THANKS TO OUR READERS
Contrary to a rumour going around at the present time, this magazine does NOT get grants in any way, shape or form from council, government, lottery or any other agency. Our sole benefactors are you, the reader and our advertisers.
These past few years have been very difficult for all businesses and trades with production costs rising almost weekly. The cost of posting a magazine, second class inland, has risen from 26p in 2000 to the astronomic total of £1.17p it stands at the present time.
Nine months ago we raised the cost of the magazine from £2 to £2.99 a copy – This was the first increase in over thirteen years. Now is the time for us to thank you, our readers, for staying so loyal. We are hoping to keep the price at £2.99 for the foreseeable future, another 14 years if possible.
You will also have noticed a lot of shared stories and articles between the three magazines. This has permitted us to produce the magazines in glossy form which allows for a much smaller typeface which in turn means more than twice the content can be fitted in the same pages. We hope the extra articles and features interest readers from all corners of Romney Marsh and acts as a conduit for more integrated activity in the Cinque Ports and Ancient Towns which the area includes.
CYCLE PATH SAGA CONTINUES
It is almost ten years since Graham Mathews was knocked from his bike and killed while cycling on the Rye Harbour Road. His father Brian Mathews, the people of Rye Harbour and members of the Rye & District Wheelers have been continually on to East Sussex County Council to get the cycle / footpath completed. It now ends on the blind corner just a few hundred metres short of where the plans say it should finish.
In view of the fact that Rye builder Stuart Pope offered to construct the pathway for a cost of £200,000 (including trunking for lighting), and that this offer was refused by Councillor Peter Jones (Then Leader of East Sussex County Council) Brian Mathews wondered how much the uncompleted cycleway has cost so far. With this in mind he put the question (under the freedom of information act) to East Sussex County Council.
He was staggered by the answer – ALMOST £800,000 and even worse – The final section has been estimated at a further £250,000 – A grand total of over £1,000,000!
So it seems that ESCC, in using their ‘preferred builder’, have cost us, the ratepayers, over £800,000. AND THE PATH IS STILL NOT COMPLETED!
On August 12 this year Brian Mathews and his group from Rye Harbour and Rye and members of the Rye wheelers, had been planning a great celebration Ride andWalk down the Cycle / Footpath to declare it officially open and to name it as “Graham’s Way” in memory of his son. Unless ESCC get their finger out the event will end where the path ends at the moment, just a few yards on from where Graham was killed.
If the path is not completed by August 12 a protest Ride and March is being planned. Television, Radio and the Press will be invited.
More than ten have been killed on this stretch of road since 1945. The time has come for pedestrians and cyclists to travel safely between Rye Harbour & Rye.
ESCC have a plan to introduce a speed limit of 40 mph. to the section of road where no footpath exists. Please take note ESCC, a woman and pram or a child on a cycle will be just as dead if hit at 40 as they would at 60 miles an hour.
Rye’s Own May 2014
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