Beef About Wellington
DEBORAH RIPLEY
Since arriving in Wellington Square in late 2016, I’ve witnessed firstly a gradual and then, more recently, a rapid decline of Wellington Place opposite. I knew I was embarking on life in a town centre with all that goes with it – being very close to a connecting road and the noise levels of weekend nightlife that continue into the early hours. But had I known that Wellington Place would turn into a food delivery hub, I’m not sure I would have taken the risk.
I and other residents at the lower end of Wellington Square and York Gardens are now subject to the monstrous sound of motorbike and scooter riders who have modified their exhausts and/or engines entering and exiting Wellington Place at all times of day and late into the evening delivering food. Some ride quiet electric bikes or scooters. However, some choose to have their vehicles tuned up to the highest volumes, and enter and exit with no care for those around them, neither residents, local traders nor pedestrians.
Additionally, they ride with impunity through the no-entry signs at the junction with Albert Road and park up during the times when motor vehicles are prohibited. More than once I’ve heard a small child scream in shock and fear as a bike pops the exhaust at ear-shattering volume.
The proliferation of delivery riders has attracted other bike riders who join them, comparing vehicles and their capacity for noise. The area opposite Poundstretcher has become a bike hang-out on some days, continuing late into the evening, long after the food outlets have closed.
PLANNING PROPOSAL
East Sussex County Council has the responsibility for regulating traffic and parking on the streets of Hastings, including maintenance of the area of Wellington Place, York Gardens and the bottom of Queens Road, which is supposed to be pedestrianised, between 10am and 4pm. Last month, following a consultation on access and parking hours over several months with local traders and residents, a proposal was put forward at a meeting of its planning committee to extend the prohibition on driving and parking within this area to 9pm. This change would not have solved the problem outright, but would certainly have been a big step in the right direction, and it seemed to gain general support. Local ward councillor Godfrey Daniels is a member of the committee and spoke in its favour.
The proposal was rejected, however, because there was apparently a single objector – not identified, but impliedly one of the fast food outlets on the block – whose opposition would have forced a public inquiry, under the procedure adopted by the council, into all the traffic modifications being debated. So that was that: a public inquiry isn’t going to be held any time soon.
POLICE AND COUNCIL INACTION
In the meantime, my repeated reports to Sussex Police via Operation Crackdown – supported with good quality photos and video – seem a complete waste of time, as I see no improvement and no one communicates with me. Vehicles, including those causing the most noise, enter and exit through the no-entry signs into the paved area of Wellington Place at all times of day and evening. This is surely illegal. Motorbikes and cars, parked at times when motor vehicles are prohibited, not only never seem to get parking tickets, but appear to be ignored by ESCC parking control.
Hastings Council Environmental Health closed my most recent case with no feedback to me at all. Calls to 101 have had little effect as I seldom get the promised call back. In fact, I often feel I am the problem, taking up police time when they have ‘more important’ affairs to attend to.
Following a comment I made about a community policing meeting for our ward on a Facebook post, I miraculously received a call where an officer promised a meeting would be arranged in early September. I heard nothing further. Having formed a resident group with over ten neighbours who are affected by these problems, we continue to press for change.
I’m well aware I’m living in a town faced with severe economic challenges and lack of opportunity. I recognise the need for employment, both in the food outlets and as delivery drivers. And I concede that there are quiet and respectful bike riders here, who cause no problems.
But I’m sure that the partial exemption for traffic to enter the area to load and unload was never intended to enable the fast food economy, with its relentless noise level, pollution and physical impact, to dominate the street environment.
Other local authorities across the country – including, to my knowledge, several London boroughs and the towns of Dartford and Canterbury – are grappling with similar problems. But in Hastings we residents are being ghosted by the very agencies that should be supporting and looking after us, which is utterly disheartening and depressing. I feel trapped in a triangle of unrelenting noise and disruption, ignored by those who could make a concentrated effort to improve the quality of our lives.
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Such a very well written article. You have refrained from adding a comment about the street drinkers who also congregate there before coming en masse to the front of Robertson Terrace.
The fact that HBC’s only comment is to blame ESCC is becoming rathe4 boring. The afe@ that you talk about is a disgrace.