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 August 13, 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, August 23 and 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.

The Experimental Traffic Order with the new double yellow lines is now in place, if you have any comments regarding the scheme please make your views known to East Sussex Highways, or give the information to any Parish councillor or the Parish Clerk and your comments will be passed on to Highways. You can also add comments to the dedicated Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ParkingWatch any comments left on the page will be collated and the details passed on to Highways. The scheme is to run for six months, when it will be assessed and a decision mode on which parts of the scheme will become permanent, so now is the time to make your comments.

East Sussex County Council, Diocese of Chichester, Etchingham Parish Council, Etchingham Trust for Sports and Recreation, and Millwood Designer Homes working together are pleased to announce an exciting scheme which will enable the current Etchingham Primary School and the Village Hall to be replaced. The County and Parish Councils, The Etchingham Trust, the Diocese and School Trustees are working in partnership with landowner Dr. Ahrens and his appointed developer Millwood Designer Homes Limited, to create a mixed development of housing combined with the school and village hall facilities. It is hoped the new primary school and village hall facilities will be open by September 2014. The design work for the whole scheme, including the housing element, is now under way, and public consultation will take place during the autumn, before and during the formal planning application process. Look out for local notices and the local press for details of any consultations when they take place. Details and updates will also be sent out on the village email bulletin, if you are not yet getting the messages send your email address to [email protected] and ask to be added to the list.

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 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.

Does your group or organisation need more members or help in some way. If you are looking for new members, send me details of your organisation, what you do when you meet etc. and I will put the details in this column. If you are looking for help in any way, tell me what you need and I will publicise it here for you.

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