The annual Town Meeting, will be held next Wednesday April 4 at 7pm in Tilling Green Community Centre in Mason Road and is expected to be lively because of long-running issues such as the Landgate and the Neighbourhood Plan.
Deputy Mayor Mike Boyd told councillors on Monday that he was very encouraged that progress was being made on the Landgate, the last remnant of the town’s medieval defences.
Rother District Council (RDC) has approved urgent repairs of £74,000 to the Landgate, but is seeking a contribution of £7,000 from the town council and the local community.
He was very grateful to the Rye Fund for agreeing to donate £3,000 of this and the town council has agreed to underwrite the rest. A report would be made to the Town Meeting about how this cost might be met.
The Neighbourhood Plan is now out for formal consultation, though work on it started in 2012 and there were previous consultations in 2014 and 2016.
The Plan’s Steering Group will be at the Tilling Green Centre between 6 and 7pm on Wednesday before the Town Meeting to hear views and answer questions.
Response forms to the consultation are available at the Tilling Green Centre, the public library in the High Street, and the Town Hall.
The photo above shows Deputy Mayor Mike Boyd by the Town Hall display of the Neighbourhood Plan and response forms.
A report on the consultation’s progress to date was made on Monday to the town’s Planning Committee by the Steering Group’s Vice Chairman Anthony Kimber.
He said that following extensive comments on the plan from British Petroleum, who want to build a filling station and mini-supermarket on Udimore Road, a number of issues need to be reviewed.
One, given that Jempsons recently completed extension to their supermarket, is whether (considering the increase in online shopping with home deliveries) another supermarket is now needed in Rye.
The Plan in its current form, since work started in 2012, now runs to 95 pages supported by 324 pages of background evidence, site assessments and papers.
Rye Conservation Society has produced a four-page document commenting on the draft and expressing concern in particular (amongst other reservations) about the Freda Gardham School and Gibbet’s Marsh sites.
Once the draft plan has gone through all the legislative requirements it will be voted on by the residents of Rye only, and can be approved by a simple majority.
The town’s Planning Committee were told on Monday that the Steering Group would have to decide what weight to give to any comments from the Conservation Society given that it had both committee and ordinary members living outside Rye, who therefore had no vote in the referendum on the plan.
Comments relevant to the Plan and expected to be made at Rye Partnership’s Annual Meeting this week may also affect the debate at what promises to be a lively Town Meeting.
Photo: Kenneth Bird
