Fairlight Village Voice

PEWS NEWS Worship at Fairlight this Sunday, January 26, will be a service of Morning Praise at St Peter’s at 11 am. Pett Methodists will be involved in the Circuit Service at the Emmanuel Centre, Battle, led by the Revd Dr David Hinchliffe and starting at 3 pm.

FAIRLIGHT’S FAMED FRIDAY LUNCH CLUB This Friday’s lunch, January 24, will be fishcakes with Dauphinoise potatoes, and Viennetta for afters. Eyes down – the entertainment is Bingo.

FAIRLIGHT HISTORY GROUP A packed audience attended last week's Fairlight History Group meeting where they enjoyed Paul Draper's presentation on ‘Fairlight Cliffs, the Berms and Fossil Remains’. Paul's large selection of photographs showed how much the cliff edge had eroded and how the berms had halted that erosion. The lure of seeing dinosaur footprints prompted several people to want to go down to the beach and along to Lee Ness Ledge where many of the fossils can be seen, tides permitting.

The Group's AGM will be held at their next meeting on Wednesday, February 19. If anyone would like to become part of the History Group Committee, please feel free to contact Paul Draper on 814154 for further details.

After the necessary business formalities, a film of the Gowlland family, who visited Fairlight between 1947 and 1951, will be shown. This is a fascinating record of how Fairlight Cove looked at the time seen through the cine camera of a Croydon family.

BUDGET TIME The first Parish Council meeting of the New Year takes place in the village hall on Tuesday next, January 28, at which we are assured that they will be confirming the 2025-26 Budget, which was presented in some detail at what turned out to be the final Finance and Admin meeting. It is to be hoped that there will be some more flesh added to the barest of bones, especially ideas for the Community Infrastructure Levy, which is open to suggestions from the public. Its use is not time restricted, and is not to be used for trivial capital expenditure (two benches and a dog-poo bin), or to boost current expenditure. Despite the planned acceptance of the budget figures, they remain technically a draft, so these and other items will be included here as soon as all have been ratified.

For general and specific interest, please note that the full Council meeting will be preceded by a Planning Committee meeting, whose agenda includes one item of intense interest, regarding a village geographic location of major concern lest it slips away.

FAIRLIGHT PLAYERS As we thought, the Players are fine-tuning the casting of the last couple of roles for their next production, and the complete list will soon be yours to peruse. What an advantage it is to have the author on board as co-Director. You can’t say ‘Come on, Bill. That bit doesn’t flow very easily’ to Shakespeare. Here is a work-in-progress, with everything being done to optimise the outcome. Book soon…

FAIRLIGHT PANTOMIME GROUP There are but a very few tickets left for the Thursday of their end-of-the month run of Buttons. If they’re still available, Sue will have them next Monday at DISH.

A LEISURELY DRIVE ALONG MARTINEAU LANE Enjoy the variety of some straights and some curves, wooded and open, flat and undulating. And to make your drive complete as you go south towards Fairlight Road, the triangle at Fairlight Hall is next to a killer pothole. Another call for the Family Solicitor…

DISAPPOINTING FOR READERS News comes that Shirley Gilbert will not be able to provide

her usual very readable reviews of the Tuesday Ladies Club and Speakers Corner for the whole of February. We wish her well, and promise we’ll greet her return with a hearty ‘Hip Hooray’.

Keith Pollard, Brookfield, Broadway