As local gossip suggested that Rye Town Council (RTC) had been thrown out of the Cinque Ports Confederation, which brings together local councils, RTC has put the record straight in the statement below. The photograph above records the council's active past involvement in the Confederation.
"Rye Town Council has been suspended from Confederation membership for not paying last year's subscription (£350), nor this year's (£350). Rye suggested that the Confederation has become more of a private social club which does nothing to address the needs of member towns' residents, who fund it via council tax (except in Winchelsea).
"Confederation officers will be meeting shortly with the Rye Mayor and Town Clerk to outline what the Confederation has agreed to do to make it more relevant.
"This will then be considered by Rye Town Councillors on June 27 - who will be asked if RTC should pay the outstanding subscriptions and resume trying to influence the Confederation from within."
The Cinque Ports date back to the 11/12th centuries and provided ships and men to the Crown in the absence of a Royal Navy (until the Tudor period). However, the five harbours (Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich) did not include Rye as a "Cinque Port" until the massive 1287 storm which silted up New Romney harbour and diverted the River Rother's exit to the sea away from Romney to Rye.
Over the centuries however storms, the sea, river silting and the increasing size of ships have decreased the importance of "the ports", except, perhaps, for Dover, in the medieval period. The Confederation is another example of tradition and the area's historic past - still preserved by the appointment of a Lord Warden who, not so long ago, was the Queen Mother - and other VIPs have been appointed over the centuries.
