Fairlight Village Voice

PEWS NEWS On Sunday, December 8, St Andrew’s will be home to Morning Praise at 11 am. The 10.45 am service at Pett Methodist Chapel will be led by Christine Thacker. As previously mentioned, there will be a special Christmas Dementia Service at St Andrew’s at 2 pm on Tuesday, December 12. Carols, readings and afterwards time for a coffee and a chat. Everything will be ‘dementia friendly’ and the service will last some 30 minutes.

On Thursday, December 19, that’s the date for the pre-Christmas edition of Cafe Refresh, in St Peter’s Church Centre from 10.30 am to 12 noon.

FAIRLIGHT FRIDAY LUNCH CLUB This Friday, December 6, there’s to be chicken pie for lunch, with peach crumble to follow. Wendy Hatch will be with you to entertain you, along with her Village Voices. Toenails will be pampered, though not by Wendy, while hearing aids will make sure you can hear the singing. The next Friday, December 13, there’ll be sausage casserole on the lunch menu, with jam roly-poly for afters. Popular singer Ian Williams will provide the entertainment. Don’t forget that on December 20 it will be Club’s annual Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings, but that the Friday of Christmas week, which is two days after Christmas, there won’t be a Club lunch.

THE PEAK DISTRICT The Peak here is Steve Peak, the well known Hastings historian, who will be telling of the Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve in a slide show on Saturday, December 7 at 1.30 for 2 pm at the Isabel Blackman Centre in Hastings’ Winding Street. Entry is £5, or free should you be a Friend of the HCP, who have organised this event. The Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve is near and dear to the hearts of many Fairlight residents, who would be sure to find this show fascinating. If you cannot attend, you can see a detailed history on Steve’s website, hastingshistory.net

FAIRLIGHT WAR MEMORIAL As I was unable to attend, I am grateful that Haydon Luke, Chair of the War Memorial Steering Group has recorded a comprehensive account of the event. On Saturday 30th November at St Andrew’s Church, the Lord-Lieutenant of East Sussex, Andrew Blackman, joined more than 150 Fairlight residents at a ceremony to inaugurate our new War Memorial and d the unveiling on the green adjacent to the church. Present were relatives of those named on the memorial, donors to the memorial fund, and residents of Fairlight in addition to representatives of the Royal British Legion and of the services and regiments in which the casualties served. The memorial is the culmination of almost 6 years of activity to raise the funds, commission a design and gain the necessary permissions from Rother DC and the Diocese of Chichester.

But why, so long after the two wars, did Fairlight feel the need to erect this new memorial? The answer is that, when investigated, what existed was found to be unrepresentative and incomplete. For reasons no one can explain, not all of the Fairlight casualties were named on the two existing plaques in the church and further work by the Fairlight History Group uncovered a total of 48 names which should be included. Indeed another – number 49 – came to light even as the memorial was being installed.

The memorial, more than 2 metres high, is made from two pieces of Cornish granite and has 48 names inscribed on it – 30 from World War One and 18 from World War Two.

The WWI casualties’ ages range from 16 to 46, representing all three services and almost all the major battles of the war – as well as three ship disasters, each of which suffered a huge loss of life.

The WWII names, though fewer in number, are nevertheless similarly representative of that conflict. Their geographical spread underlines the global nature of that war; northern Europe, the Far East, North Africa, the Mediterranean.

Of course, there are no survivors from WWI, while from WWII there are fewer with each passing year. Yet the need for the rest of us to remember, to do justice to the sacrifices made by local men and women from villages and towns all over the nation doing their duty irrespective of the personal cost, remains as strong as ever. With this memorial, Fairlight remembers.

The memorial, which cost £24,000, has been constructed and installed by EB Sculpture of Broad Oak, Brede, and paid for entirely by village fundraising, public subscription and many generous individual donations. It is a fine example of sustained, untiring co-operation by several disparate organisations and individuals.

THE PARISH COUNCIL NOVEMBER MEETING At their recent meeting, the Parish Council found themselves with a hefty workload which was to see them comfortably top the notional two hour time frame. The evening gave many of the public the first chance to see the new Parish Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer, Danielle Gould, in action. The meeting benefitted from the Chair, Steve Stewart, opting to follow the pragmatic approach first seen at Fairlight when interregnum Chair Cllr Carl Maynard allowed ad hoc comments from the public, with both Steve and Carl ensuring that any comments were relevant and succinct. There were some surprises, notably when the Chair deemed it necessary to observe that the authority of individual Parish Councillors is virtually zero, and that PC authority is corporate, only existing after a vote at a full Council meeting, and then vested in the Chair unless otherwise delegated. The public also found it unusual to read that the PC would consider ‘quote from JD’s Garden Landscaping for work on the tennis court access route’. This jarred as it concerned a single quote already accepted by a majority of Councillors, and was going to a sitting Councillor, who is actually not permitted to take paid work from his or her own Council. A telling comment from a resident observed that, not for financial reasons, but that different quotes would likely show different ideas and approaches to the job in hand. The access under consideration refers to flat areas for wheelchair users, and it was decided to leave the subject until the New Year, especially after Cllr Mier had observed, as a long time tennis club member, that the vast majority of members would come along Wood Field. It will therefore be sensible to ensure that any answer is satisfactory for wheelchair users. The PC’s next meeting is the Budget meeting on Tuesday, December 10. This cannot sign off on any agreed budget details as it is not a full Council meeting and Fairlight does not hold such a full meeting in December. All will be confirmed and concluded at the January meeting.

The ‘new’ Council is like many others I have sat through in the last 14 years. Some members have a severe problem with audibility, while for some others the question is one of intelligibility. Both are helped by the new meeting layout. Neither is helped by the hand in front of the mouth or the attraction of the chest for the chin. How do people think the public will be delighted by your fresh initiative if no one can hear what it is?

SPEAKERS CORNER Next week, with the final meeting of the first half of their season, Speakers Corner will have the topical benefit of Pete Allen with ‘A History of Pantomime’, entitled ‘Oh No It Isn’t’. I can assure you ‘Oh Yes It Is’. Guests welcome for a small fee, it’s in the village hall on Wednesday, December 11 at 2.30 pm. If you put it off until Thursday it will, indeed, be behind you.

PANTO TICKETS Have you got yours yet? No? You probably were not even aware they’re on sale yet. At DISH thanks to the ubiquitous Sue Evens at DISH. This year, well, next year actually, its ‘Buttons the Pantomime’, written and directed by Ben Burford, who is Chairman of the Pantomime Group. If you leave it, you’ll either get single seats here and there or no seats at all – they’ll all have gone. Without wishing to scaremonger, within minutes they had only 15 matinee tickets left. When my daughter was in Nottingham panto in the late 70’s, the final Saturday has shows at 10 am and 2, 5 and 8 pm. Just sayin’.

IT’S A CRACKER, JACK It’s make your mind up time to consider that this Christmas Day will be the third occasion on which DISH, now in partnership with the Residents Association, has offered a full traditional Christmas lunch with all the trimmings for a fiver a head. Tickets are now available from Sue Evans at DISH on Mondays. You don’t have to lunch to enjoy what’s on offer. Free tea and coffee, telly with the King’s Speech, traditional games, warmth, chat, relaxation – it’s all free! Much of that little lot appeared last week, too, but you expect repeats at this time of the year. No moans, just buy your ticket…

FAYRE ENOUGH People like going to their village hall, where there’s always something on. And Saturday, December 7 is no exception, because what is on is the hall itself where raffles, tombola, stalls, games, cakes, drinks and much else are all aiming to help swell the funds of our hall. If even Santa can make the effort – and we all know how busy he is, surely we can pop in for an hour and spend a few pounds. Do your duty. The Fair will be open from 12 noon until 3 pm.

Keith Pollard, Brookfield, Broadway