Fairlight

At MOPPs: It’s all happening at MOPPs today, with entertainment by Janice Bolton’s Country Dancers, and there’ll also be a toe-nail service as well. Lunch consists of chicken chasseur followed by cheesecake. Next Friday, July 15, you can hear all about ‘Flotsam & Jetsam Part 2’, a talk to be given by the ever-popular Andy Dinsdale. On the table at lunch time, you’ll find beef casserole, then fruit jelly and cream for sweet.

Floral Club: Voice has not been as kind to the Floral Club recently as it might have been – with me getting confused over fourth and fifth Thursdays for their June demonstration, and messing up on the show report, too. For the record, Christine Brazier was the demonstrator on June 23, with a highly polished afternoon entitled ‘Around the world in 80 minutes’. Christine had also made a most successful visit to Fairlight last season, which added to the pleasure of this repeat engagement.

The Club’s July meeting will be a visit to the Topiary Gardens of Charlotte Molesworth, not far from Biddenden. Sounds like a shear delight (ho! ho!) …

Parish Council news: Sadly, the excellent Parish Clerk John Edmunds has retired, after four years of gentle nudging and quiet wisdom. At the Council meeting last week, the new Clerk, Anna Evett, was warmly welcomed. Anna is an experienced clerk, and is already Clerk to the Icklesham Council. She comes with a new email address – [email protected] – and phone number, which is 815261. We wish her well, and hope she has a happy time with as pleasant a collection of Parish Councillors as you could desire. Or perhaps I mean wish for.

Market Garden site: New plans for the development of the Market Garden site are in the offing. The developers, Gemselect, will hold a pre-application open day on Monday 18 July from 2.30 to 7.30 in the Village Hall where their plans can be inspected and comments made. Readers will remember that Rother’s Local Plan allocated the site for at least 15 dwellings, 40% to be “affordable”. As we mentioned last week, a previous open day, held a couple of years ago in overcrowded chaos at The Cove pub, revealed plans for about 22 dwellings on a site smaller than that contemplated by Rother. There appeared to be insufficient room to swing a dustcart.Your comments this time round will be appreciated. No, sir, actually that one is obscene.

Speedwatch: is now operational again. The PC authorised the purchase of high-viz jackets for the volunteer operators at a cost of £54, something the police used to provide, but now don’t. Fairlight PC had already contributed £300 towards the cost of the speed measuring device.

Planning granted: Since the Tuesday meeting Rother has granted planning permission for the necessary cliff protection work on the beach near Cliff Way. The scheme still needs environmental approval for the marine aspects and this is expected mid-July. Borrowing approval was awaited. Breath is suitably bated in the hopes that the referendum result doesn’t put a spoke in the works.

More to discuss with Southern Water: In the open forum a resident alerted the PC to multi-disciplinary meetings held to discus drainage and sewage issues in the vicinity of Pett, and he encouraged our PC to participate. Fairlight PC had not been aware of this, unless it concerned Internal Drainage Board matters which are outside our area. The PC had held its own meetings with the Preservation Trust, Southern Water, Rother planners, building control and environmental health and county (who have responsibility for ditches, etc). Nevertheless our PC will enquire about the meetings and would like to co-operate with other PCs to improve the situation in Fairlight.

A Community Asset: The PC has made an application to Rother District Council to register The Cove pub and restaurant as a Community Asset. This could give The Cove some protection from being sold for other purposes, and thus allow the community to bid for it and give time for that to be organised.

Most of the preceding Council copy comes from the erudite pen of Andrew Mier, immediate past Chairman of the Parish Council, who had realised I was absent from the meeting. Thanks very much, Andrew.

Fairfest: Only three weeks, and a couple of days, to the fourth coming of Fairfest, firmly planted as a favourite in local residents’ consciousness. Ten hours of fun, live music, displays – think Acromax, a dog show, a virtually non-stop barbie, the fish and chip van, and a massive marquee containing the bar, (where you can get wet inside without getting wet outside). Or will this be the year when the sun will have his hat on throughout the proceedings? 12 noon is the start time, and it’ll all be happening until ten pm.

Gardening Club Summer Show: How big are your beetroots? How red are your raspberries? Are your roses perfectly formed? Do people marvel at your marmalade? I think I’d better be careful before I write the perfect Freudian slip. If you’re proud of your produce, why not enter next the Fairlight Gardening Club will be holding their Annual SummernShow on Saturday, July 16, at the Village Hall. Paper entries, but not your actual flowers, fruit and veg., should be handed in to the Post Office by Friday, 15th July. The show is open to the public, and free, from 2.00 to 3.30 pm

The Gardening Club: welcomed Stephen Harmer from Garden Histories for their July talk on Monday. He gave a very interesting insight into the history of Sissinghurst Castle and its gardens as well as the private lives of the renowned owners, Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicolson. Stephen proved to be extremely knowledgeable and entertaining and members learned a great deal about Sissinghurst through the years and what inspired Vita and Harold to create the gardens they did.

This week’s meeting had begun at 7 pm, but the start time returns to the normal time of 2.30 pm for the August talk.

Bowls Club Open Day: The club enjoyed a fantastic day – when the first shower of rain stopped, the weather broke to give some lovely sunshine with all eighteen teams competing against each other in the great Fairlight setting. With teas and coffee being served all day, each player was able to enjoy a well earned lunch served by the ladies captain and a team of helpers. The events were set out in a playing format different from previous years and this proved a success with all participants.

This tournament was sponsored once again by the Brickwall Hotel, Sedlescombe, for which the club is very grateful, and they offered as a prize, a meal for two with bed and breakfast. This was won by Shirley Geldart, the second prize of a food hamper was won by Ann Meek, third prize, a case of Prosecco went to Marcus Groome, and the fourth prize, a cream tea for two sponsored by the Coast Guard tea rooms, was won by M. Renton of Lakeside Bowls Club.

La Bella Vista Restaurant also donated a fantastic prize of £150 meal voucher to raffle which was won by Sylvia Reeves. The club is very grateful to all those who sponsored the day, and also to local shops that gave us raffle prizes. The overall winning team of the day was the Observer Bowls Club, who received a cash prize along with a bottle of wine and the Trophy to hold for one year.

Thanks go to all the players and helpers in raising money for the Club Captain’s choice of charity, St Michaels Hospice, for the second year running. The final figure raised will be published next week.

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