Swings and roundabouts as Town Forum tackles courtesy

The last meeting was a memorable occasion where the sheer strength of feeling against the implementation of Next Wave, the final seafront shelters design and the upcoming regeneration of the town centre resulted in an extremely heated event.

Everyone is entitled to their view, and the general feeling that residents haven’t been listened to, perhaps coupled with natural time constraints at the forum, has led to several blown fuses.

While feelings of fury are totally understandable, discourtesy is not.

Most of Bexhill’s objectors - especially those involved in managing groups such as Save Our Seafront, the Bexhill Alliance and Vox Pop - are passionate yet polite.

It’s a shame a minority in that section of the community with those views has forced the forum to consider passing a code of conduct at its upcoming meeting, for fear of hijacking of the debate.

However, in true swings and roundabouts fashion, the opposite side of the coin is also true.

Bexhill Town Forum must not be seen to overdo it with new rules, lest it be construed by residents that what is in essence an open public meeting does not have Bexhill’s best interests at heart.