Fairlight

Pews News: This Sunday, November 25, there will be a service of Morning Praise at St Andrew's at 10.30 am. Both the crèche and the Junior Church will be there for you at this service. At Pett Methodist Church, starting at 10.45 am, the visiting Preacher will be Mrs Grace Garner. This will be an all-age service.

MOPPs today and next Friday: Today, Friday, November 23, singer Tim Gibson will be here to entertain you, and today’s lunch will be chicken with a mushroom sauce, followed by panna cotta.

Next Friday, November 30, the entertainment will be by Keith Osbourne with his Music for Health. There’ll also be a produce sale, plus the bi-monthly free hearing aid maintenance. Then there’s lunch of beef casserole, followed by fruit sponge cake to follow to look forward to.

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Read all about it: Have you become a regular visitor at our Community Library yet? Open at the Post Office and General Stores from 2 until 4 pm each Tuesday and Thursday, they have recently taken delivery of a further volume (!) of books, with guaranteed lines of succession, so that what’s on offer will be changed after a number of months. Nip down for a bit of shopping and stock up with something good for the long evenings next to the fire. Or the radiator.

An outbreak of mass irritation: Life can be cruising along quite easily, without any undue stress, when, suddenly, a flashing red ‘b’ stings you into, well, inaction. And that’s just how it was last Tuesday afternoon, and then both Wednesday and Thursday mornings, when the internet in the village failed to operate. For something we have only enjoyed, and come to rely on, for relatively few years, the frustration when you lose it is monumental.

Speakers Corner: The first November meeting of Speakers Corner featured solicitor David Allen, whose talk was entitled ‘The Weird and Wonderful World of the Law’. As you can readily guess, his talk proved that the law is indeed an ass with things like bags of bird feed stating that the bag may contain nuts and cautions on take-away coffee that the contents might be hot! David said that Courts are being sold off as more and more cases are going on line and using Skype. There was also the ludicrous case of somebody banning the Sleeping Beauty panto as the Prince had not obtained the princess’s permission to kiss her! This was a very interesting – and hilarious – talk.

The second November meeting, coming up next Wednesday 28, will feature Wilf Lower with the title ‘Under Billowing Sails’. Speakers Corner always features first class speakers and visitors are very welcome for a mere £2.

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Preservation Trust AGM: It is the Annual General Meeting of the Trust tomorrow, Saturday, November 24 in the village hall starting at 2.30 pm. If you are a member, you should have your membership card with you, in case it is necessary to take a vote on any of the day’s business. Non-members are welcome to attend and will be able to join the Trust at the meeting.

A murder mystery for the Playgroup: That murder mystery evening for the playgroup/nursery is tomorrow, Saturday, November 24 at 7.30 pm in the village hall. Mounting the performance are the Playden Players, whose cast includes local favourite Andy Godfrey, husband of Playgroup Chairman Amy. The play is ‘Will to Kill’, and tickets, if there are any left, are £6 each. If you haven’t got a team of your own, you can be matched up with others on the evening. Try the Post Office for those tickets. Your ticket gets you in and includes a complimentary drink and nibbles.

The Village Hall Winter Fair: This year’s Winter Fair is one week away on Saturday, December 1, from 12 noon until 3 pm. As usual, there will be hot food available, right from opening time, and Father Christmas will be here from opening time, too – though he is not responsible for the cooking. Mulled wine, anyone?

Just made the last call for jazz: Don’t forget that a couple of top rate jazz practitioners, saxophonist Ian Millar and pianist Dominic Spencer, will be at Pett Village Hall this very evening from 8 pm. A great night out is promised, at a cost of only £10 a ticket (under 16’s go free) Millar and Spencer have not long returned from a highly successful spell on the Edinburgh Fringe so, if you’d like to be there this evening contact Tim Rothwell, either by calling 07850 469 314, or by email to [email protected] The show is BYOB – bring your own booze (and supper.)

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If you’re going, get your skates on. There may well be few tickets left, if any.

FRA Christmas party: What have you done about your tickets for the FRA’s Annual Christmas Party? They are unlikely to be around for much longer, so off to the Post Office before it’s too late. The event will be in the village hall on Friday, December 14, kicking off at 7.30 pm. East Edna makes a welcome return as guest star, and there’s to be a full bar and a boxed buffet. All this and it’ll only cost you a tenner a head.

Poppies in the Five Villages: Appeals organiser and local branch Chairman of the British Legion John Pulfer reports that collections in Fairlight, Pett, Icklesham, Guestling and Three Oaks raised an excellent £6358.52, and noted that other collections remain to be added to this sum. Watch this space! In the meantime, the local branch will have a vacancy for new Secretary within the next three months. If you would like to join this thriving branch, please call either John or Margaret on 814866 for details of what the position entails.

Building on East Field?: If you wish to comment, first of all you need the reference, which is RR/2018/2726/P - Pett Level Road - Land south of, Fairlight Cove, Fairlight. RR/2018/2726/P - Pett Level Road - Land south of, Fairlight Cove, Fairlight. Secondly, you may want to write an old-fashioned letter. The address to which to send it is Planning and Strategy, Town Hall, Bexhill on Sea, TN39 3JX. And thirdly, you can only address matters affected by Material Planning Considerations. I have listed below what this is all about as, on Rother DC website the link to the Royal Town Planning Institute is broken and leads nowhere. Typical. Anyway, here goes.

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A material consideration is a matter that should be taken into account in deciding a planning application or on an appeal against a planning decision. Material considerations can include (but are not limited to): overlooking/loss of privacy; loss of light or overshadowing; parking; highway safety; traffic; noise; effect on listed building and conservation area; layout and density of building design, appearance and materials; Government policy; disabled persons’ access; proposals in the Development Plan; previous planning decisions (including appeal decisions); nature conservation.

However, issues such as loss of view, or a negative effect on the value of properties are not material considerations. Surprisingly, the matter of school availability is not on the list, although at the summer meeting they were proposing to bus primary school children to Bexhill, a ridiculous state of affairs. There is plenty of available meat in that list that invite East Field comments. Please read what others have put, and then add your own. The absolute deadline is Sunday, December 9

There is a petition running at the Post Office, and as I write it has over 500 signatories. There was talk of a Parish Council petition, but whether this was to be a subsidiary to or designed to augment the one that is extant is not clear. Nor was its location – anyway, it does not seem to have happened.

As they say – whatever! Just make sure your shot is fired before it’s too late.