Etchingham

PARISH CLERK: Our new parish Clerk, Paulette Barton will be available at the Parish Office 10.30am to 12.30pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week.

Contact details; Ms. Paulette Barton, Etchingham Parish Council Office, Etchingham Village Hall, Parsonage Croft, Etchingham, East Sussex, TN19 7BY

E-mail: [email protected] Telephone 01580 819048.

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PARISH COUNCIL NEWSLETTER: You should by now have received the Spring Parish Council Newsletter, inserted inside is information regarding the future of the phone box that was recently moved from Sheepstreet Lane to the new community facilities. It includes a tear off slip to indicate your preference regarding the phone box, please fill in the slip befor April 13 and take to the Parish Council Office, or leave at the Bistro, Shop & Deli, Butchers or Post Office. Parish Council will take the returns into account when making a decision at the April Parish Council meeting.

BUS SERVICE: The good news about the bus service is that a six day a week service is retained, Sussex Bus have taken over the route and will operate it as an extension of their existing Service 31 which runs from Haywards Heath to Heathfield, now extended from Heathfield to Hurst Green. The new timetables can be viewed on the village website.

FAIRY HUNT: King John’s Nursery and Garden, Sheepstreet Lane, have a Fairy Hunt March 25 to April 20, 10am to 5pm. All sorts of fairy related things to see including, the original letter that describes real fairies being seen hundreds of years ago, information about the history of fairies and lovely things to buy from Maygreen fairies in the shop at King Johns Nursery. A map of the gardens and where to look out for fairies will cost £1 for each child, adults normal price. If you don’t see the fairies (they are very shy creatures), at least you might see their houses, front doors and garden things.

Harry Cunningham was inspired to organise the event after finding a family letter from the 1740’s which talked about seeing fairies.

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CHURCH WEBSITE: The Church now has web pages built into the village website, with information about the Church and services, the address is www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk/church

COMMUNITY SPEEDWATCH: You will have seen that now the group has a device just for Etchingham use, sessions have been run on most days, and many have been concentrated around the new community facilities and school. The group could operate more efficiently, and each volunteer would not need to be used as often, if we had more volunteers, once new volunteers have completed a short online instruction session they can choose how often they join roadside sessions. If you would like to get involved the first step is to register on the Community Speedwatch website, go to www.communityspeedwatch.co.uk and follow the instructions to register, be careful to make sure you register for the Etchingham because the Hurst Green and Burwash groups both have Etchingham in the title. As soon as new volunteers have registered and completed the online instruction the details are sent to the group co-ordinator and they will be available for sessions.

We are aware that some local residents will have received Police letters following sessions in the village, if you or a friend have received one of the letters please do not blame the operators - it was not their fault. Some facts about speeds, a pedestrian hit by a car at 20mph has a 95% chance of survival, at 30mph it drops to 50% and at 40mph it is only 15%. One last thing the device does not have a camera and no pictures are recorded, the device simply detects the speed of an approaching vehicle and only those significantly over the 30mph limit are recorded and passed to the Police.

SPEEDWATCH SUPPORT GROUP: We are aware that there are village residents who support the work of the Speedwatch group, but are not able to join roadside sessions, but could help in other ways. The purchase of the groups new device has been funded by the Parish Council and the CIC, there will be an annual service and calibration check to pay for, also there may be other items that the group will want to purchase in the future. The group would not want to keep asking for funds from Parish Council, so we would like to start a support group to help with securing funds and supporting in other ways. If you might be interested in helping to form a support group there is an online form on the village website or email the group co-ordinator at [email protected]

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ETCHINGHAM CLUB: The Etchingham Club has new opening times, Mondays and Wednesdays, 7.30pm to 10.30pm. Fridays, 6.30pm to 11.30pm. Saturdays, 7.30pm to 11.30pm.

For more information on Etchingham Club, email [email protected] 01580 819240 also on Facebook www.facebook.com/etchinghamsocialclub

MOBILE LIBRARY: The Mobile Library now visits Etchingham once every three weeks, on Tuesday mornings 9.55am to 10.35am.

From march the library future will be at the new village hall.

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You might like to put these dates in your diary; March 31, April 21, May 12, June 2, June 23.

If these times are not convenient, or you miss the Library when it visits, it will be at Hurst Green village hall, 1.30pm to 2.15pm on the following dates; April 2, April 23, May 14, June 4, June 25.

MILITARY & AVIATION PRESERVATION GROUP: The Etchingham Military and Aviation Preservation Group meet on the first Thursday of each month, since the closure of the old village hall most meetings have been held in the Etchingham Club, the meeting on April 2 will be at the new village halls, members will then be asked to decide if they wish to continue using the Etchingham Club or move to the new halls. The meeting starts at 7.30pm for 8pm when Alan Morriss will talk about Pippingford Park, Ashdown Forest.

On Thursday April 30 the group will have a guided tour of the Redoubt, Eastbourne. Future meetings will include in May Mark Pittock “A Medic in Afghan”, June Melanie Gibson-Barton “Wandering in Flanders Fields”. For more information about the group contact Andrew Pope 07775 515936

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PROMOTE YOUR ORGANISATION: Do you want to get new members for your group or organisation? Want to tell people what your group does? If you are connected with a village group or organisation send me some details and I will publicise your group in this column. Send me details of what your organisation does, when you meet, how to join, who to contact and any other details that you would like to add, I will then add details of your organisation, as space allows, over the coming weeks.

INFORMATION: If you have given me details of your event to put in this column, please remember to send me some details after the event so I can let your supporters know how successful the event was, how much you raised, interesting facts etc. Your supporters will be interested to know how you did. Get information for this column to me as soon as possible, if you have a diary of events planned for the year let me have the dates and I will put in a list of village events for the year so that people can put the dates in their diaries. There are several ways to get your info to me, but email is preferred because there is less chance of errors during copying. I need information by 10pm on Monday to be sure it will be in time for inclusion, I can sometimes add extra items on Tuesday morning, but this cannot be guaranteed. Just a little reminder, I get plenty of information about events that are taking place, but I get very little follow up information, after your event try and remember to send me brief account of how successful your event was, it can be as simple as a thank you to those that attended and how much money was raised etc. You can deliver to 2 Park Farm Close, telephone 01580 819532 or 07941 786244 or email [email protected]

Colin Boylett

2 Park Farm Close