Fairlight village voice

Then, at 6 pm, there will be an Informal Communion service at St Peter’s, and this will be led by Rev Kay Burnett.

Make sure your diary’s clear… for the service next Sunday, September 30, at St Andrew’s at 10.30 am, for it’s a United Service with the congregation of St Mary & St Peter in Pett. It’s Harvest Festival time, along with Communion and the christening of 2 babies. This service will be led by Meriel Deasey and Rev John Burgess. All will be welcome at this special service!

Busy Saturday tomorrow… with Hastings and Rye Conservative Association Autumn Buffet Lunch In the village hall starting at 12.30 pm, and in the presence of Amber Rudd, M.P., tickets cost £12 each and are obtainable from Anne Bird on 813636.

And for something completely different… starting at 7 pm at St Andrews Church, there’s the Concert by Canterbury Boy Choristers under their Director of Music, Dr David Flood. Tickets are £8 in advance, or £10 on the door, prices that include a glass of wine and light refreshments. Alex Brodie, 813515, and Patrick Cox-Smith, 812560 have the tickets.

Speak up… It’s audition time for our Pantomime Group on Friday next, September 28, at 7 pm in the village hall. The show is to be Sinbad, with Ben Burford directing and rehearsals start at the end of November in readiness for the show’s run late in January next year. Hard work? Certainly, but a lot of fun, too, as the long-standing regulars will confirm. Have a go – you won’t be disappointed!

The McMillan Nurses ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ is a week today, but Friday in the village hall is already earmarked for the much-loved MOPPs weekly lunch-time event, so the Floral Club’s own Coffee Morning in support of McMillan will be the next day, Saturday, September 29. It runs from 10 am to 12 noon. The work McMillan does is truly wonderful, and every single cup of coffee bought helps them financially. It’s so easy to support the coffee morning; it’s really just a piece of cake (and that’s another crumb of profit and donation!).

And another village hall attraction on Saturday 29… when The Fairlight Residents Association are organising their annual quiz night at 7.30 pm. Tickets are £6 each, to include a buffet. There is not going to be a bar at the event this time round, so you are invited to take your own drinks and glasses. The hall will be open from 7 pm, and you can secure your ticket either from FRA Chairman Joyce Grant, 814172, or from the Post Office.

Unwanted cuts…? Apparently, plans are afoot to downgrade, or possibly close, the Fire Station on the Ridge, in line with the need to make cuts on economic grounds. Such cuts could be seriously detrimental to the cover provided to some 1900 homes in an area potentially most in need of good cover. Obviously, included in those forced to suffer a marked increase in attendance times would be those living in Fairlight, Pett, Pett level and Guestling, as well as those living in Ore. From the point of view of residents of our village, it is to be hoped that the powers that be will disclose all the possible and probable outcomes of such changes.

The Gardening Club Show mystery… Back in the summer (ha!), in reporting the prize winners at the Club’s Show, there was a cup awarded for the best sweet peas, called the T.W.E.F.S Cup, which I facetiously suggested was The Wettest Ever Fairlight Summer cup. After a short break, word has come from Stephen Leadbetter, relatively new to the village and a new and very active Parish Councillor, giving full chapter and verse to the conundrum. The initials stand for Tunbridge Wells Equitable Friendly Society, which was a mutual society set up in the 1880s initially to support working people insure against loss of income during illness and help them save for their old age. The Society later became the Children’s Mutual. Such was the way of things in the old days that, if the Society had a lot of subscribers in the village, or an employee living there, this could well have given them a reason for the donation of such a cup. Stephen had remembered the name as they had taken out a children’s bond when their daughter was born. Mr Google helped them fill in the gaps. Thanks for the interesting details, Stephen. P.S. to everybody else in the village – if you’re going to a quiz, don’t get into a team in opposition to Cllr. Leadbetter!

Flights of fancy… There’s a KLM, the Dutch airline, e-ticket email phishing scam around at present, and Parish Council Chairman Andrew Mier has received one. He checked it out with KLM, and did not open the attachment it carried. If you get one, do the same, deleting the email before it can do any damage.

Information flow… is really a two way street. Many, many people in the village responsible for organising or publicising future events are excellent in making sure their project can get into the Voice. Not quite so hot are the follow-ups, which let everybody know how well their event turned out. There are two reasons for this being important. First is for those who did attend, who like to know how much was raised by how many, for instance, and second is to point out to those who didn’t make it, what a wonderful opportunity they missed (and not to miss the next one!) So, thank you to all who preview their events, and please make sure you follow up afterwards, too!

How was your road works week…? There was some noise, but not that much. There was some waiting, but not that long. The whole job, or as much as I have seen so far, looks really good. Congratulations to May Gurney and East Sussex! The fact that there are still ring-marked potholes in Waites Lane and that the top of Fairlight Road needs further attention shouldn’t be taken as damning the work with faint praise. These things happen and, anyway, normal road maintenance will be continuing in the frosty weeks to come.

Keith Pollard, Brookfield, Broadway