Your letters - March 5, 2010

Rail cuts will be a real risk to Rother

I am writing regarding the proposed cuts to the Hastings to London railway line service, and to raise awareness of the severe impact this will have on local communities.

The final version of the Kent Rail Utilisation Strategy has now been published by Network Rail.

This includes the Hastings line, and proposes that all services between Hastings and London Cannon Street are withdrawn.

No replacement trains to alternative destinations are proposed.

The only suggested mitigation is that the remaining rush-hour trains to Charing Cross are comprised of fast and slow portions.

This will just cause further delays and reliability issues to commuters, as already evidenced by the existing trains that operate in this way.

It will also impact road traffic with level crossing gates going down in quick succession to allow the separate portions to pass.

These proposed cuts will have a severe impact to commuters from across Rother. As well as the Cannon Street commuters losing their direct link, the Charing Cross commuters will suffer severe overcrowding, as existing trains are already full.

The reduced frequency will also impact more local journeys, including those of all the schoolchildren who depend on them to reach Hastings, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

These proposals are a threat to the lifestyle of people throughout Hastings and Rother – those directly affected, plus their families, and all the local businesses that require the revenue from people who work in London.

The rail cuts will also cancel out the regeneration benefits of the Bexhill/Hastings link road by making the area less accessible to London. The local community needs to resist these ill proposals, and all local bodies should be considering how this can be fought. With the forthcoming general election this should be one of the key items for candidates to address, as the threat to the local area goes far beyond those directly impacted.

Stuart McMillan

Mill Rise

Robertsbridge

Forward planning – a thing of the past

As someone who grew up at a time when no shops opened on Sundays and before hardly anyone had refrigerators, I am amazed at the continual complaints from people at the lack of a Sunday-opening supermarket in Rye.

We managed without any difficulty by the simple process of advance planning.

In fact, for the most part shops closed at 5.30pm, so no late opening in those days!