Observer Comment: Bexhill's no last resort

The annoucement in the Queen’s Birthday Honours that former mayor Megan Traice had been awarded the MBE for services to Bexhill sent a feeling of collective pride through the community.

For not only was it a personal honour for Megan, who indeed has done so much in her 83 years for the benefit of Bexhill, it was a source of pleasure for anyone who holds our town in high esteem.

As our story about Megan records, she served on Rother District Council for 30 years, she set up St Jude’s refuge for women and children, she started Pebsham School, has been a leading light for Bexhill Museum and has campaigned for the protection of vulnerable children.

That so much is attributable to one person is an inspiration to all - a shining example that with grit, determination and yet ineffable charm, things can always be achieved or changed for the better.

And typically Megan’s not done yet, for though she now lives in St Leonards, she is still deeply involved in the life and fabric of Bexhill through her presidency of the museum and the local soroptimists, chairmanship of the Civil Servants’ Association, and so on.

Bexhill also gained what might even be international recognition this week when it was identified as having been the one-time home of the world’s smallest dinosaur and a creature previously unknown to science.

With keen fossil collector Dave Brockhurst having placed the bones that clinched it in a drawer and effectively forgotten about them for a while, it took a couple of years before the dinosaur’s existence was confirmed. But then what’s two years in 150 million?

Again, Bexhill should be proud that one of its own was instrumental in putting it on the map.

Finally the De La Warr Pavilion, though sometimes controversial, has nevertheless been playing its part in taking Bexhill to a wider audience, as disclosed in its annual report to Rother council and news of a potentially stunning rooftop display lined up for next summer.

Artist Richard Wilson’s aim of recreating movie classic The Italian Job’s teetering coach scene three storeys up should certainly get the town talked about and bring in the curious.

Bexhill a backwater? Not a bit of it.