Councillor Tutt is again at the forefront of a campaign to sell off parcels of land, mainly farmland. As I understand from Eastbourne Review recently sent out, all households are asked to vote YES to the selling off the land because if they say NO, it has been alleged that some services will not be provided.
1) There will be a charge of £50 per annum for green waste collection. It has not been specified how the charge will be applied to owners properties. This will undoubtedly increase FLY TIPPING which has been so prominent in the National News recently.
2) They will have to halve the Community grants. A saving of £100k
Looks like Princes Park Project just beat the deadline!
3) Take 25% from the Street Cleansing contract. A saving of £300k
Which is a bit of a farce anyway – I think our road is done every three years so we won’t miss it!
4) Reduce grass cutting and grounds maintenance. A saving of £400k
Another farcical situation – the roundabouts on some roads have bushes and trees that obscure the oncoming traffic which could cause accidents.
In 2015 the Eastbourne Borough Council were granted £1.8 million to upgrade Princes Park. This I find was an unnecessary project when there are so many other essential problems that have arisen in Eastbourne. The money spent was £900,000. This project has been completed so what has happened to the other £900,000?
Meanwhile the Conservative controlled EAST SUSSEX COUNTY COUNCIL have decided to raise the Council Tax by 5% and at the same time reduce front-line services. This will cripple most House Owners considerably – it’s almost like penalising those who have worked all their lives to own their own homes and what money the ESCC have been given they have squandered on trivial none-essential white elephants. One can visibly see this by the state of most pavements which are in a dangerous condition, the cause of many incidents to pedestrians and the roads with many potholes are unsafe for drivers. When they fill with water there is no indication how deep these holes are!
One only has to remember the public voting against the East Sussex County Council when they introduced a parking scheme – ninety percent of the public were against this happening but the Council took no notice of what the public thought and steamrolled it through and today individual holiday makers who used to drive down to Eastbourne for their holidays are having to pay extra for parking and now it seems package tours by coaches are the only way to visit Eastbourne. Heavy vehicles pound the surfaces of the roads mercilessly and when the roads don’t get repaired from one year to another, it’s just one of many downward slippery slopes that East Sussex County Council will have to dig itself out.