Fairlight

As for the tower lighting scheme for St Andrew’s, a delegation from the Diocesan Advisory Committee attended a private demonstration of the proposed lighting last Tuesday week. Jonathan Wright kindly gave his time and expertise to explain it to them. The result is awaited, but all present had the impression that the delegation went away with a more positive perspective.

The Shrove Tuesday Pancake Party attracted some 40 adults and children to what turned out as a noisy but brilliant affair. There were pancake races with the children, assisted by some parents. Meriel organised a pancake bingo and quiz and the pancakes were delicious, thanks to Nicola and family. It was an enjoyable evening topped off with a quiet drink at the bar. Not the children!

Some of the church carpet at St Andrew’s has gone, revealing the Victorian tiles and some engraved stones dating back to the original building. While they ponder what to do next, it seems that some people like the floor as it is. It could be helpful not to have to replace the carpet, because there is a need to spend less on fabric (ha!) in favour of those things that might be more productive.

Lent Course: The second session of this year’s course is entitled The Poverty Line, which will be led by John Geater, taking place at St Peter’s on Wednesday, March 4 at 7.30 to 9 pm and repeated on Thursday, 5 March 2.30 to 4pm

MOPPs this week and next: Today, February 27, there’s entertainment from Louise Denny and her piano accordion, and a lunch of gammon with parsley sauce followed by fruit pie. Next Friday, March 6, Samantha Tullett from East Sussex County Council will be coming along with a talk on the prevention of falls, Telecare (an alarm pendant for the elderly, not how to clean your telly screen) and independent living. Hi-Kent Hearing will be in attendance, too, to give help with hearing aid niggles, batteries and tubes. Then it will be lunch consisting of chicken wrapped in bacon, and meringue, fruit and cream.

Gardening Club: March’s Gardening Club talk will feature the accomplished and knowledgeable Haydon Luke on The History of Fairlight, under a fortnight since he addressed the Tuesday Ladies Club. That’s on Monday next, March 2 in the village hall at 2.30 pm. All comers are welcome. Club subs are now due, and you can expect their collectors to call, or you could pay at the meeting or in the Trading Hut in Lower Waites Lane, which is now open once again each Saturday from 10 am to 12 noon.

Details of a Retail Sale: While the Shop Project Committee re-groups, it is worth bearing in mind the very high level of support, interest and enthusiasm the whole idea had engendered from the outset, albeit with a small minority against the scheme, who feel this is not the way forward. What the committee now wishes to do is to capitalise on that enthusiasm by recruiting more people to help those already in place, by becoming involved in the important decision making process and, indeed, to become back-ups, cover and deputies for the current committee. As there were more than 40 people who indicated their willingness to volunteer to give of their time to undertake staffing spells in the shop in its new community guise, surely there are people in the village who would like to give a little of their spare time now, amounting to anything between four and six hours a week, to lend some appropriate expertise. The group urgently requires secretarial, marketing and what many of us in the village still think of as personnel skills (catch up, will you!) and, with so much already achieved and a positive outcome easy to envisage (if not necessarily attain), it would be a mini-tragedy should the project sit dead in the water for want of those villagers capable of being vitally useful not showing themselves above the parapet. Please, please get in touch with Vice-Chairman Drew Slaughter by email to [email protected], before it’s too late.

Panto AGM: Last Friday’s Panto AGM was, as usual, a brief but effective account of the group’s Rapunzel, which had received a favourable reception from its five appreciative audiences. There were no changes to the Officers and committee, and Jennifer Annetts, who is to direct next year’s production, said she already had a number of ideas from which to make a choice. Jennifer pointed out that the group should make extra efforts to secure more performers in their late teens or twenties as so many young people went off to university or other pastures new just when they attained the age and experience where they could be invaluable on the panto stage. This column will remind you all of this need a little later in the year!

Playgroup Jumble Sale: Tomorrow, the annual bun fight that is the incredibly popular Playgroup Jumble Sale takes over the village hall from 10 am to 12.30 pm. If you go down, you’re sure not be alone. Admission is 50p, and there will be countless goodies to tempt you!

The FRA Variety Show and Supper: This event, raising money to support the completion of the Sea Road berm, is comprehensively Sold Out for its one night run in the village hall tomorrow, Saturday, February 28. If you’ve got your ticket, proceedings commence at 7.30 pm. If you haven’t, then you won’t get in!

Activate AGM: All are invited to the Activate Youth Club’s AGM, which is taking place next Wednesday, March 4, in the Activate Clubhouse on Wood Field at 7.30 pm. Why not go along and see how this highly valued asset in the community is run. Perhaps you could volunteer, too …

The Tuesday Ladies Club’s February meeting: A goodly crowd thoroughly enjoyed ‘High Days and Holidays in Fairlight’, a typically fascinating talk by Haydon Luke about the early ‘seaside days out’ when summer visitors came flocking to Hastings – to come to Fairlight! Covering the nobility and the masses, Haydon spoke of so many little or unknown facts, all comprehensively illustrated. His published title for the talk of the day, Fairlight Revealed, is being polished and refined, and will see the light of day, and a projector, in the autumn. March’s club meeting will feature Paul Joy, who will be telling of Hastings Fishing Fleet. Guests are welcome on payment of a £2 fee, and men are as welcome as ladies! Don’t forget, the Ladies’ meetings start at 2.15 pm.

Flicks in the Village: The March film is on Thursday, March 5 at 7 for 7.30 pm at Pett village hall, It’s ‘Mr Turner’, the story of painter JWM Turner, who is played by Tim Spall, with the film written and directed by Mike Leigh. It also features that lovely actor Sam Kelly, who sadly died shortly before the film was released last October.

Another fine mess: A local resident, himself a meticulous dog owner, has reported a large amount of dog mess, particularly in Gorsethorn Way and Channel Way. He mentions that fixed penalty fines can be issued for not clearing up fouling, with one sign in Broadway saying £100, and one in Lower Waites Lane saying £1,000. The other dark night I saw a dog owner with a bright torch clearing up after his dog, striking while the iron (!) was hot. Why can’t others do this? Meanwhile, in the aforesaid Lower Waites Lane an animal whose efforts have been missing for some months has struck again. Judging by the leavings the dog must be the size of a small bungalow. There is no way its owner cannot realise what has been done. It is hoped this is not going to become a serial offence, as it was before. The dirty dog in this case is two legged.

Potholes rise, or fall, again: Waites Lane major holes have been dealt with piecemeal on the eastern side of the road, but the western side is now in urgent need of attention by Farley Way. In Broadway, a major depression at a drain near the village hall car park has had the sides of the hole infilled and smoothed, so your descent into the depths is more gentle, though just as deep. But the drain on the opposite side of the road is only marginally better. Go for broke and do them both, please. 100 yards further on, and a large hole, almost the Siamese twin of a monster of last winter, is getting no attention at all. Rather like the south side of Battery Hill, which is now practically a life threatening stretch of tarmac. Goodness knows what all these would be like if we had endured extensive frosts this winter.

Keith Pollard

Brookfield, Broadway