Your Letters - March 28

Rubbish overflow

WE had our rubbish collected on Saturday (a day late because of Good Friday).

We had a lot of visitors on Friday, so had accumulated more rubbish. This rubbish we could have put on top of our wheelie bins, which were already full, but being responsible people we decided that with the bad weather, the rubbish would have blown into the road, so we put our extra bags by the side of our bin.

The dustmen did not take this rubbish, leaving us to start the coming fortnight with four bags already in our bin (in the summer this would mean maggots).

Why is no account taken of holidays, most people produce more waste during this time, especially when the dustmen come a day late?

At least four of our bags each fortnight are full with torn up cardboard, because the council will not provide the facility for cardboard collection.

In all the surrounding councils residents are given suitable sized containers, i.e. wheelie bins, for plastic, cardboard, tins and even yellow pages, but our council still insist on nit-picking and treating us like children, expecting us to fit a quart into a pint pot.

We have just had our council tax increased to 216 per month. We live in a big house because there are a lot of us, but this is not taken into account.

How can we get through to this council that this system is not working. It should never have been started before proper facilities were put in place. The council should be working with its public not against it.

R. Fitzgerald

Amherst Road

Rubbish missed

WHEN the fortnightly refuse collection was introduced the system of collection day going back a day after each Bank Holiday was dropped. The reason given by the council was that we ratepayers would be confused.

At Christmas we all received by post a large and unnecessarily expensive leaflet giving revised dates for the period.

This Easter we received no notification at all. The result, when the collectors called on Saturday hardly anyone had put their boxes out for collection. I suppose the collectors were happy, little work and a day's overtime paid by the ratepayers.

Can we have a system that the council can understand and administer efficiently and economically.?

They are making saving the planet very expensive for me.

N.A. Taylor

Portfield Close

Rubbish selection

I AM a supporter of this Rother scheme but upon my return to home last Wednesday our small black crate had a yellow notice - CONTAMINATED.

A call to the office produced the answer that it would not have been taken if the crate contained articles that could not be re-cycled. Upon examining the box it was found that a small plastic container 6" x 4" x 1.5 inches did not have the proper numbers on for re-cycling.

Now I fully understand the reasons why, but surely if the operators have time to examine the crates for offending items and do not take the crate away if any are found they can just leave a prepared note with the offending articles but take away the 99 per cent that is correct.

It seems to me a sheer waste of time and effort to sift through the crate and merely leave the container for the sake of one small article. I had a moment of the Victor Meldrews with this and I understand that quite a few households had the same problem as us.

If this is to be the policy I will question the operation and if I encounter another case like this I may have thoughts on not entertaining the scheme.

When you do what you consider correct and due to one small error to be declared contaminated you do question the wisdom of the people in charge and just what the instructions they issue mean. I must add that the actual guys on the vehicles are fine but it is the operational methods I question.

Robert Carey

Eastwood Road

Rats joy

IT is bad enough having our wheelie bins emptied every two weeks, now the waste people inspect the contents of every bin to make sure we are not contaminating the inside with rubbish! If it's not up to their standards or a bin is slightly open, they discard the offending object and throw it at the side of the road sometimes the contents spill out as I observed when visiting my friend in the Little Common area.

Is this procedure in line with our objectives of cleaning up the environment? With the summer coming soon I'm sure the rats will enjoy the good feast that these people are offering them!

As it is, my husband has to take our refuse over to the tip on the week our beloved bin men don't come because we would breach the dreaded slightly open bin directive. This of course uses more fuel which exhausts into the atmosphere causing more pollution. I just wonder which idiot dreamed up this total farce. It seems that the general public are doing half the work of Verdant because of their ridiculous rules and procedures! To add insult to injury, we are now asked to pay more council tax for this service.

G GREENLOW (Mrs)

Amanda Close

Bin break

Re: Letter from A. Mellish, Bexhill Observer, March 21

GIVE the men a break? Does the writer of the letter commenting on the whereabouts of these council workers in the afternoon not realize that most of them have probably done a full days work by lunch time and therefore will not be back at work until the next day, so there is nothing wrong with them enjoying a drink after work, which so many other people do - but in the evening after a 9'“5 job and no one comments about that. My rubbish is collected about 7am - so these workers would have started at 6am or before.

JUDITH HATTAM

Penhurst Drive

Pavilion analysis

Re: De La Warr Pavilion

FURTHER to your article in your issue of March 21 I was present at the Town Forum meeting on March 18 and I heard Mr Haydon give his presentation.

Despite the efforts of Cllr Ensor and his committee to analyse the performance of the Trustees I remain convinced that something more can and must be done to make the Pavilion a worthy centre of excellence and a place that justifies an annual sum of over 500,000.

The Pavilion receives this amount each year from Rother District Council and the same amount from the Arts Council. I contend that we, the rate payers of Rother, therefore have the right to demand that the Trustees should act accordingly and take notice of our criticisms and our demands.

It has been made only too clear over the last two years that the Trustees are not taking any notice of the wishes and needs of the Rother population. The Pavilion could be said to be like an austere mausoleum and very far from the original concept of a Peoples' Palace.

The Arts Council wanted to establish the Pavilion as a centre for the promulgation of Contemporary Art; but the result is negligible and pitiful. The Trustees are apparently unwilling or unable to see that a compromise policy is urgently required.

We therefore ask the district council to stop thinking about what it cost them before the building was restored and tell both the Trustees and the Arts Council that we need a new approach. If the district council are doubtful about how to do this there are plenty of people in Rother who would be only too glad to help them to do it. Please disregard Mr Haydon's optimistic homily and take positive action. This suggestion could see a transformation of the building and could contribute to the much vaunted but hardly visible regeneration of the town.

BASIL R. STREAT

Cantelupe Road

Road shambles

Re: Catsfield Road closure

EAST Sussex County Council failed to set up diversionary signs. It's so basic. All motorists saw was a sign that the road was shut. The result was a shambles causing chaos and misery for motorists and local residents. At one time I was directing traffic away from choked country lanes. Council taxpayers will end up footing the bill for repairs to the damaged carraigeways and grass verges caused by ESCC's incompetence. The press statement that ESCC put out was a whitewash they knew they had blundered.

PETER SMITH

Standard Hill Close

Ninfield

TB vaccination

Re TB awareness Stall

How angry I felt when I read this article in last Friday's Observer. Two years ago when my son was due to have the BCG vaccine like his brothers and sisters had previously, we were told it would no longer be available to British citizens unless their parents or grandparents came from a list of various countries, as it was felt the risk was low of them catching the disease.

It may be curable but there is always the risk of being left with lung damage!

I wrote to the Health Secretary and Prime Minister but was quoted a load of blurb and told that the vaccination is available if I wish to pay. Even then one can not just go to their GP but would have to find a clinic that provides this specialised vaccination.

Finally in the article it mentions that in the last 20 years TB has slowly been increasing, so just as measles started to come back when people stopped vaccinating their children, then the same will happen with TB. Over the weekend, on the news, there was another reported case of TB surely the vaccination should be made available free of charge to ALL British children. After all, prevention is better than cure!

M. Smith

Address supplied

School choice

THROUGH your paper I would like to comment on a letter in the Bexhill Observer, March 14 from a lady saying there is not enough choice for schools other than Bexhill High.

I wonder if the lady has actually been in to see the staff and pupils at the High School and talk about her concerns. Has she been to any of their talent shows, gym and dance productions held at the school or events held at the De La Warr. If she has she will see what a caring school it is. How hard the teachers and pupils work every day. Bexhill High School should be congratulated about the new school and needs the support of the whole community, whether we have children attending or not. There was also the opportunity to attend the second consultation for the new school on Wednesday at Gunters Lane.

A FEARN (Mrs)

De Moleyns Close

Hospital vomit

I WOULD like to tell other readers about my experience while visiting my step-father in the Conquest Hospital last Thursday evening.

I was disgusted that on the floor opposite his bed one of the patients had vomitted on the floor. We were in their for a good hour and it was not cleaned up.

On the Friday morning my step-father, my partner, my mother and I were all very ill.

We all had sickness and upset stomachs. Then on the Sunday my son had the same symptoms as we had.

Apparently it is not the nurses' job to clean the vomit up it is the responsibility of the cleaners.

I would like to know where were the cleaners? Thanks to them our Easter was ruined. Hope the cleaners had a good Easter.

Sharon Sharp

Mount Idol View