The faces of Captain Pugwash and the crew of the Black Pig have popped up around Rye this week as part of the town’s new tourist information service.
As many will know, the children’s TV series creator John Ryan lived and worked in Rye for many years and was a well-known and popular member of the community, in which he became very involved.
It’s great to see his creation adorning signs around Rye and helping others enjoy the town that he had such a fondness for.
With the help of Levelling Up capital funding secured by Rye Chamber of Commerce and facilitated through Rother District Council, the town now has an AI driven tool to promote places to visit in the town.
Visitors can use the QR code with their mobile phone and find out where to eat, places to visit, and information about events.
This is an extremely clever way to attract and inform visitors to the town without the cost of a traditional tourist information office and I look forward to seeing it in action.
I was delighted to have been invited to an event marking the opening of the top floor of The Pelham.
The redevelopment of the space was made possible with Levelling Up Partnership funding of more than £300,000 from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Pelham CIO has also been successful in securing additional match funding from other sources.
As well as involving a local building firm and workers from the Bexhill area, the space will benefit the community immensely.
This development is a great example of how the community has pulled together to complete a wonderful facility that will give so much back to Bexhill and the surrounding area.
I recently attended an event with representatives from council, developers, consultants and housing providers to discuss the key issues of housing in Rother.
It was great to have 60 people concerned with the development and management of housing in the room to talk about the challenges we face as a district, particularly in areas such as homelessness and housing targets.
As a council, we can have as many policies in place to deal with this issues as we like, but the key to success when it comes to tackling these challenges is bringing everyone together.
There is no easy fix to the challenges we face, but the event gave me confidence that we are all working towards the same result.
Residents have until January 11th to take part in a government consultation that will shape the future of council services across East Sussex.
Local Government Reorganisation will see the current two-tier structure of district and county council replace with a new unitary authority.
The area each unitary authority will cover is the focus of this consultation as there are two options being put forward – one by East Sussex County Council and the county’s district and borough councils, and the other by Brighton & Hove City Council.
I would urge people to give their views on how they would like their services delivered by visiting Local government reorganisation in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove, and West Sussex – GOV.UK
Ends.
Published: 12th December 2025
