The scandal of Ecclesbourne Glen

View of "the bunker" from East Hill

When we bought our house in Hastings, we had a vague knowledge of the Country Park, which stretches from Hastings along the cliffs to the east.  Its discovery was a revelation to us. 

A long flight of about 180 steps starts opposite our house, climbing up to the top of East Hill, which is the beginning of the Park.  Views from here are spectacular, over Hastings Old Town, out to sea, and, when you climb a little further, across to the adjoining areas of grassland on top of the cliffs.  We weren't aware at the time that the Park is part of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and has been designated a Special Area of Conservation, a Site of Special Scientif Interest and a Local Nature Reserve.

Between the areas of high grassland and heath there are a number of deep gullies, or glens, which are areas of centuries old vegetation - gnarled trees and rare ferns.  It is a wonderful haven for wildlife and a very special area for walkers.  

Earlier this year a building suddenly intruded on the view eastwards from East Hill - an angular projection that is the upper storey of a newly-built edifice for which planning permission was unaccountably given by Hastings Borough Council in 2013.  It has become known as "the bunker", and can be seen in the picture above.  The building as erected was larger than that for which approval had been given, and the owners, who operate a caravan park on the other side of the building, which cannot be seen in the above picture, put in an application for retrospective planning permission.  The outcry in the local community was immense.  An action group was formed, a planning barrister was brought in to oppose the application on its hearing before the Planning Committee, and permission was refused.

There is now paralysis.  The building is illegal as it stands, but no enforcement notice has yet been served for it to be demolished.  Campaigners have formed an association, and matters are being closely monitored.  The Council is under pressure to enforce.  It remains to be seen whether they will have the good sense to do so.  Meanwhile the blot on the landscape continues to wreck the view and the natural beauty of the landscape, supposedly protected, is disfigured.

More information can be found on the campaigners' Facebook page.  You can help by joining the Association!

Antony Mair

Social media - participate or disappear

In Mallorca in June

I had a bit of a Facebook débâcle the other day.  Realising that my profile was somewhat incomplete, I added some further details - notably that I was in a civil partnership with Paul.  Now this event occurred in France (so it was a PACS, which is treated as a CP in the UK) almost six years ago.  I thought I was simply clarifying the record.  Little did I realise that it came across to the world as if we had just entered into a civil partnership here in the UK.  The result was not only a deluge of "likes" and messages of congratulation but furious phonecalls from Paul's sisters asking why they hadn't been informed.  

This taught me two things immediately.  First, I'm incompetent on Facebook.  Secondly, though, that masses of the people we know actually follow people on it.  As a result, if you don't participate at all you run the risk of disappearing.

This road to Damascus experience came at just the right moment.  I've been a little obsessed in recent months with my poetic efforts, and have as a result tended to retire into my little shell.  I should know at this advanced stage of life that I can become obsessive and that it's almost invariably a Bad Thing.  

In fact it's been a wonderful summer down here in Hastings - and although I've chosen a picture (not actually a selfie in the proper sense) from our holiday in Mallorca earlier this year, the sunny background could easily, with slight adjustment - insertion of fishing huts and shingle beach and fish and chip shops - be Hastings.  The poetry obsession got its grip with a week's summer school on campus at Lancaster University in July, and I then spent my time entering one competition after another - without winning even an honourable mention in any of them.  So a bit of retreating and regrouping has taken place, with the realisation that I personally don't write better through obsessing about it, because the writing becomes overly self-conscious.  Alas, that Nobel Prize is never going to land in my lap.  But I've got so much else to be thankful for and happy about that I can live with that degree of failure.

Also, I realised that I needed to get back to blogging, which is good fun.  I shall even have to improve my Facebook expertise.  And who knows, by being a little more in touch with everyone I might even improve on the poetry front.

Antony Mair