OUT IN THE FIELD: Downland farmers need their lives back

End of an era as The Gildredge pub is demolished to make way for the new Arndale Centre extension

As the deadline looms today for people to have their say over whether the council should sell the downland farms or not and campaigners for and against shout their case from the rooftops, there is one group of people who have kept a dignified silence even though any potential sale will effect them the most '“ that is the farmers themselves.

Many of them have spent most of their lives there tending the land and whose lives, I can only imagine, have been hellish since news first broke that their homes and futures were in the public spotlight. The farmers themselves cannot comment on the issue but I would imagine they want the whole thing decided upon once and for all so they can get on with their lives and their livelihoods.

Close of play today (Friday) is the cut off point for people to have their say on whether they want the downland farms sold or face cuts to frontline services via the poll in the Eastbourne Review and as the Herald went to press yesterday lunchtime some 1,600 responses had been received at the council offices.