The view from Bournemouth

As I left the Constituency on Saturday for the Liberal Democrat conference the Observer was full of reports and views on Rother's proposal for Bexhill's seafront.

To while away the journey and passing through Bognor Regis I was tempted to rank seaside towns by a first letter - in this case

B......Bournemouth, Blackpool, Bognor, Barnstaple, Barmouth and of course Bexhill. In doing so I was struck by the great diversity of the towns, making further comparisons difficult. The only common thing being that they are all seaside towns band each one with its own special merits. That does indeed include Bexhill.

A 'Genus Loci' - Spirit of the Place had, I thought, been established for Bexhill - that of its Edwardian Town Centre and the iconic world famous De La Warr Pavilion.

The current redevelopment debate also revolves around funding. In current economic conditions it is even more important for Rother to get its spending priorities right.

They must not be lured by the promise of lottery funding for lottery funding's sake.

There was a time when Local Authorities had a direct responsibility for 'Council Housing', a phrase very much in the public mind and which has not been easily replaced by affordable or social housing.

It is being predicted that the housing market is set to fall further and with rising food and fuel prices even those who made prudent decisions for house purchase at the time could be threatened with repossession.

With that will come a swift demand for housing and it should not be forgotten that local authorities have some residual responsibility in this respect.

Rother's capital reserves are healthy as demonstrated by some Councillors' willingness to commit to the 'New Wave' proposals. They even have earmarked sums for unspecified housing projects and a sum still left over from the sale of housing stock.

Surely therefore it would be foolhardy to commit to spend large sums on unpopular leisure and shopping schemes when local people could find themselves in dire need of somewhere affordable to live.