Etchingham village voice

All bookings need to be made in advance, times and pick up locations will be arranged according to requests made, your bus passes can be used on all the services. Buses to Eastbourne run every second Monday, monthly, dates for the rest of the year are September 10, October 8 and November 12. Buses to Tenterden are the third Friday of alternate months, September 21 and November 16. For Rye it is the fourth Thursday of alternate months, next one is October 25. To make a booking or for further information call Lyn on 01424 772001. Volunteer drivers are always welcome, all you need is D1 on your licence, if you are interested in helping the service call Lyn on the number above.

Etchingham Parish Council is holding a Special Parish Meeting on Thursday August 30, 7.30pm in the Parish Church. The purpose of the meeting will be to enable questions to be asked concerning the proposed new community facilities and new primary school on the Lambing Field site. The Parish Council wishes to consult with the village before the the pre-planning and planning application consultations take place. To facilitate the involvement of as many parishioners as possible, the Council invites you to submit written questions in advance of the meeting, you may if you wish submit a question without stating your name and address. All questions should be submitted by today (Friday August 24). The questions received will be collated and published together with any response and will be distributed to every household prior to the meeting, copies will also be available at the meeting. Parishioners will then have the opportunity, at the meeting, re-state their question or ask a supplementary question in response to the replies received. Questions should be sent to Bob Hodgson, Etchingham parish Clerk, c/c 17 Barnfield Close, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 1TS email; [email protected] , or your written question can be handed to any Parish Councillor. If you wish to phone the Parish Clerk to discuss anything connected with the meeting or the development the number is 01424 716232

The Flower and Dog Show will be held on Saturday September 8, 2pm, so it is time to start thinking about what you will enter this year and start to nurture all your prize fruit and veg ready for the show, schedules are available in village shops. There will be all the usual fruit and vegetable classes, and many domestic classes including marmalade, jams, pizza, chitney, cakes etc. Handicraft classes include , a knitted garment, an item of wood, a soft toy, crochet, embroidery, painting and other classes. Lots of children’s classes, a drawing of the Queen, a pulse, bean or pasta picture, a decorated digestive biscuit, an Olympic torch, a painting of an Olympic event, a photograph ‘My School Holiday’,to name a few, and children can enter a design for the cover of the 2013 Flower and Dog show schedule. Photographers get clicking, four photographic sections this year, “Etchingham’s Church”, “Wildlife in all its Glory”, “Man on the move” and “Seaview”. Entry fee for all classes is 25 pence per entry, 15 pence for children’s classes, entry forms must be in by Wednesday September 5, late entries will be accepted up to 12 noon on Friday September 7, but not after, at a fee of 31 per entry. Entries for the Dog Show will be taken at the ring from 1.30pm.

Etchingham does not have any allotments, but Hurst Green does and Etchingham residents are able to take on a vacant plot if there are not any Hurst Green waiting for one. There is currently at least one plot available, a bit late in the year now for getting crops for this year but taking on a plot now would give a new tenant plenty of time to get the plot prepared for the next growing season. If you might be interested in taking on a plot, contact Maureen Harniman on 01580 860251, or if you want to find out more you can contact me, I have one of the plots so can probably answer most of your queries. Priority is given to Hurst green residents, but if none are waiting for a plot spare plots can be allocated to residents of neighbouring villages.

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 Cottages