Mayfield and Five Ashes Village News

PARISH COUNCIL NEWS

The 2024/25 Annual Report should now be available on the community website. Included in the Annual Report is a list of projects that have been suggested by councillors to work on over the next five years. We welcome any additional suggestions from residents of Mayfield and Five Ashes so we can understand what is important to you. Please send any suggestions to [email protected]

Parish Council Project Suggestions for 2025 – 2030: Community: Follow through plans to provide a Community and Health centre. Assist with facilitation of new premises for the Pre-School Continue to investigate redevelopment of fire station as a community asset Support initiatives to promote tourism and increase footfall in Mayfield High Street Update resilience plan and investigate teams of volunteers or street wardens to assist in emergencies. Recreation: Continue to manage trees with ash die-back on Council land. Provide a community orchard on south side of the southern path in Court Meadow. Resurface the skate park. Reinstall a replacement children’s roundabout. Provide adult outside gym equipment or a trim trail. Increase access to online walks and provide an online directory of walks. Improvements to the Court Meadow perimeter path. Extend the perimeter path of Court Meadow behind football pitch. Improve Court Meadow surface and drainage to improve access for funfair. Maintain and improve Jubilee Wood and its path surfaces. Install bug hotels, bat boxes and nesting boxes to improve its biodiversity. Improve the relationship with ESCC to allow more work by the Volunteer Maintenance Team to help them maintain our rights of way. To include the use of power tools and allow access to their materials for asset repairs such as stiles. Follow through the reduction on speed and improvements to safety on the A267 Encourage additional members to join Community Speed Watch. Security Install and manage CCTV in areas where antisocial behaviour and vandalism occurs. Improve management of Jubilee Wood to address any antisocial behaviour. Local Authority: Address and adapt to changes to administration and processes due to devolution. Corporate: Engage assistance in office for Clerk. Upgrade heating in Parish Council office. Postal vote renewal. The implementation of the Elections Act 2022 means that a postal vote arrangement cannot last longer than three years. 2025 is a transitional year for the Postal Vote Renewal Process and the majority of postal voters will fall into the Renewal Process this year. There are 22,700 postal voters that Wealden District Council must contact before the end of January 2026. If electors want to continue to vote by post, they will need to reapply by 31 January 2026. The Wealden Electoral Services Team will therefore be sending emails to 15,300 postal voters over the next few months. The email will be sent via their Gov.UK Notify address. Therefore, if you are a postal voter please look out for the email and be reassured it is genuine. If you are worried, please contact the Electoral Services Team on (01892 602407 or: [email protected]). The Team is hoping that their email will encourage voters to reapply early and online to avoid a ‘last minute rush’. East Sussex reorganisation and devolution: Reform of local government means two changes are planned that would affect people in East Sussex. 1. Reorganisation of local government: The national government wants local government to reorganise. Its aim is for people to be served by just one local council (known as ‘unitary government’). In East Sussex, this could mean moving away from the two-tier model of county council (East Sussex County Council(ESCC)) and borough or district councils (Eastbourne, Hastings, Lewes, Rother and Wealden). All partners in East Sussex are discussing how this might be arranged. They have agreed to develop a detailed proposal for a single council on the current boundaries of East Sussex in response to the government’s plans. This was agreed by the ESCC cabinet in March 2025. A single unitary council in East Sussex, which has a population of 550,000, best fits the government’s guiding principles for new unitary authorities, which include that new councils should have a population of more than 500,000.

A267 ROAD SAFETY GROUP

Pigs Out on the A267 Wellbrook Hill

It has now become a regular occurrence that pigs are escaping through a fence and roaming on the A267 at Wellbrook Hill. Allegedly the pigs come from the House of Plants area. Wellbrook Hill has enough problems with deer accidents. A sign has now been put up telling motorists to dial 999 if they see the pigs out on the carriageway. I assume, if a pig is roaming on the A26 and, causes an accident, the farmer will be responsible for subsequent accident claims, including police, ambulance and fire engine attendance. God forbid, if there is a fatality it could be a massive £2 million pound plus claim. Whoever the farmer is, please ensure your fences are in good order and secure.

MAYFACS: FUNDRAISING: Thank you so much to everyone who very kindly donated bottles for our Tombola at the Mayfair last month. With such generosity, we were able to raise over £500 for MAYFACS! We are also incredibly grateful to our lovely volunteers to helped to run the stall on the day. Thanks to all for buying your tickets to have a go and making a big difference. We are also very grateful to the Mayfield Horticultural Society who let our Shedders have a stall at their plant sale, which raised over £300 for MAYFACS Shed. Thank you to all the shedders also manning that event, making the items (all handmade at the Shed) and to those who took a Shed product home with them. If anyone wants to be part of our fundraising volunteer teams, please do contact us for more information on how you can get involved.

Shed. With a new volunteer local artist (that many of you may know) running the group for us, we will be utilising the Shed outdoor space and taking inspiration from the scenery around us to be creative. Join us on Friday 27th June (and through to July) between 10am – 12pm, £3-£5 donation per person, materials are provided but feel free to bring your own as well. Moving Sounds is six special sessions led by Moving Sounds bringing together music and movement for well-being, learning and happiness for all attendees. These sessions are also free to attend, but places are limited, so please book ASAP to avoid disappointment. For any more information on either of these new activities, please contact: [email protected] or call us on: 01435 873888. Little Munchkins: Our Little Munchkins Baby & Toddler Group returns this Wednesday after half term break. Join us for play, socialising, friendship and a nice cup of tea. Open to all parents, carers, grandparents and your little ones (from new-born to school age) from Mayfield, Five Ashes and the surrounding areas.

Repair Café: Our next Repair Café will take place at MAYFACS Shed on Saturday 21stJune2025 between 10am – 1pm (last repairs accepted 12.15pm) We now have a tool sharpening service available at our monthly repair cafes! Bring along your blunt knives, scissors, garden tools and blades and let our team make them like new again and ready for those BBQ’s or gardening work this summer! We welcome you to find out more about our Repair Cafes, join us for some tea and cakes (you do not need to bring a repair to attend!) and find out more about our MAYFACS Shed and MAYFACS community. New Repair Café Facebook Page! We are excited to launch a newly created MAYFACS Repair Café Facebook page,which will allow us to better promote the incredible work the Repair Café volunteers do each month. Please do like and follow the page to stay up to date! www.facebook.com/mayfacsrepaircafe Monthly Trips – 2025 Trips Schedule. Trip places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Please email or pop into the office to secure your place! If you would like to attend any of our trips but need some financial support, please talk to us in confidence. Thursday 3rd July: Visit to Rye £10, Thursday 7th August: Tour around Saint Hill Manor £15, Thursday 4th September: Visit to Rye (due to popular demand!) £10, Please visit our website www.mayfacs.org.uk for updates of weekly activities or contact us at the MAYFACS Office on: 01435 873888.

MAYFIELD HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: Get Snapping. With the sunshine set to return this coming week, it's a good time to get snapping! The photograph category in the summer show, gives you plenty of scope - the four seasons, "Bloomin' Marvellous" and something beginning with the letter K. What wacky idea can you come up with? Please send your entries (by 6th July or sooner if you can) to: [email protected] and we'll get them printed for you. How about sending something for all the classes? Check out our spanking new website for more details www.mayfieldhorticulturalsociety.org.uk Save the Date Save the date: Mayfield Summer Show is on Saturday 19th July. What will you be entering?

Please note. This column will now include Hadlow Down in its copy. Any organisation wishing to promote their event please contact: melbutch160@gm