February 5 2014.

The Campaign to Save Cradle Hill from Closure replies to Sam:

It is rich of Sam Adeniji to claim that he didn't cave in because we knew that the County Cabinet would decide the issue of Cradle Hill anyway. He has repeatedly told the campaign group that, "My aim is to bring the matter before the full Council on the 11th February. Anything [else] is a distraction and a ploy to get us distracted." (20 Jan), "We want our petition to be debated as planned at the next Council meeting of ESCC 11th February." (21 Jan) etc., both orally and in writing. At the same time - as appeared in Haven News on 20 Jan - he was saying behind our backs, "A reduced service is better than no service and it's great to see that ESCC has listened to the strength of feeling that existed in the town." How is that not disloyal and duplicitous?

He also knows very well that, had he not accepted - on behalf of the 10,460 Seafordians who signed the Petition, but were never consulted by him - that his petition was satisfied by the County Council's four day closure plan, the subject would have had to be debated in full Council, where his Tory party friends would have been embarrassingly outvoted. Yes, the Cabinet would have ignored that, (such being the nature of both the system and the Conservatives now clinging to power in East Sussex), but campaigns are about applying pressure. Sam Adeniji did cave in and let the Cabinet off the hook, which was a betrayal of the people of Seaford and a disservice to Newhaven.

That the petition was "owned" by Mr Adeniji was a technicality. It is also a lesson to those who sign petitions to be very wary of being hoodwinked.

Sam may protest that he's still committed to getting Cradle Hill open seven days a week, but unless he's living in cloud-cuckoo land, he must know that ESCC and Lewes District, (who own the land), are never going to agree to some other contractor coming in on the now closed days. Nor, quite rightly, would Veolia agree to "share" with a rival a site it has just been told to stop opening!

As for introducing green waste kerbside collections in Seaford, (and the rest of Lewes District), we are challenging Mr Adeniji's Tory colleagues who run LDC to do just that, and show that they and Cllr. Glazier, (Leader, ESCC), aren't entirely full of hot air.

Bob Downing
Campaign Coordinator