, and I’m currently a junior football coach at grassroots level. I’ve been asked by many residents to stand again, and I’d like to think I have my community’s respect.
I’m running as an Independent because I sit in the middle of the political spectrum and believe a vote for a party is irrelevant in local elections. What matters is the individual — their experience, values, and commitment to our community.
Please consider giving me your vote on 7 May.
Dominic Manning (Green)
I am an architect by profession and have lived in this area since 1997. I care passionately about our people, our communities and our environment.
I have a track record of turning ideas into action:
• Co-founder of Rye Repair Café, now a popular monthly event.
• Until recently, I managed the cardboard recycling rota for the Rye Chamber of Commerce.
• Co-founder of the Rye Community Food and Wildlife Garden in Love Lane.
• Director of Strandliners. Speaking out on BBC Sussex, I have been holding Southern Water to account for the disastrous spill of bio-beads at Camber Sands.
• Core member of Rye Mutual Aid during Covid.
• Assisting with maps for Rye Neighbourhood Plan.
• Designing a new car-free bridge connecting the Rye schools with Tilling Green.
• Exploring ways of having more renewable technologies fitted to community buildings.
The county council, with £221 million debt and rising, is bankrupt in all but name. The UK is the sixth largest economy in the world where the 50 richest families hold more wealth than the poorest 50% of the population. Ever more people are struggling to cope with the relentless cost of living crisis.
The Green Party rejects decades of austerity and calls on central Government to provide people and communities with the support they deserve and need. There are so many ways to achieve this, including Invest to Save, which requires targeted upfront investment to secure sustained savings and improved outcomes.
The Greens will strengthen SEND provision, bring the Highways contract in house by 2030, make roads more walking, wheeling and cycling friendly, support the NHS and protect our environment. We put the health and wellbeing of citizens ahead of economic growth.
With only a year until unitary elections in 2027, my main focus will be to achieve what is realistic within a year’s time. First and foremost, I will stand up for Rye and Eastern Rother.
For more information, visit:
https://rother.greenparty.org.uk/rye-eastern-rother/
Pete McLaren (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition)
Julie and I moved to Rye a few years ago and quickly became involved in the community. We both feel we are back to our roots as we spent our formative years nearby in Kent. Rye has welcomed us with open arms, and I now want to put something back
I have been part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) since its inception 15 years ago, and I have represented independent socialists on its national Steering Committee continuously since 2014. I have regularly stood in elections, and was one of TUSC’s 135 Parliamentary candidates in the 2015 General Election. TUSC is an alliance of workers, their socialist parties, and trade unionists. Our main aim is to help build a new mass socialist party now that Labour has abandoned any pretence at being that. In this light, TUSC supports the Your Party initiative set up by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn.
We have a number of reasons for standing in Rye and Eastern Rother:
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition thinks it about time local councils like East Sussex should stand up to central government and say “Enough is enough” regarding the decimation of local public services. Decades of austerity and privatisation have disproportionately hit the poor and ordinary working people.
TUSC councillors will refuse to implement austerity, using reserves and special borrowing powers to offset cuts whilst joining with other local Councils to demand the government adequately funds local services.
TUSC also wants to provide a socialist alternative to the divisive, racist policies of Reform UK and the far right. I feel particularly strongly about this. Immigrants enrich society. Our problems are caused by the greed of £billionaires, not the arrival of those desperate for a better life, free from war and persecution.
Everyone needs to know the facts around immigration. Asylum is a human right under international law; however you have travelled here, and however many safe countries you have travelled through. No asylum seeker is illegal. Over a period of time, migrants, including former asylum seekers, contribute more economically than they take out. We are the 6th wealthiest nation in the world. Resources should move to where asylum seekers and economic migrants live.
TUSC will campaign to improve public transport, including more (reliable) buses. In education, we would work to end academies and the privatisation of schools whilst improving special needs provision. We would demand the government nationalises the energy companies, using their profits to benefit customers and reduce bills. We want increased action to combat climate change and massive increases in social and affordable housing, lower rents, and an end to homelessness
All of this is achievable. Our massive wealth needs to be more evenly distributed and used to improve our public services.
We are as sick of the establishment parties as everyone else is. TUSC is standing for the first time in the Rye area to build something new, progressive and radical, and provide an electoral alternative from a socialist and trade unionist perspective. Give us a chance.
Vote for Pete McLaren, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, on Thursday 7 May.
Andrew Mier (Liberal Democrat)
There are unprecedented challenges facing our county council. There is a £50 million deficit while income is restricted and demand for social services, for highways and for other services rockets.
As an experienced district councillor serving Icklesham, Pett and Pett Level since 2019 I believe I have the skills to fight for the interests of Rye, Winchelsea and the villages.
For five years I served as chair of Fairlight Parish Council, my home village for 25 years. At Rother I have dealt with serious issues of cliff erosion and flooding, securing policy changes. I have served continuously on the Planning Committee and have chaired the Licensing Committee and Council. I would now like to bring my experience and commitment to the county council.
As a Liberal Democrat I support our objectives of a fair, free and open society; of liberty, equality and community – a society where no-one suffers poverty, ignorance or forced conformity. I reject the politics of division, fear and prejudice.
Money is in short supply and must be spent wisely where it matters. From 2022 to 2024 County paid out nearly £600k in compensation for damage due to potholes. Such waste is unacceptable. Meanwhile at Rother we have kept the Council tax rise down to 3% without drawing on reserves.
Every child is unique – excellent schools and SEND provision must be a priority.
Liberal Democrats can win here – we held a district council seat for Rye and Winchelsea until 2023 and have 72 MPs nationally including Eastbourne, Lewes, Mid-Sussex and Tunbridge Wells.
We support NATO, strong defence and security and fighting climate change. Leaving the European Single Market has cost us between 4% and 8% of GDP. Better relations with our single biggest trading partner, the EU, is essential.
County Council Manifesto 2026 – Hastings and Rye Liberal Democrats
Amanda Pollard (Labour)
As someone who has lived in our area for nearly 30 years, and raised my children here, I understand the real challenges our rural areas face, from lengthy ambulance response times to unreliable public transport services.
I have worked in the NHS for over 20 years, including as a senior manager in the Sussex Ambulance Service, and I have campaigned on health causes nationally on Panorama, Radio 4 and BBC News. I was awarded an international whistleblowing award for raising the alarm about standards in healthcare regulation and inspection at the Mid Staffs Public Inquiry, so as your local councillor, I will not be afraid to speak my mind and stand up for our corner of Rother!
We have an absolutely superb MP in Helena Dollimore. We have already seen the results of her work in Rye. We have had two public meetings about anti-social behaviour, and we are getting extra officers to keep our streets safe. We have exposed Southern Water’s catastrophic plastic bead spill on our coastline, for which they will now face the full consequences. Helena has consistently raised the importance of getting international trains back at Ashford, for which I will continue to make the case, if elected. Helena continues to work hard for Rye and Winchelsea, but she needs support on our local councils, making sure that our area and the issues that matter to us get the profile we deserve.
Rother District Council have decided that our town council should now manage cost-heavy assets, like the public toilets, but have not handed over revenue-generating ones such as public car parks which could help offset those costs. We shouldn’t have to subsidise this as a town through increased council tax. I will be raising this as a priority.
With Helena in Parliament and me at the council, Rye and Winchelsea will have a united team pushing for the issues that matter to local residents.
Polls are open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 7 May. Don’t forget to bring a valid form of photo ID.
Image Credits: Nick Youngson/Alpha Stock Images – http://alphastockimages.com/Nick Youngson http://www.nyphotographic.com/ https://www.thebluediamondgallery.com/typewriter/e/election.html Creative commons BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, Dan Bradley , Sally-Ann Hart , Jimmy Hyatt , Dominic Manning , Pete McLaren , Andrew Mier , Amanda Pollard .