Fairlight

Church matters: For this Sunday, March 26, the Fourth Sunday in Lent, there is a Mothering Sunday service of Morning Praise at St Andrew’s at 10.30 am. The Guest Speaker is Janet Walker. Flowers will be available.

MOPPs today and next Friday: Today, Friday, March 24, there will be a visit from Bonmarche, and Sarah Stunt will also be along with greetings cards. There’s ham, egg and chips for lunch, with sticky toffee pudding with cream for dessert. Next Friday, March 31, it’s exercise time with Keith Osbourne, and also Nicola’s Age UK toenail cutting service and a star prize for the raffle. Then a favourite lunch (but aren’t they all?) of roast beef and Yorkshire puddings plus fruit meringue with Chantilly cream.

Missed it: The trouble with a weekly paper and its deadlines is that anything happening on a Tuesday evening is not going to get into print for 10 whole days. And thus it was this week with the Parish Council Planning Committee, under their Chairman Cllr Stephen Leadbetter, discussing, among other items, the application to build 16 dwellings on the Market Garden site. This is sure to have generated much interest among residents, and those who didn’t make it will be able to catch up next Tuesday, March 28 at the Council meeting in the village hall at 7 pm. The full agenda for this forthcoming meeting is not yet available.

The FRA Variety Night: This column should have included last week the news from the recent sell-out FRA Variety Night which raised over £600 for deserving organisations in the village. Not hanging about, the proceeds have already been dispersed, with £200 going to MOPPs, The Club (formerly Activate) and the Playgroup. Well done to all three, and especially to the Residents Association for their enterprise and speedy resolution.

Walking for Health: Unpleasant though the weather may have been last Monday morning – very damp, chilly and with a biting wind, there were nevertheless no fewer than 17 brave souls who went on the first ‘proper’ Walk for Health since the taster walk a fortnight ago. The number included the local leaders from both Bexhill and Alexandra Park. The walks to come for Fairlight will be on Mondays April 3 and 17, and May 1 and 15. As they happen on the first and third Mondays of each month, there won’t be a walk on May 29! Four different planned walks have been devised so far, and more are in the pipeline.

AGM season: We’ve had a few of the early runners already – they’ve had their Village Voice mentions prior to each event – but follow ups are very thin on the ground. This is disappointing, as the purpose of this column is to round up items of interest in the village before they occur, and to sum them up when they are completed. People who went along to whatever meeting called them like to see ‘their’ event mentioned, while those who missed it are suitably miffed. Do, please, let me have after notes as well as those for ‘before’, and we shall keep the residents happy!

The Fairlight Players and Cranford: The Fairlight Players need to source a few items of furniture for the set of Cranford, which takes place at Fairlight Village Hall on April 27 to 29. The items will be needed for just over a week to allow the cast to become accustomed to them during the final rehearsals. The play is set in the year 1830, so ideally they are seeking fairly simple furniture that could pass for just pre-Victorian, preferably fairly robust, and definitely not valuable. Anything you have kicking around in your shed could be perfect. Naturally, great care will be taken of any items loaned, and transport will be arranged.

The principal items needed are listed here, and the Players would be happy to visit to view any items that you might wish to offer. A ‘compact’ 3-seater sofa (just big enough for three average size bottoms, but not too big due to space limitations on stage); two compact armchairs or “parlour” chairs; four dining chairs; a table, approximately the size of a card table; a slightly longer, rectangular table, and a small side table. If you can help with any (or all!) these items, please give Keith Miller a call on 812235.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage at www.ryeandbattleobserver.co.uk/

2) Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/RyeandBattleObserver

3) Follow us on Twitter @RyeObs

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

The Rye and Battle Observer - always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.