As "interested parties" gather for next Wednesday's (December 9) meeting about the Landgate, it appears that a related issue may be climbing up the agenda - and it is that seemingly boring, and apparently insoluble, problem of traffic and parking in Rye.
As former town councillor Granville Bantick pointed out in his Opinion article the Landgate saga adds yet another element to parking problems in Rye as it could be closed - shutting off the principal entrance to the High Street, possibly briefly, but maybe for even longer - and perhaps permanently.
The Landgate saga, for those not up to speed on it, is that Rye's historic gateway has been left to rot, urgent repairs are needed, and Rother District Council (to put it politely) wants to dump the problem ancient monument on someone else.
Using it for anything, however, could affect road use through the archway, but - if it can not be used for anything - what is left is the cost of maintaining a ruin, without any income coming in. Hence next week's summit of "interested parties".
I observed last month that "the future of the town centre itself and how traffic and parking is managed will inevitably be part of that discussion [the Landgate summit]" though nothing, from experience, is inevitable.
A sensible consequence might be for the Town Council to then ask the Highways Forum and the transport group within the Rye Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group (RNPSG) to consider the consequences of the Landgate shutting briefly or permanently.
The RNPSG (which is looking at long term planning policy for the town) has been looking at transport issues, and it now seems they are very much back on the agenda - unless, of course, we simply let the Landgate fall down. But that will cause traffic problems anyway. We could just dump the problem in the lap of the highways authority - East Sussex County Council - but perhaps Rye needs to put on its thinking cap.
Alan Bolden, who chaired the Campaign for a Democratic Rye, (writing to me as a Town Councillor) says he is at a loss at how to tackle the problem - which is, bluntly, how would vehicles enter and leave the town centre, and deliver and collect goods and passengers, if the Landgate is closed.
And this is no longer a theoretical consideration, though that is how the RNPSG may have been approaching it. This is now an immediate and practical issue.
The Landgate needs urgent repairs which means the road will be closed. And, if it is to be used in any way in future, that could mean either the road being closed permanently, or access being limited - with a narrower roadway so people can get into the Landgate tower safely.
As Alan says, this is a "potential massive problem of access to and from the town centre" and "all other problems would pale into insignificance in comparison with this one essential aspect".
It may well be then that theories about traffic and parking management, which the RNPSG have been debating, actually have to be put into practice - and much, much sooner than expected. And two way traffic along the High Street, and a parking ban, may be one option.
Photo: Rye News library
