Update - 19 December 2021

A very warm welcome to our second blog update.  Thank you once again for looking in.

This week, we've been considering housing development and the impact of recent national events on the local political outlook.  And we were very pleased to receive some messages from society followers.    

First, housing.

Let's face it.  Planning is never an easy issue for local authorities.  No community likes to see its open space built on. Or nice old houses with big gardens knocked down and replaced by ugly flats or infill.

But Councils are in a tricky position.  Their officers must work on projections of local population growth and set targets for new housing.  Elected councillors for their part know there are few votes in building over green spaces.

The current controversy in the Eastbourne area is Morning's Mill Farm.  You see its fields on the right when you take the older of the two main roads out of town, just as you leave Willingdon for Polegate.  There's been application for a couple of years now - by the Vine farming family - for permission to build hundreds of houses on the farm's land.

It's no exaggeration to say such a development would have a dramatic impact on the appearance of the area - effectively joining up Eastbourne and Polegate in one suburban sprawl.

The farm is actually the other side of the northern boundary of Eastbourne Borough.  The decision-maker is therefore Wealdon District Council.  Their Councillors have now rejected the application - twice - despite their officers telling them there are no technically permitted grounds for doing so.  In this, the Councillors are surely doing the bidding of those who elected them.  

Unfortunately, for the elected local politicians, and for the campaigns influencing them, I fear their celebrations will be short-lived.  The matter will most likely be resolved in court.  And the reasons given by Councillors for their refusal will, I suspect, be picked apart by developers' legal teams.

We shall see.

Second, North Shropshire.

It's been a long and exhausting week in national politics to be sure.  The LibDem victory this week has got the pundits looking for parallels in the 1990 Eastbourne by-election - in which David Belotti of the LibDems overturned a similarly big Tory majority.  This outcome arguably marked the beginning of the end for Mrs Thatcher.  Will it be the same for Boris Johnson?

Maybe.  

But what preoccupies us more is the significance of the North Shropshire result for Eastbourne.    We're pondering all those Brexit voting, Tory voting switchers to the LibDems.  They didn't stay at home (much).  They did not choose the Reform party, or whatever it calls itself at present.  They went to the centre.

This confounds my assumption that Brexit might hamper LibDem progress in the town.  If this trend holds, even in part, it's encouraging news for Josh Babarinde and his team.  

However, we must complete the picture.  

David Belotti's tenure as Eastbourne's MP was short-lived.  Less than two years later, the town returned a Conservative, with a comfortable majority.  It remained blue (although becoming more marginal at each election) for all of eighteen years!

And as for Belotti himself, his post Parliamentary career was - how shall I put this?  - eventful.  He became the CEO of Brighton and Hove Albion football club and oversaw the sale of its Goldstone Ground - a set of events which almost destroyed the club.

So my advice to Josh Babarinde - don't put Belotti's photograph on your leaflets....

To end this week's update, we were delighted to receive a couple of messages from Society followers.

Magnus from Fulham let us know of an enjoyable evening he'd spent visiting Meads.  A pint of Harvey's at the Pilot, then Lobster and Corn soup at Xing Fu.  Magnus noted a surprising number of inhabited camper vans parked along St.Johns Road.

Thanks, Magnus, for your entertaining message.

Ian from Cambridge drew our attention to a fascinating BBC documentary entitled "Surgeons:  At the Edge of Life", in which several medics with an Eastbourne background, including Ian himself, were featured.

Ian was brought up and educated in the town, and makes regular visits here to catch up with mother Mary and sister Jean.

Ian's message reminded us - if indeed we needed reminding - of the tremendous debt we owe our health professionals - both now and in less problematic times.  I will be doing my best this next week not to add to their workload

Happy Christmas to you all.