So long grass – extra cut for county's verges

Grass verges in rural parts of East Sussex will get an extra cut this season because there has been so much rain.

We usually cut verges in urban areas five times a year and those in rural areas twice. But after the UK's wettest June since records began, the county's verges have grown at a rapid rate.
This season's first cut finished recently. We have just started our second cut and the third, extra, cut will start in mid-September. Each cut covers 2,700km of grass verge and takes around 40 days to complete.

Councillor Carl Maynard, Lead Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment, said: "The extent of the savings we've had to make in the last couple of years has been widely publicised and you will appreciate we have to spend our money where it's most needed. Unfortunately this is one area that has been affected, and it is extremely difficult to cut grass only twice a year and for it to look neat and tidy. But I'm pleased to be able to respond to residents' concerns by introducing this extra cut in the autumn."

Seafront cycleway progress with more to come

The first phase of work on a new seafront cycle route has started outside St Bede's School.

The work from August 13 to September 2 will widen the existing footway on Dukes Drive and has been scheduled to avoid clashing with Airbourne or the start of the new St Bede's school term in September.

The cycle route will provide improved linkages between the town centre, the western area of the town and the South Downs National Park.

Eastbourne Borough Council and East Sussex County Council approved plans for the one-mile route on the existing footpath between Dukes Drive and King Edwards Parade in September 2011 after consultation with the public.

The remainder of the work, to provide a shared cycle and pedestrian route between Holywell Road and the Wish Tower will follow on after September 2. The whole scheme is expected to be completed by 22 October.

There will be limited disruption to car parking later in the construction phase, as bays will need to be removed and repainted, but this work will be carried out over one or two evenings only.

Jay NcNally from cycle group Bespoke, which has petitioned for a cycle path along Eastbourne's seafront, said “We are delighted that work is getting underway on the new cycle path. We're very lucky to have such a beautiful route along our coast and the new route will allow more people to commute and enjoy the scenery in safety. Cycling is great exercise, environmentally-friendly and fun for all the family.”

Councillor Carl Maynard, East Sussex County Council's Lead Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment, said: “I'm really pleased this work is getting underway. Not only does cycling play an important part in reducing congestion and improving access to services, it is good for your health too. I would encourage more people to get on their bikes and enjoy this beautiful part of our county.”

Work was completed on the first section of another bike path, the Horsey Cycle Route – which runs alongside Eastbourne Park between the railway station and the eastern side of town – in March this year, with the remaining three phases due to be completed by September 2014.

Councillor Patrick Warner, representative of Sovereign Ward on Eastbourne Borough Council added "many of my constituents share my view that we should be able to cycle into Eastbourne along the seafront without taking our chances in what is often very busy traffic on the road so I am pleased that whilst work has started at the opposite end of the seafront to us, feasibility work is now expected to be undertaken later this year on how best to provide the missing link in the seafront cycle route between the Wish Tower and Fisherman's Green". Currently cyclists from the Harbour can ride along the seafront promenade from the Water Treatment Works on a dedicated cycle lane as far as Fishermans Green before either having to dismount and walk their cycles the rest of the way or switch to the road along the seafront which is not at all safe.

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A Library Service we can be proud of in East Sussex

Whilst enjoying a rare bit of free time with my family this week, I took my children to visit our Central Library in Eastbourne to take part in their reading challenge. For those without primary school age children, the reading challenge is a national initiative aimed at encouraging our youngsters to read six books in the six weeks of their summer holidays.

I hadn't been to Eastbourne's main Library in a very long time and I was gobsmacked at just how much it had changed. Gone was the stuffy 1970's atmosphere with its drab colours, regular clunk of rubber stamps adding return dates on the inside covers as books were handed out and shhhh noise every you corner you turned as people discouraged you from breathing or making any kind of noise that my disturb anyone. In its place is a bright and vibrant place with a great selection of books complimented by technology brimming from every corner and the sort of atmosphere that encourages you to come in and rediscover the magic of reading. The majority of books are now self checked in and out by you or I using machines that automatically read the bar codes on our cards and the books in seconds, there are lots of computer terminals available for those who don't have access to the internet at home and at the back of the Library there was a very busy Learn Direct class going on and I understand that East Sussex Libraries are now the biggest provider of Learn Direct courses in the County which is helping adults improve their basic literacy and numeracy skills to help them gain employment.

On returning home I tweeted about my positive experience and it seems from the responses I got back that many of my friends were also taking part in the challenge with their children and had either just got back or were just about to go and visit. My friend and colleague, Tony Freebody also responded with some facts that I was not aware of. Tony is East Sussex County Council's Cabinet Member for Community Services which includes the Library Service and he tells me that East Sussex is one of the only authorities in the country that is still investing in Library provision. The upgrades in our local Library are complimented by a new £6m Library in Hastings, a new £6m Library in Seaford and an investment of over £1m in improvements in Newhaven.

If you've not had chance to visit your local Library and are fortunate enough to live in East Sussex, I recommend you get on down there without delay and use this fantastic service - one that we should all be very proud of!

Review of my recent Blog topics

As the holiday season is upon us and council meetings are fairly scarce during August, I thought it might be useful to pause for reflection to update readers of my blog on some of the subjects I have posted about in recent weeks and months:

Open Letter to the MP on Parliamentary Reform
It seems that our MP may well be away on his summer holiday as my letter to him dated the 8th of August remains unanswered twelve days later, lets hope he has enjoyed his break and will return raring to go and ready give comfort to us that he does support the majority view from the public that and will be voting yes to the following; 1) to reduce the number of MP's in Parliament from 650 to 600 at the next election with possible further reductions to follow after that, 2) to redraw the constituency boundaries so that they are of even size and more fairly represent their electors. This is a clear part of the coalition agreement and our constituency is to remain unchanged at this election in the findings of the independent review which has been undertaken by the Boundary Commission.

Visit Eastbourne & Buy Local
This Wednesday sees the third of the new Eastbourne Street Markets held at the sea end of Terminus Road. Congratulations to all of the traders who have helped make this happen including Tim Tradewell of Secret Garden who has been the guiding force behind the market. One slightly concerning issue that has come to my attention in recent days however is the fact that one local craft seller tried to contact the Council to sell her produce at the seafront promenade market during the Airbourne weekend. She was told that the she could not take part as it was organised and managed by an out of town travelling market company and therefore local traders could not be involved. I will be raising this with Council officers as it seems crazy to me that at one of the biggest events of the year, when we hop that local businesses will benefit from the millions of visitors, local traders are turned away in favour of a company who is not even local.

Harbour Lock Gate Incident
Following the incident on the 4th August when a tidal surge caused damage to pontoons and a small number of boats, there was a statement reassuring members of the public that the event was being investigated. No further information has yet been forthcoming and whilst I have no doubt that the investigation will prove to be thorough, the blog story on this topic has attracted lots of page views and I have heard residents express concerns. Many seem under the impression that it may have been caused by human error but the lack of further comment is understandably leading to concern that if it was not an innocent mistake, the public could be placed at risk again with more serious damage occuring next time. I will make contact with the Management Team to find out what the latest news is.

Sniff of scandal over loss of a dog warden
This topic has become the most read blog to date in under a month which goes some way to showing how popular our dog warden is to the people of Eastbourne. I recieved several expressions of concern after the story first broke following the husband of a Lib-Dem Councillor leaking it via his newsletter. The Town Hall has remained tight lipped about the subject after the dis-unity broke out and we understand that even the local newspaper have experienced difficulty getting a comment. Since then we understand that the Leader of the Council has since pledged that he will continue to provide the services of a dog warden but it seems far from clear if this will mean that the popular officer who currently fulfills the role will be asked to continue or if the effectiveness will be diluted from the role being merged with another post. Conservatives will continue to push for the Lib-Dem administration to come clean over their plans at the earliest opportunity!

County Council's £2m investment in Eastbourne Town Centre
There has been widespread appreciation of the news that Conservative controlled East Sussex County Council is investing £2m in our Town Centre regeneration. This money which is only available because of profits gained from the decriminalised parking scheme will be used for highway and public realm improvements at the same time as Legal & General invest £70m in the extension of the town's Arndale Shopping Centre.

Arndale Planning Application being considered by members this Thursday evening
A special planning committee meeting has been convened to look at the application for the extension to the Arndale Centre at 6pm this Thursday 23rd August in The Court Room in Eastbourne Town Hall. This is a public meeting so members of the public are welcome to watch your Councillors in action. My colleague has rightly expressed concern about the design of the main entrance to the extension which faces the magnificent main entrance to the station and victorian clock tower opposite what is currently The Gildredge Public House. Early sketches showed a somewhat hideous white cliff edge which seemed to clash horribly. I have also previously raised concerns from independent traders at the Enterprise Centre about the proposed iron curtain along the external boundary on Ashford Road which concerned traders feel would block off any view of their shops and residents concerns in the Longstone & Tideswell Road areas who are worried that they will be cast in an even greater shadow if the existing car park is extended by two further floors. I will be present at the meeting and aiming to re-iterate these concerns and I hope that the applicant will relook at these concerns and agree to amend the application.

Five Acre Victory for Residents of Langney Point
Following a well organised campaign by Ward Councillors in Sovereign and residents in Langney Point the seemingly impossible was achieved and the Lib-Dem run council was shamed into a u-turn recently as barmy plans to hold the Moscow State Circus close to residents properties without proper regard for the comfort of residents or the safety of circus goers were ditched at the last minute! Both this and the Olympic big screen event passed off safely on the spacious events fields at Princes Park after all. I wonder how much this fiasco cost the taxpayer and why common sense did not prevail in the first place!

Open letter to our MP about constitutional reform

During the last couple of weeks we have seen divisions open up withing the Coalition Government abouth the constitutional reforms going through parliament. Part of the Coalition Agreement included pledges by both David Cameron and Nick Clegg to 1) bring forward a plan to debate reform of the House of Lords and 2) to reduce the number of MP's to save money whilst equalising the size of constituencies to produce a level playing field.

Nick Clegg came forward with a plan to reform the House of Lords which generated considerable opposition across the political divide of both houses of parliament. The plan was debated but seemed doomed to be voted down in its current form. That said, all parties recognise the need to reform so it seems that a better thought out plan of reforms will come back at some stage.

The politically independent Boundary Commission have also come forward with the promised proposal to cut the number of MP's from 650 to 600 and redraw the constituency boundaries to equalise the size and create the level playing field. However this week we hear that Nick Clegg has gone back on his part of the deal and will not be supporting these plans when the vote goes before parliament. 

Whilst the proposed changes do away with some constituencies and heavily redraw a number of others, there are no changes to our own Eastbourne Constituency so I have written the attached open letter to our Lib-Dem MP, Stephen Lloyd to see where he stands on this important subject and I will keep readers of this blog along with my followers on Twitter & Facebook updated with my progress in getting a response.

Visit Eastbourne and Buy Local

Inspired by the success of the first Street Market at the sea end of Terminus Road in Eastbourne, I have decided to try and promote other local businesses via my Facebook & Twitter pages so that that the Street Market can act as the catalyst we all hope it will to encourage people to visit our wonderful town and spend money in a variety of local businesses.

I will remind my followers each week that the market is on and I am looking for recommendations that I can direct followers to whilst they are here. For instance this week I am suggesting that if you want to have a sit down meal after a busy morning shopping, why not go in and see my friends at Solo Pasta in Cornfield Road for a great value Italian meal. But I'd like to expand this by recommendation to the many other great restaurants and cafes that we have, so please get in touch with me at councillor.warner@eastbourne.gov.uk to let me know who you'd like me to give a helping hand to.

Additionally, if you have a special product or service that people might like to know about, tell me about those too and I'll happily encourage visitors to go and check out a shop each week as well. This is aimed at small independent traders in the surrounding retail areas like Little Chelsea, The Enterprise Centre, Cornfield Road, Langney Road and of course Terminus Road so do please keep those recommendations coming through and lets get those cash registers ringing in our Town Centre!

It would be very wrong of course if I didn't recommend a visit to Sovereign Harbour on the way home, ideal for any of those big store purchases you forgot, a meal in one of the many Waterfront Restaurants or a film at the cinema!

Sovereign Harbour Lock Gate Incident - 4th August

Following an incident at the marina sea locks early on Saturday morning, Premier Marinas has issued the following statement.

“Sovereign Harbour - Incident Statement - 4th August 2012
At around midnight on 3rd August, immediately following a routine ‘top up’ of the Inner Harbour basin, one of the seaward lock gates opened whilst the Inner Harbour gates were open.
The lock gate opened approximately eight feet, with a three foot head of water entering the Harbour. The tidal load on the vessels and pontoons resulted in a pontoon breaking into three sections. These have now either been secured or removed.
Harbour personnel were on site and responded immediately. Power and water supplies were isolated and a count of crew on board vessels was carried out. No persons were injured. There was some superficial damage to a small number of visiting vessels.
The lock gates are in working order and we are currently carrying out a full investigation into the incident.”

Thank you to the Sovereign Harbour Residents Association for alerting me to this story. For more news, views and information about events in Sovereign Harbour, please visit www.shra.co.uk