James Hyatt explains why the exorbitant car parking fees are having a disastrous effect on his businesses in Camber.
“We’ve been trading in the village for 40 years, and all of our establishments are family run: The Dunes bar & restaurant, The Marina café, Camber beach goods, Camber Beach Boutique and The Chargrill Cabin, all of which are run by the Hyatt family.
“Every one of those businesses apart the Dunes bar are located on central car park. The Dunes bar is located next to the old putting green car park on old Lydd Road. So as you can imagine the footfall that those car parks provide are of the utmost importance to us.
“We’re currently experiencing the worst summer since we started trading in Camber in 1983. Our takings are down by over 70% on previous years. Of course Rother district council will blame the weather and the current cost of living crisis if challenged, as they will hardly want to be seen as responsible or accountable for potentially putting businesses under, and yes it’s a very real and worrying possibility.
“I’d argue that the weather does have a slight bearing but nowhere near enough to have caused the impact that we’ve seen this summer. We’ve experienced many bad summers before, more wet and windy than we’ve seen this year, but the public still came on a daily basis come rain or shine and the businesses have always managed to earn a living.
“Again, the current cost of living wouldn’t impact us either, we've seen two recessions in the last 20-odd-years and in both of those downturns we actually managed to flourish, due to the fact the public seek cheaper beach days out and holidays than going abroad. So again those two scenarios would have little to no impact on this season.
“What we have witnessed first-hand is 98% of vehicles have turned round and left the car park once they found out the price of parking. We actually have CCTV footage that dates back to the beginning of the scheme (trial as RDC are calling it) directed at the car park entrance that can prove this.
“The two reasons RDC have given for the fixed tariff is (I quote Hazel Timpe, head of tourism for RDC) 1: “To reduce the traffic through the village” and 2: “They don’t wish to burden the residents of Rother with council tax increases for Camber's upkeep. I find those reasons contradictory, ridiculous and worrying.
“The head of tourism for 1066 county should be actively seeking to attract tourists to Camber, that’s part of her role surely? To actively discourage day trippers is extremely concerning and I’d say that applies to all businesses within Rother. She mentions the “red days” (busy days in heatwaves) that cause traffic congestion in the village. Admittedly those days aren’t ideal, albeit they could and should be managed much better by Rother than they currently are, but, we have to be realistic and put it into perspective.
"We get about two of those red days a season on average, no more (apart from the lockdowns) and it’s been this way in Camber since the 70s, that’s a fact. It’s also not a problem that’s exclusive to Camber either. Hundreds of seaside towns all over the country experience the same influx of day trippers during heatwaves. I’d imagine most local councils would be welcoming visitors, after all they’re the be-all-and-end-all to coastal towns' economies. So once again discouraging vehicles is proving to be counterproductive on so many levels.
"In amongst all of this we’ve had no dialogue with RDC. We’ve constantly been ignored, they’ve not been open to any meetings with us, not answering emails, they've not once visited the car parks to see the impact for themselves. Do they actually still want businesses to flourish in Camber?
“It is a worrying time for all of us.”
