The autumnal weather has arrived, the evenings are drawing in and before you know it we will be revving ourselves up for the Rye firework celebrations which this year are on Saturday November 12 (a date for your diaries).
This annual bonfire pageant is one of the most visually spectacular events in the Rye cultural calendar and brings a substantial number of visitors to the town, an important night particularly for our local hospitality businesses and accommodation providers. But with all these extra visitors there is an annual issue which also has to be addressed: the clearing up afterwards, street cleaning and disposal of all the extra rubbish left in the streets.
Having previously lived in the centre of Rye, I can speak from experience when I witnessed what was left on the roads and pavements after the bonfire celebrations. Litter everywhere, broken bottles and glasses, empty food wrappers and coffee cups left "for someone else to clear up" and in general terms there was rubbish along most of the route in the town centre. However, despite all of this, by early morning the next day the streets were miraculously returned to normal and if you didn’t know any better you wouldn’t have known the town had been visited by thousands of new visitors.
Private contractors, Biffa are employed to keep our streets clean and it is they who descend on Rye town centre to clear the decks and thankfully they do, because the following day, Sunday November 13 we celebrate Armistice day and the town needs to look at its best for this very special occasion.
Rye News understands it costs Rother District Council over £3,700 for Biffa to clean up in Rye after the bonfire pageant. In Battle, it costs around £3,300 and in Robertsbridge over £2,000 and it appears Rother District Council are having internal discussions about the possibility of recharging the clean-up costs to the respective bonfire societies. This is not a formal proposal at this stage and has not been adopted by Rother District Council who intend to speak personally to each bonfire society before doing anything further.
In real terms, £10,000 or more needs to be raised annually to fund the pageant, money raised all year by volunteers who put on numerous fund raising events to pay for the spectacular firework display which we all enjoy. An additional cost of £3,700 would be a very big ask so it will be interesting to see how things pan out.
We will publish an update in due course and there will be further details about this year's bonfire pageant in Rye News nearer the time but in the interim, a quick reminder that this year's procession starts at 7:50pm from Mason Road in Tilling Green, the bonfire will be lit at 8:45pm and the fireworks are scheduled to start at 9pm. Don’t miss it!!
