Summer

Rail services

Very interested (and a bit amused) to hear that a faster rail journey from Eastbourne to London (70 minutes) might be on the cards but I am convinced that this is just not possible with the present railway infrastructure whereby all trains are funnelled through the bottle neck of East Croydon. I have repeatedly added my support to the idea of a new railway line using the former Lewes to Uckfield line and then to London via Tunbridge Wells or East Croydon. Improvements including better signalling, double deck trains and 16 car trains are just not going to do it and we need some radical thinking not lame posturing.

 

 

 

The true cost of Airbourne

In 2008, 48000 customers paying £5 each would raise £240 000 with losses of £360000 incurred. In 2012, 100000 residents plus 50000 visitors paying £1 each would raise £150000 and 30% of that is going to the RNLI leaving £105000.  We are told that this is sufficient to make the event ‘viable’

Is the problem with Airborne that no one is willing to tell us exactly how much it costs and exactly how much it brings in.  Only when we know that, can we make any informed judgement on whether the event is worthwhile or not.

More tales of the hotel lift

Quite distressed to find out that our lift has decided to give up its day job....ie carrying passengers up and down between floors. We contacted the company (with whom we have a contract) immediately but there idea of urgent is a lot further down the list than ours. Eventually persuaded another lift company to come and have a look but not all good news. Indeed their prognosis suggests that our much loved lift is seriously unwell ...in fact nearly as sick as I was when they told me how much it would cost to put it right!!!!

Wedding party

Busy day today at the da Vinci  hosting a wedding party for our friends Lindsay and Merv.  We are not really on the wedding venue listings but Lindsay and Merv are personal friends so, when they asked, we could hardly refuse. In the end, the celebration was quite a success with many reporting on the relaxed and friendly atmosphere. We managed to anticipate requirements well.....additional staff, rooms rearranged, tables cleared, bar stocked and cake displayed plus a  wonderful display of balloons in bridal colours. Apologies only to our arriving guests who must have wondered what they were doing in the middle of all this celebration....regardless they enjoyed sampling the buffet and toasting the bride.

The Hotel Inspector

The Channel 5 programme called the Hotel Inspector was essential viewing this evening as it featured one of our neighbouring hotels which has pretentions to become a four star hotel on the back of being 41 out of 41 on the Trip Advisor review site.

I have every sympathy for host Alex Polizzi as she tried to instil a sense of realism into the owner’s consciousness ……but this was never going to be an easy task. Regardless, the hotel is now number 39 (out of 41) on Trip Advisor ….and might shortly catch up with the other hotel in the group with is sitting at number 37!!!

PS My favourite quote from the programme is: Owner  "If you don't like the room for God's sake why did you take it ?".  Guest "We changed four times"

Railway investment???

I note with considerable interest that the £9bn railway investment announced recently by the coalition doesn't offer much support to commuters living in the south other than the promise of even higher fares to pay for electrifying the line to Sheffield. A growing number of people are pushing strongly for the reinstatement of the Lewes to Uckfield line which would do much to take the pressure off rail services to London and congestion at Haywards Heath and East Croydon .

Lewes MP Norman Baker said "The reopening of the Lewes - Uckfield line is something I have campaigned for locally for over twenty years. It is vitally needed, not just to link the two towns again, but also as a key building block in providing an alternative to the heavily congested Brighton main line.".

Unfortunately, since he took on the job of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport he seems to have gone rather quiet .... other than suggesting “You will, I hope, appreciate, that a minister is not allowed to use his or her position to advantage their constituency”. So not even much chance of jam tomorrow then!!!