Meetings
Meetings are held at St. Saviour's Church Hall, South Street, starting at 7:30pm.
All members are welcome free of charge, and are asked to bring their Membership Cards or to sign the Members register on the way in if they do not have the card to hand. Non members are cordially invited for a charge of £2 per person.
2010
Tuesday, June 8th - The Southern Railway
Speaker - Mark Stuchbury, Director (Major Projects) on the company, operations and future plans.
Tuesday, July 13th - Eastbourne Now and Tomorrow
Speaker - Robert Cottrill, Chief Executive of Eastbourne Borough Council.
The Hall has a car park, and has easy access. Tea and coffee will be served as usual, following the meeting.
Meeting Reports
June 2010 Meeting - The Southern Railway
Speaker, Paul Wyborn
Eastbourne's railway service was the subject of the June talk, when the recently-appointed Area Manager for Southern, Paul Wyborn, spoke about the company's plans and objectives.
Southern, which took over from Connex several years ago, was again awarded the franchise last September. This acknowledged the company's success in improving customer satisfaction levels from 65 - 80 per cent between 2003 and 2009. It had been heralded by the Department for Transport as a forward thinking company.
Mr Wyborn said customer service continued to be a priority, and there was strong investment in training to this end.
Southern was committed to an additional £76million investment, £22.8m of which would go on new rollijng stock, £20m on improving stations, £10.1m on car parkings, £8.1m on gating and £8.7m on other improvements.
All relevant staff are being provided with Blackberry phones to help them provide up to the minute information for passengers.
Some adjustment of timetables was taking place, based on customer feedback, and full consultation was underway prior to the new December timetable.
Service quality was a high priority with the introduction of a delay/repay scheme, improved passenger information and station travel plans showing links with buses.
Emphasis was also placed, said Mr Wyborn, on value for money, with the company's marketing character Loco Toledo fronting a variety of special offers. Southern was very keen to encourage more leisure travel, and was cutting prices accordingly.
Also featured in the company's plans were an Oyster card style system for directly depiting the cost of travel, strong green policies aimed at reducing energy consumption, and a star system for stations with the aim being to make them all four or five star.
Despite the disappointingly poor attendance, Mr Wyborn's talk attracted keen interest and a series of lively questions about railway services - notably the possibilities of a faster service to London. Sadly, he was unable to offer any particular hope in that direction, though an extension of the Gatwick Express service does now run daily from Eastbourne, running non-stop to Victorian from Gatwick airport.
April 2010 Meeting - The Life and Times of Oscar Wilde
Speaker, Michael Harris
OSCAR Wilde was brought back to life for the audience at the April talk, courtesy of writer and lecturer Michael Harris.
He donned a suitably flamboyant Wildeian outfit to deliver the great man's life story in the first person.
Michael took us from Wilde's childhood in Dublin from where he was sent to school in Enniskillen before winning a scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin. Despite noting that 'nothing that is worth knowing can be taught' he won a further scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford.
Determined to be a 'poet, writer, dramatist', he was also determined that if not famous he would be notorious, a prediction which later came tragically true.
Michael's Wilde reminded us that after the death of his father - to whom his mother had remained devoted despite his infidelities - Mrs Wilde set up home in Chelsea and Oscar moved in.
A lecture tour of America followed - during which he famously declared to Customs that he had 'nothing to declare but his genius' - and 12 months after he returned to England he met Constance whom he married. The couple had two boys and despite his later sexual diversity remained the enduring love of his life.
Wilde disclosed to us that as a youth he had a healthy interest in girls and it was not until well into adulthood that his bisexuality emerged.
His writing career took off in 1888 with short stories, and as his reputation as a writer spread he met Lord Alfred Douglas who was to become his nemesis.
A Picture of Dorian Gray was viciously attacked by critics, but in 1892 Lady Windermere's Fan was rapturously received. Salome followed but was refused a licence by the Lord Chancellor.
Wilde's income was running at a heady £9,000 a year and lavish living was the order.
As further theatrical success came with An Ideal Husband, Wilde resolved to have nothing more to do with the petulant and unpredictable Douglas. But the young aristocrat was in turmoil after the suicide of his brother, for which he blamed his father, the Marquess of Queensberrry.
Wilde stood by him but became the target of a smear campaign by Queensberrry. Buoyed by the success of The Importance of Being Earnest, he ignored the slurs at first, but when Queensberry accused him of sodomy he launched the famous action for defamation, against the advice of friends.
Wilde lost the action and was successfully prosecuted for gross indecency, ultimately receiving two years hard labour in Reading Gaol.
He was disgraced, bankrupt and the rigours of prison destroyed his body and soul.
On his release in May 1897 he moved to France and wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, part of which was read by Michael Harris.
The redoubtable ever-loyal Constance died, and with Wilde prevented from seeing his sons, and with his health failing he spent his last days in a cheap hotel in Parish, dying, aged 46, on November 30, 1900.
Michael Harris provided an entertaining and informative picture of the troubled genius, generously lacing his presentation with many of Wilde's unrivalled witty observations which continue to delight today.