Am I the only person in the world who resents paying for carrier bags. I fully appreciate the sentiment but I refuse to be party to another ploy by certain retailers to take more money from me on the pretence of saving the planet.

I don’t mind one bit that any monies raised should be passed to worthy charities such as Groundwork or the Woodland Trust but the extensive press attention is hiding the true facts of the matter.

WH Smith charge 1p and give just 0.25p to their charity while M&S say that all profits generated from the charge will go to their charity.....a nice little earner for the retailers if you ask me.

Of course, the real problem is that carrier bags have something of a bad press and realistically they account for just 0.1% (ie a tenth of 1%) of UK landfill. .....packaging, on the other hand, accounts for 3% and I would be quite happy to manage without most of that when I go shopping.

The comedy drama ‘Christmas at the Riviera’ was first screened on ITV a year ago and includes a star studded line up including Reece Shearsmith, Barbara Flynn, Pam Ferris, Warren Clarke, Alexander Armstrong and Anna Chancellor.

The drama is set in the Riviera Hotel in Eastbourne. It is Christmas Eve and the hotel’s assistant manager is excited to be left in charge of the hotel over the festive period. He is determined to make it the establishment's best ever Christmas.

Problems begin as soon as the brass band leads the carol singing in the garden without realising that they are all standing on the frozen pond....the inevitable happens and the guests end up plunging into the icy water.

In the midst of the mayhem, the Reverend Miles Roger ( a serial philanderer who is being investigated by the Daily Mirror) is trying to salvage what is left of his rocky marriage to Diane, who is a little too fond of whisky.

He has booked the luxury hotel break to make up with his wife but gets a shock when the attractive young curate called Vanessa arrives at the hotel demanding he ends his marriage and runs away with her.

To add to the drama, a fire breaks out in the hotel and everyone has to be evacuated but, with the fire spreading quickly, one of the guests is missing and subsequently has to be rescued from his bedroom.

Then just when you think that nothing else could possibly go wrong the owners of the Carlton Hotel in Marine Parade decide to change the name of their hotel to the Eastbourne Riviera Hotel.

I just hope that on the rerun, ITV might be persuaded to remind its viewers that the Riviera Hotel in Eastbourne featured in the programme ‘Christmas at the Riviera’ is in no way associated with or to be confused with the Eastbourne Riviera Hotel.

I have a theory which says that as rail prices increase, the service decreases. My theory is based on the recent inevitable, but nonetheless outrageous, hike in rail fares from Eastbourne.

While my contempories in Brighton are favoured with additional trains and additional capacity, we are provided with a branch line service with trains so full that they remind me of the underground during rush hour.

And while they are treated to a non-stop journey, I am calling at just about everywhere including Berwick, Balcombe and Wivelsfield where the platforms are not even long enough to accommodate the train.

My train journey home to Eastbourne is fraught enough as I worry over whether I am sitting in the right part of the train lest I end up in Bognor Regis, Littlehampton or Seaford.

Southern claims to listen to its customers and aims to “create a different kind of train company: one that delivers by thinking like the passengers it serves”. Well think again I say.

Christmas is well and truly over and I am now contemplating exactly what I should do with the extra second which has been tacked onto the end of 2008. My question is why not put it on at the start of 2009 as I am rather keen to get rid of this year as soon as possible!

What with the airborne fiasco, the sale of Eastbourne buses , the car parking debacle and the credit crunch, I wonder what treats we might all have in store in 2009. Well watch this space because I shall be adding my comments for what they are worth.

Talking of the credit crunch, what on earth persuaded 300 shoppers to descend on the Next Shop in the Arndale Centre at 5 o clock in the morning . Regretfully, when I arrived (at a much more sensible time of the day) the shelves were virtually bare.

Indeed the racks of clothes remaining reminded me of my own wardrobe at home.... and seemed to consist of exactly the same items other than the fact that these were half the price I had bought them for a few weeks earlier .

Oh well another important lesson learned – Next gift vouchers all round next Christmas.

Don’t get me started on parking.

Wikipedia .....my source of everything you ever need to know suggests that “Although Eastbourne has some industrial trading estates, it is essentially a seaside resort and derives its main income from tourism.”
 
Eastbourne is a tourist town ... tourism keeps the shops open, the hotels full and (mostly) the locals in employment. So why are the council so hell bent on driving them away by continuing to enforce its ridiculous parking scheme.

It is the quiet season and evidence is already emerging of unhappy tourists (what few we have this time of the year) being frightened off by their inability to park their car. Everyone I speak to is bemoaning the situation but what are the council doing....NOTHING.

Well I say nothing but I notice that they are introducing even more parking machines...do they not have to get planning permission like everyone else? Then there are all those new parking attendants that the scheme is paying for.

At this rate, I fear that the number of people employed as parking attendants will soon overtake the number of people employed in the tourist trade!




 

So the government has decided to reduce VAT from 17.5% to 15% ....and now I have no idea what things cost me anymore. Some shops have changed all their prices and some shops are a lot slower. Problem is you cannot tell which prices are changed and which ones are not till you get your receipt.

The change in the VAT rate has also highlighted our lack of numeracy skills since most people think that prices will fall by 2.5% ....WRONG. In fact the price reduction amounts to approximately 2.13% which is a little less that most people expect.

I shall not bore you with the details but sufficient to say it is all very confusing and even more so when we return to VAT at 17.5% which will no doubt offer more opportunities to rip us off at the cash tills.

In the meantime, presuming our local pound shops charge VAT why are they still charging us one pound and not passing on those VAT savings to their customers?

Eastbourne is my home town. Not where I was born but where I choose to live. Sometimes I wonder why. Other times I know why.

This is my blog...angry, candid, caring, concerned, considerate, contemplative, forthright, honest, irritated, reflective, sincere, and thoughtful (in no particular order other than alphabetical).