I RECENTLY returned from a family lunch at Devil’s Dyke. Unfortunately it was marred by a couple of people telling my children not to fly kites there.
We were enjoying lunch at the pub and my three children wanted to fly their toy kites.
As we were seated outside, we told them to go to the field opposite where there were already three children flying several kites with their parents while having a picnic.
I was sitting with mother and my disabled grandmother, who is 91. A man approached my son, 16, and two daughters who are 14 and seven. Naturally, I went over to find out what was going on.
The man had told my children to fly their kites elsewhere because of paragliders and hang gliders landing there.
I could not understand this as they were already situated all along the main stretch of Devil’s Dyke and we had been on the small section to the left of the car park, near the ruined building.
Within a few minutes another man approached and told the children they were contravening a bylaw by flying their kites there and that they should go to the other side of the Dyke and fly them there.
Not only were the other sports taking up the main area of the grass, they were also forcing everyone to go elsewhere.
We decided to go home. Because of the wind direction, we would have had to move a long way from the car park and my grandmother would not have been able to watch her grandchildren flying their small toy kites.
There are no signs warning you not to fly kites in certain areas. Why should the general public, who wish to enjoy the delights of Devil’s Dyke, be forced to move out of the area because of sports that have seemingly taken over?
Could they not move further away from the pub? When did it become against a bylaw to fly a kite in an area that’s free of hazards such as pylons or the general public?
Will we outlaw picnics and walkers next?
K Montague, Burlington Gardens, Portslade
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