Why is it that having read the local paper’s headline “Why YOU should march for Harry and the DGH, I instantly thought about Shakespeare’s “Henry the Fifth” and the epic speech when summoning his already bewildered and bedraggled men to arms against a French army five times greater than his own. I shall quote the part of the speech that caught my eye that meant you could apply to any given situation for those who live in Eastbourne:
“Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”
It was fortunate for Harry Simmonds who became dangerously ill a year ago, because anyone who may have the same problem may not have a chance of surviving because of the lack of concern shown by the so-called HOSPITAL TRUST.
It is interesting to note that a spokesman for East Sussex Health Care NHS TRUST has issued the following statement, “That Ambulances and GP’s, including the out of hours GP service have agreed protocols about the correct place to send sick children depending on the nature of their condition.”
It was only a short while ago that the Ambulance Service in Eastbourne was at full stretch and could not see the end of the tunnel as travelling from Eastbourne to Hastings every time there was a accident whereby the patient had to be transported from A to B and B to A many times over in a day and/or night. Drivers and crew members of the Ambulance service were fatigued and unable to carry on driving safely on our hole-y roads.
The cost for the Ambulance Service for mileage covered and fuel plus wear and tear must be greater than the so-called savings that the TRUST have forecast in their minds. The General Practitioners in Eastbourne and Hastings must be pushed to the limit.
A ROUGH RIDE?
There still seems to be many main roads which are unstable when you drive on them and especially along Victoria Drive near the parade of Shops in Green Street. I suppose because SAINSBURY’S do not need planning permission, so one of their spokespersons has stated, they have managed to twist the arms of Eastbourne Borough Council which wouldn’t take much pressure to build an enormous store and probably at the same time repair the road and place a roundabout to make it safer, although that comes under the supervision of East Sussex County Council. The only way round the problem of SAINSBURY’S is to boycott the store.
The smell of money will always be a strong motivation for any COUNCIL to buckle under and agree to something that the people of EASTBOURNE do not want. It is the same with the PARKING in EASTBOURNE – if you want to keep people out of the town – put lots of PARKING METERS in – that will drive the tourists away to other places. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were fair with their charges, BUT £3 FOR TWO HOURS PARKING IN SOME ROADS AND £2 FOR TWO HOURS IN OTHER ROADS is harsh, especially when just a few miles away there is free parking and shops galore.
Personally I shall not shop at the new store, when there is a perfectly good and adequate CO-OPERATIVE STORE already on Albert Parade.
