Rodmell & Southease Parish Pump

Many thanks to Michael Royalton Kisch and friends for giving us a wonderful afternoon and for all those who gave their time to organise and help. I took my friend Norma from Lewes, who loves to come to the village, and after the concert we sat in my garden on a balmy evening and enjoyed tea, whilst watching birds who visit my garden fly overhead.

I watch the Jeremy Vine programme on TV at times as I like to hear people’s views on things. One of the subjects of discussion was the postal service and a lady phoned in to say that, at one time the postal service worked well, you could see your GP and also get him to visit, bus services ran on time as did trains.

The list went on and she was right, so despite all the technology are we going backwards and not forwards. It was refreshing to hear members on the panel support her and praise her for phoning in! I’m sure many readers feel the same.

I was surprised to hear from an old Rodmellian (she now lives somewhere else) whom I met in Lewes recently, she told me she pops into her local library to read Parish Pump weekly and keeps up with news in Rodmell and surrounding villages. As newspapers are getting more expensive, I presume this is how a percentage of people keep up with issues these days.

This will probably be the next thing to go due to technology – newspapers!

When people ring me up on my landline to book B&B I ask them to send me a note with all their details to confirm their booking. Many say to me ‘how do I do that?’ believe it or not, so I tell them just put pen to paper put it in an envelope and stick a stamp on it. Some are very amused and say I haven’t written anything by hand for years, let alone send a letter. Has the craft of handwriting disappeared? I hope not.

I go into Lloyds bank weekly to sort out finances, and since I had a letter from them recently about savings rates going down I thought I’d ask for a face to face meeting to get sorted out with my finances. The poor girl behind the desk was most apologetic when she told me that is not going to happen anymore and that everything was going over to computer banking, that they would be working from home, and that my nearest Lloyds Bank would be in Brighton.

I was most shocked and upset as I’m sure are many others. A great many people still do not have computers, mobile phones, iPad etc. for some reason or other, be it financial, medical, sight, dementia problems, plus mobility and transport problems, so how are they all going to manage?

This is going to be a very big problem for the government in the future as I believe Janet Street Porter on the Loose Women programme said to our Prime Minister ‘don’t you like old people?’ I didn’t watch the programme but was told about it. Evidently, he didn’t answer her.

I am intending to look into this more by contacting Age UK, my MP and possibly writing to newspapers. Why should we all be put under such stress when so many have done so much in their lives, for what was once a wonderful country.

Our lovely town of Lewes ‘our County Town’ needs at least one bank to serve its small businesses and market traders, to keep it as vibrant as it is. I suspect many will transfer to Nationwide (which will probably go the same way at some time) or do their banking at the post office and spend time in a long queue!

How many 70+ readers will want to trek into Brighton, not many I suspect, and how many have people they can turn to to help them, many live alone with no relations or friends left alive. It’s a very bad situation, it needs sorting out! Please stand up for yourselves, don’t be trodden on, ask questions meet up with your MP and ask him what he can do about it, after all your lives depend on it.

Although I put a thank you in the Parish Pump to all who helped organise and entered our Rodmell Summer Show it was evidently, as I’ve since found out, Jill Goldman who was the main person, we must thank for the wonderful effort of putting on such a big event. So, thank you so much Jill.

Sometimes I’m not sure whether to put people’s names in as not everyone wants to be known in the paper. I was recently asked not to mention a person who gave 15 tickets to RNIB for ‘Oliver’ at Chichester theatre. So sometimes, as other Parish Pump writers know it is a be ‘damned if you do, or damned if you don’t situation’.

In the summer months I usually sit in my garden from 4pm onwards to watch the birds and butterflies and various people from the village (and even some Parish Pump readers) pop in to sit with me, have a cup of tea and a piece of cake and a chat, sometimes they stay quite a while, and it’s so nice to have a conversation with them such as my friend Peter who has just returned from one of his trips to Scandinavia.

This way, people who probably wouldn’t meet up do, and they love this laid-back way of communication and so do I. I was brought up in a home that was always busy, and had people in and out of it constantly, mainly men I have to say because my father had many shooting friends as he was a gun collector and organised shoots. As a child I loved to sit and listen to their conversations. It was very educational.

I would like to thank Ali who helps me with Parish Pump and adds her bits on, for being very patient with me, and if my sight deteriorates in the future may be she will be your Parish Pump writer – though she told me the other day when I mentioned this to her, that she would come and get me to dictate it to her if necessary as she knows how much readers enjoy my Parish Pump! Anyway, I hope it will be sometime yet before this happens!

Sadly, the village has had to say goodbye to Judith and Marcel Bradbury who have moved to Winchester. Judith is a friend of mine, and I used to meet up with her and Penny for lunch in our pub. As Jenny Brown wrote in our Parish Magazine, Judith will be remembered for her sterling work organising so many clubs and societies in the village. Marcel was always at her side supporting her.

We all wish them well in their new home. Judith hopes I may be able to visit them sometime on one of my coach trips. That would be nice. She and Marcel have always been respected by me; I shall miss them!

Don't forget: September 17 (Tuesday) 7pm - Parish Council Meeting (all welcome to hear what is being done in the Parish) in the Village Hall September 18 (Wednesday) 11am - Coffee Club (all welcome for coffee and a chat) in the Abergavenny Arms

Ali also aplogises if there are any errors in this week's PP as there is a new system for inputting the text and she is just getting used to it so may not have checked things as thoroughly as she tries to usually.

She also apologises if the author comes up as her - it is definitely me (Pauline Cherry) that has written it but the system assumes the person submitting the article (in this case Ali) is the author. Ali says hopefully all will become clear in time!