Your letters - September 3, 2010

White Rock Theatre v De La Warr pavilion WHAT a great variety of entertainment is being offered at the White Rock Theatre, Hastings. From September through to December there is a fantastic amount to see, from comedy, classical music, ballet and blues, culminating in the pantomime, Cinderella. What is our "iconic" De La Warr Pavilion offering? I rest my case. J TOLLETT Bidwell Avenue Bexhill-on-Sea Giant food chains should pay back I HAVE no great feeling about whether Tesco or Sainsburys emerges victorious in Rye's great supermarket knockout competition. However, I do have one suggestion. Perhaps the eventual victor in this retail slug-fest could really make a valuable contribution to the community by agreeing to fund the building of a new sports pavilion to replace the one sadly destroyed by arsonists recently. After all, both protagonists in this rumble in Rye, judging by their latest published accounts, have deep pockets and if their rhetoric from their spin doctors about 'serving the needs of the town' rather than their shareholders is to mean anything, it is rather hard to think of a more appropriate or practical gesture. Just one condition: both will have to forfeit any right to have a new pavilion named after them. Paul Francis Hillcrest, Rye Chinese lanterns height of danger I WOKE up on Bank Holiday Monday to see that a Chinese lantern had landed in a field of sheep. The prevailing wind at the time would suggest that it was launched in the Whatlington area. The Chinese lantern is rather like a mini hot air balloon consisting of a paper envelope held open by wire and an incendiary device to provide a flame to create hot air to enable it to fly. Surely it is the height of irresponsibility to launch an incendiary device over which one has no control. People in the path of such devices must recoil in horror to think that their thatched roof, roof felted sheds, hay barns, fields of un-harvested cereal, animals and the like can be exposed to a catastrophe by fire which is no fault of their own and over which they can have no control. I urge the public not to contemplate using such devices and I would go further and suggest they should be banned. C B Hone Marley Lane, Battle 'Canons to the left, anons to the right..' A CLUTCH of canons can only be a salvo when all are fired. A battery seems best, and very right for Rye with its Gun Garden (which is also the address of the Rectory). And please be aware, dear readers, that in journalistic language, when a canon offers any criticism, he (or she) always "blasts". So be ready for a headline such as "Canon Blasts Town Council". With at least three of us around, it surely can't be long.. Richard Orchard Canon of Derby Cathedral, retired in Rye Dog owners should take responsibility I AM writing this letter to complain about the few irresponsible dog owners who allow their dogs to foul the footpaths and grass verges in Battle, especially on the path from Claverham through the Tollgate estate and into the town. This is the path that the children use to and from school. It is disgusting. There are dog bins along this route, if you are not prepared to clean up after your dog, do not take it out. Most dog owners do clear up. Also would the teachers at Battle and Langton School take their cigarette ends with them and not litter under the tree where they smoke. Yours, fed up Margaret French Mountjoy, Battle