Kettling chips not protesters

Countryside Column for 27 June

Protest in danger of missing the picture

What with all this talk about water cannon and kettling I was a bit nervous.  I mean I hadn’t been on a demo for years and things have changed.  But in the event there were no police in evidence, and not a baton or riot shield in sight.

The location may have had something to do with it.  We were high up on the East Hill of the Hastings Country Park, just above the stunningly beautiful Ecclesbourne Glen.

For several years this has been one of Myrtle’s favourite walks.  She bounds up the steep paths pausing only to greet doggy friends while I follow at a more sedate pace.

But a year ago one of the upper paths closed and last winter a large landslide shut three others, rendering an entire section of the coastal footpath impassable.  Since then nothing seems to have happened.  This public right of way remains resolutely barred to all.

So you’d imagine the demo the other Sunday was to demand that Hastings and East Sussex Councils pull their finger out and REOPEN OUR FOOTPATHS! NOW!  Or Sooner!

But not a bit of it.  The ire (if you can call it such) of the couple of hundred people on a picnic protest was directed against a relatively attractive modernistic building that has appeared by the Rocklands Caravan Park. 

In my view this entire enterprise  - an “owner-occupied static caravan park” – is an appalling blot on the landscape and an anathema in a nature reserve and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  That it originally got planning permission is quite extraordinary.  But as it’s been there for years no one seems unduly bothered.

However when developers allegedly exceeded their approval for the house and added large balconies overlooking the sea, concerned locals erupted and are campaigning for the council to refuse retrospective planning consent.

Meanwhile a report on the landslip - which some believe may not be unconnected to development at Rocklands – says the cost of re-instituting the paths would be prohibitive and recommends relocating them completely.

So as I sat in the sun I wondered if the focus of the protest campaign might be slightly misdirected. Important as the planning issue may be, the bigger issue surely is the presence of the caravans and the closure of the footpaths.

At least the only kettling we experienced related to the brand of crisps we were eating.