Next Monday, September 6, the Rother District Council (RDC) cabinet meets, and while the agenda contains nothing specific to Rye, there are one or two interesting pointers to the future.
RDC have recently formed a local housing company, called Alliance, whose primary purpose, it appears, is to locate and develop sites for social housing and shared ownership. They have granted them an initial loan facility of £80 million and although no projects have yet been started, available information suggests that, initially at least, they are concentrating on the Bexhill area.
There are of course several sites in and around Rye that might lend themselves to this form of development at some point in the future, including the site occupied by Rye Hire which is already under consideration for affordable housing.
RDC has also contributed to a number of other social developments, the nearest being in Icklesham where 12 units for social rent and three shared ownership homes are currently under construction, with completion due next year. Although Rother are supporting this, the primary funding agency is Homes England.
Another major potential site that has been noted is 34 acres of land in Northiam. Formally the home of a Blue Cross animal facility it has been acquired by Northiam Parish Council and is currently free for public recreational use.
Not on the agenda, at least at present, is any discussion of the news released recently that the Home Office are in discussion with Pontins (amongst others) to acquire space to house some of the many Afghan refugees now coming into the country. Pontins own six sites altogether, current discussions relate to just two of them, one of which is understood to be the site at Camber.
A new chief executive of RDC, Malcolm Johnson, was appointed at Rother a year ago and his appointment is to be confirmed as permanent at the meeting of the cabinet. While his name may not be known to many of our readers, Rye News editor, Chris Lawson and this writer met with him a few weeks ago. He appears well disposed towards Rye and we are hopeful that this new era will bring a level of mutual cooperation, beneficial to both Rye and the district council, that has not always been evident in the past.
