Fairlight

Don’t forget the ‘free, hearty, Men’s Breakfast’ at St Peter’s Church Centre from 9 am tomorrow, Saturday, February 23. The guest speaker for the morning will be Rev Bernard Crosby. It’s a bit late in the day to decide to go tomorrow, but perhaps if you speak nicely to John Miles on 812913, who knows…?

MOPPs today: Today, Friday, February 22, will have Clive Richardson telling of his 30 years as an Independent Tour Operator and Blue Badge Guide, a fascinating prospect. Today is also the scheduled day for free hearing aid maintenance. Lunch will be either shepherd’s pie or cottage pie, followed by fruit salad. Next Friday, March 1, Sarah Kimber will be along with Qigong, though whether she is showing it and doing it, or talking about it – or maybe a bit of both – I’m not sure. There will also be Nicola’s Age UK toenail cutting service. For lunch, there’ll be roast chicken, with lemon tart to follow.

A Great Night Out tomorrow: The much mentioned three course meal and entertainment will be here at the village hall tomorrow evening. Tickets? You’re having a laugh, but your laughs certainly won’t be at the entertainment – unless you’ve got your tickets or there have been returns, (there were a couple earlier in the week). Why not call Keith Thompson-Smith on 250111?

The Pantomime Group: The happy band of folk at the Pantomime Group are holding their AGM tonight at 7.30 pm in the village hall.

Remembering Ruth Rose: Many in the village will remember Ruth Rose, who died on January 24. Ruth was born in Germany but abandoned as a baby and placed in a Jewish orphanage which was burned down on Kristallnacht. Someone unknown rescued her and put her on a Kindertransport train to Margate. She was adopted by a Miss Murphy and enjoyed a fabulous education at the Bunce Court School which concentrated very much on the arts. After two marriages Ruth met Alfred Blanche and together they lived happily in Fairlight for 33 years during which time Ruth produced and performed in plays at the Stables Theatre, became a county standard bowler, joined Mopps and TLC - everything was done with enormous enthusiasm and energy. She was a remarkable lady.

Speakers Corner: The group enjoyed a talk from the learned Clive Richardson on Medieval Rye and Georgian Tunbridge Wells, starting with the history of Rye and how it had been an island accessible only at low tide or by a ferry from Winchelsea. Eventually storms changed the coastline and Rye was made safer by the building of the town wall. Many of the houses are medieval but have been covered in cladding, though they still have more cellars than houses, and these were used to store wine. The church has the oldest working clock in Britain. Tunbridge Wells came about after Lord North was riding through a wood and discovered a strange spring with brown coloured water. This contained chalybeate and the Georgians were very keen on ‘taking the waters’. Clive’s talk was illustrated with slides of the lovely buildings in both Rye and Tunbridge Wells.

The next talk at Speakers Corner will be on February 27 when Ray Hale will talk about Charles Darwin. The meeting starts at 2.30 pm in the village hall.

The Annual Jumble Sale in aid of the Playgroup: The queue was somewhat smaller than on previous occasions, but it was still there, with everybody determined to pick up some of the bargains they knew could be had. Countless helpers manned the multiplicity of stalls, with the main hall piled with so much jumble it looked as if Fairlight had cornered the world market. And at the end of the day, they had raised £715, a few pence short of £5 for every minute they were open. The Playgroup thanks all who worked so hard on the event, all whose donations filled the hall and all those who turned up as purchasers.

Make A Difference – Become A Parish Councillor: Have you every thought of becoming a Parish Councillor and making a real difference within your community? If so, feel free to contact your current Parish Councillors to discuss what this role involves with regards to time and commitment.

The next local elections will be held on Thursday, May 2, which gives you the opportunity of standing for election. Should insufficient councillors be elected, there may be an opportunity to be co-opted to the Parish Council after the elections.

Our Parish Council is calling on residents who are passionate about their community to stand in the local elections in May. There are rules about who can stand for the Council, but they are few, common sensical and easy to follow. The Parish Clerk has circulated all the details, via the FRA email scheme, about eligibility and how to stand. There is currently one vacancy, with another expected by the time of the election.

Contacts for information: David Shortman, Chairman: [email protected]

Andrew Mier, Vice Chairman: [email protected] Pauline Collins, Clerk to the Council: [email protected]

Nomination packs will be available from early March from the Parish Clerk.

East Sussex Highways Performance Report 2017/18: This report, covering the year until April of last year, makes for interesting if sometimes scarcely credible reading with a good deal of self-satisfaction. A better descriptive term might be self-satisfiction. It is difficult as a Fairlight resident to accept that Highways are making the best job possible of our roads. Battery Hill is now in a laughably appalling state. Highways say they are keeping an eye on the situation, but they must be using the modern equivalent of Nelson’s blind, right eye. There are several yards on the nearside of the westbound, ascending carriageway that force drivers across the middle of the road. This accident is, at present, still waiting to happen. Similarly, between Hysted and Pineridge, drivers will invariably pull out across the road into the oncoming traffic rather than slow down and hope to negotiate the admittedly bad potholes. What the authorities must be aware of is the fact that, in heavily frosty weather, repairs to these holes sometimes have been known to last only a fortnight. The road doesn’t need resurfacing, it needs rebuilding. A newer beast has recently reared its ugly head, too, and this is a little nearer Hastings than the perpetual sore point. This is on the eastbound side of the road on the point of the curve, where about ten yards inn the verge nestles into the hedge in what is a deep slit trench. Once more you are forced into the trench by oncoming traffic.

People must be suffering expensive damage to their cars – are they charging these costs to the Council? Are East Sussex Highways being pressed as hard as possible to get this situation resolved? With the application to build 150 more dwellings on Wakehams Farm under consideration, the ghastly state of our feeder roads is a further example of just how disproportionate the application really is, with the developers admitting to an extra 1,000 journeys along Fairlight Road each day. If road-orientated County Councillors have ever travelled this road, here and back, and have done nothing about it, one wonders if they are fit for purpose.