Your Letters - October 12

House prices

I read Lynda Turner's piece in the Bexhill Observer last week and I wondered what she thought of the comments from some of the local estate agents in Bexhill.

My reason for asking this is as follows:

The manager of Fox and Sons said that the comments about falling prices was "scaremongering", as did the manager of Andrews as well as Abbotts etc.

Can you explain to me why they said that when in their property adverts last weekend there were at least 35 price reductions in there particular adverts?

The present market is going through difficult times.

This is no different than the same period last year or the year before. Due to difficult situations in the financial markets, rising interest rates, the Northern Rock business and now building societies raising their own mortgage rates and tightening their lending procedures many sellers will have to reduce their asking prices to attract a buyer.

We are now definitely in a "buyers / bargain hunters market."

Perhaps these very agents should price the properties they are asked to value properly, instead of over-valuing to get the business and that way they wouldn't have to ask for reductions as they do.

Nevertheless, it is still a "perky" market and well priced property is still selling.

Repossessions are certainly on the up and we are receiving a regular supply of these.

Home Information Packs have certainly put the brakes on new properties coming onto the market and word from my fellow estate agents in Bexhill and Hastings is that property levels are low.

I hope you find my comments helpful.

PATRICK STAPPLETON. C.P.E.A

Redwell Estates.

Homes plan

REGARDING D. W. Wooller's letter to your paper October 5.

You will be unable to get a straight answer from the council or cohorts about the proposed developments to the east and north east of Bexhill, including the link road.

The proposed new town east of Pebsham started out at some 900 odd houses, several months later the number has risen to over 1600.

If one is to read the original proposals, this new town appears to be an idyllic place to live, my concern is, this council is not capable of overseeing such a project, and may I remind your readers of Devonshire Square and Gubby's concrete balls. Be concerned!

RICHARD PAINE

Gwyneth Grove.

Chain reaction

I READ with dismay the results of the independent De La Warr Pavilion study sponsored by Seascape, did I say "independent"? What major high street chains is it talking about? We have Boots, Woollies, Sainsburys, plus many major outlets at Ravenside. Mind you, the aspect of the Ravenside roundabout could be improved; we drivers spend enough time studying it.

We clearly do not need more hotel rooms - all the large hotels have gone bust.

I was staggered too to find that three-quarters of the Pavilion's funding comes from handouts and yet the Pavilion director reckons that they are making their contribution to local and regional prosperity.

Certainly not value for money at this rate.

Yes, we have the DLWP and it is a landmark building but it needs to run as an all round entertainment centre catering for all aspects of the population not a culture club for the worthy. It also needs to be run as a venue for meetings and conferences rather than be too proud to lower itself. The White Rock and The Congress manage it.

When I moved to Bexhill 30 years ago I made a point of saying that Bexhill was between two large towns both on major roads (A21 & A22) so to try to emulate these two towns would end in failure yet Bexhill is still trying to do that.

Bexhill needs to identify a unique niche and fill that. Let's make lower Devonshire and Western Roads pedestrian allowing more people to shop at a leisurely pace.

What is it that Hastings and Eastbourne lack? Perhaps tranquillity or gentility?

TONY ASHBY

Lychgates Close.

Unworthy town

I WAS horrified (but sadly not surprised) by the uniformally crude and Philistine responses in last week's letters section to the innovative Creative Impact Report on the DLWP. I can only empathise with the artistic director at the Pavilion - who must be tearing his hair out at the reaction to his attempts to drag Bexhill-on-Sea towards the cutting edges of outstanding contemporary culture.

I realise that I may be untypical in having the benefit of an advanced education in the Fine Arts, but it is abundantly clear to me that petit-bourgeois Bexhill is totally unworthy of having this worldclass Modernist (nb: not Art Deco, please!) icon in its frankly modest midst. Aesthetically and culturally this architectural gem is worth more than all the rest of Bexhill town put together, bogged down, as it additionally is, in one ghastly morass of blinkered, small town Clochemerle prejudice.

In fact, would it not be a significant blessing if some latter-day Betjamin could somehow conjure the means to level, not Slough, but central Bexhill to the ground and thereby allow the creation of a suitable environment for the Pavilion?

A committee of suitably qualified people could then be appointed, probably by the Arts Council of England, to conduct a design competition for such a grand project which could return ungrateful and undeserving Bexhill-on- Sea once more to the forefront of international attention, some 80 years after its unexpected prominence was originally achieved.

ASHTON DENT-GILBARD

Maple Walk.

Book treat

MYSELF and my girls had a brilliant time at the De La Warr Pavilion on Saturday. We took part in The Children's Book Festival, we saw Korky Paul, had a Winnie the Witch party lunch and saw an excellent puppet show called Shoe Box (I think!)

Korky was fun, he did a few drawings to show the kids how it can be done, then they all got the chance to do some drawing for themselves, all their work was displayed at the end. Some complained that Korky didn't do much, but with the amount of kids, I think he did all he could.

The Winnie the Witch party was beyond expectations. The lunch box was so artfully created, full of fine picnic food and a fantastic cake that Korky cut for all the kids at the party. Winnie was there keeping us all entertained and they all played pass the parcel, with a present for everyone.

Finally, we saw an absolutely superb puppet show.

The puppets were so wonderfully created. The story was about a baby and a show. The auditorium was so packed that we had to strain our necks to see well, but I am not complaining, I was so happy to see my children entertained by something as culturally stimulating as the show.

Please don't keep complaining about the De La Warr, go and support it. The Children's Book Festival was worth every penny.

LIZ OSMAN

Woodville Road.

I'm baffled

I HAVE just been to see the latest exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion.

I am depressed and baffled. Depressed because of the sheer inanity of the show and baffled because it co-incides with the publication of a difficult-to-believe and so-called independent survey on the Pavilion and at the very moment when the Trustees are expecting to obtain further financial support from Rother District Council. Perhaps the Trustees should think again.

I suggest that the council could do us all a service by playing hard to get.

BASIL R STREAT

Cantelupe Road.

PO closures

RE POST Office closures.

Since the early 1970s, politicians have been planning the destruction of British democratic freedom, by signing the various treaties with the European Union (EU).

Both Conservatives and Labour governments have taken part in this treachery and yet opposition politicians still use the results of this loss of power to blame each other, as if it would make all the difference if the opposition party was in power.

For the second time this year, I have seen pictures of our MP, Gregory Barker in the press when he has been demonstrating with citizens outside a Post Office, in protest at the proposed closure.

On the latest occasion, the picture was in the Bexhill AdNews of September 26.

Gregory Barker is fully aware that even if the Conservatives were in power, the closure would proceed in a very similar way, because the instructions come from the Commissioners of the EU, by whom we are now governed.

It may appear to be the Post Office Ltd, which appears to issue the closure orders, just as it may also appear to be the present government that gives the orders, but it is not. Closure is necessary to comply with the European Union Directives. Anyone in doubt can simply log onto http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/post/legislation_en.htm

In that schedule, the postal services directives began in 1992 and are due to be finalised in 2009, by which time the closure and/or reorganisation of all postal services must be completed.

With the end of British democratic freedom just around the corner now, it is high time that British citizens were told the truth by politicians from all parties and not force-fed false information.

A.C. LEEDING

Collington Rise.

So helpful

YOU have the politest and nicest school children. I was visiting my brother, who lives in Bexhill, in September this year.

While there, I travelled by train to visit a friend, and on my return, fell while getting off the train. It was about 3.30pm and there was a large number of school children waiting to get on.

They held back while three boys helped me up and rescued my bags. One young boy even offered to stay with me and miss his train! I wish I knew his name.

But my brother was meeting me and I thought his mother would be worried so I refused his kind offer.

Now you know why I think that Bexhill has the politest school children!

GILLIAN PATERSON

Cape Coral

Fla.

Oil use

Reply to Stephen Hardy's letter of September 14

DON'T worry about cutting carbon, Stephen - although no official bodies recognise the fact, we are running out of oil faster each week, so soon there will be no problem!

At present, the world uses three barrels of oil for every one produced -FACT, and even if the rate of consumption stays the same (it increases massively month by month) the estimate is five to 10 years before it is all gone - and the world will never be able to produce MORE barrels than at present - so just do the maths!

As for bio-ethanol, the world has not enough land left to produce even one third of what would be required to replace oil, even if it started today!

JULEY ROSS

Dorset Road South.

Kind of Blue

NICE to see Mike Hatchard running some Sunday gigs at the De La Warr, just across the road, at a place where jazz is virtually extinct.

Then I spotted the entry price, buried at the bottom of the item - 8. On a Sunday morning. Sorry, Mike. I'll be playing my Miles Davis albums. For free.

SINCLAIR ROBIESON

Marina.