Hailsham

NEW BEGINNINGS: This is a new and free eight week course on personal strengths and skills as well as building confidence. This is a City and Guilds Level 1 funded course from 9am to 1pm at the James West Centre, Brunel Drive (off Hempstead Lane and Gleneagles roundabout) and is run by ROVTE (Rural Opportunities Volunteer Training and Education). Book on 01424 423683 extn 22.

U3A: On Tuesday February 26, Civic Hall, Members’ Meeting Jim Whelan will be presenting, From Coronation Street to Home Fires. Doors open 2pm meeting for refreshments and 2.30pm start. Visitors welcome.

WEALDEN COMMUNITY: In 2019 Wealden Community and Regeneration projects are set to include piloting a bike hire scheme on the Cuckoo Trail. They are currently facilitating Street Learning, which provides free local courses and sessions in Wealden to those aged 19 and over. In the January to March booklet there are a few free cooking courses which are offered in Hailsham, including: Vegetarian Cooking, Cooking with Lentils, Spring Planting, all at Prospects House, George Street, Hailsham. They have also helped set up memory cafes and have previously had Freedom Leisure teach Boccia, New Age Curling have assisted with the Accessible Swim sessions which have taken place in Hailsham Leisure centre. These inclusive swim session are suitable for people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and those living with dementia. They also work in partnership with care homes and churches who support the Wealden Dementia Action Alliance to organise physical activities in their local area. They are aiming to send a series of short electronic newsletters out throughout 2019 to update you all on their health and wellbeing priorities, and hope these will be helpful.

PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY: Chairman’s Evening at Hailsham Photographic Society included a variety of work from members. David Mills gave a short lecture titled Iconic Locations - a personal view. David is predominately a black and white photographer and he showed a couple of photos by people who have inspired him. One was Jeffrey Pine by Ansell Adams and he then showed his own photo taken at the same location many years later. The locations of photos David shared were not only from the UK but New Zealand and the USA. With his humorous comments and stunning photos members thoroughly enjoyed his talk. Sean Kean who enjoys deep sea diving explained the difficulties and dangers of underwater photography. To share a world under water that many people would not see was captivating as were his stories to go with each photo. When seeing underwater photography in the future, members will definitely appreciate how challenging it is. Mandy Willard showed collages of photos which were not only interesting but superb. Mandy visits many local places with friends and they set a subject for the day’s photography, ie flowers, shapes of letters, door knockers, etc. Each collage was fascinating and members thoroughly enjoyed her talk. Colin Monk then showed three Audio Visuals of work by Gay Biddlecombe a member of Hailsham Photographic Club who sadly died last year. This was titled Gay’s Frozen Lands. Gay was an inspirational photographer and each AV was enjoyed by all. Colin Monk, Chairman, thanked each speaker for their part in such an enjoyable evening.

STREET MARKET: The familiar traders of Hailsham Street Market will be there tomorrow, Saturday, from 8.30am through to 3pm in Vicarage Field. Find locally sourced food, crafts, unique gifts, accessories and much more.

SANTA’S SLEIGH 2018: Over the 20 days in December Santa visited as many roads as he could. Facing rain, wind and cold temperatures he was not put off. His helpers collected 32 000 coins during that time. There were 22 547 hits and shares here on Facebook. 4000 chocolate bars were handed out to the children(and some to the helpers). If all the coins collected were piled up in one tower they would have reached 900 feet, Waitrose tokens and foreign coins, old pounds and even a 1925 sixpenny piece were changed up and counted too. The total raised in 2018 was £8,563.77. That means in the 15 years the sleigh has been operating you have donated in excess of £ 90,000 a phenomenal amount. Thank you to everyone from the bottom of our hearts and of course your pockets. So where does the money go to you may be asking? Recently we donated money to fund a £900 purpose built car seat for a disabled youngster called Tiger Pelling. Without the car seat he was unable to get to the numerous appointments he faced in comfort. His parents have allowed us to use his photograph to show you the good we can do with your money. If you would like to visit and even discover if you might like to join the Rotary Club come and see us.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY: In January, speaker Ed Tyhurst gave a presentation on the Aluminium Harvest, WW2 Plane Crash Sites. With an audience of 90 plus, the Hall was full to the brim, and included an unusually large number of visitors (18 non-members) who openly admitted being attracted by the advertised subject title. Visitors are always welcome. Due to the geographical location, being adjacent to the intervening English Channel, (which obviously proved an obstacle for either side), the bordering southern counties bore the major brunt of aerial dog-fights and the obvious incidence of subsequent crash landings. Most often these were fatal for the aircraft crews, but an amazing number of safe landings of war damaged aircraft were shown, in some cases managing survival back to home ground after long flights (eg 100 miles) from the battle scene. The talk was illustrated with photographs of aircraft, and crash sites (before and after) and our speaker impressed us with his extensive detailed knowledge of both British and German aircraft manufacturers specifications, development history and battle successes and failures (both sides), often quoting names, ranks and biography of crew members (of whichever nationality). All this material was incredibly committed to memory (as he appeared to make little or no reference to notes), the fascinating volume that filled the available time schedule, conclusion was necessary to avoid running into the late hours. With more to come, a return visit would seem to be called for. Watch this space. Ed admitted this was his first public presentation of this subject, which obviously holds a good deal of interest to many folk. The club congratulated Ed and wish him every success for the future, along with our hopes for a further instalment.

NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN: The final steps towards the publication of a Neighbourhood Plan for Hailsham, which have been delayed in recent months due to environmental assessment requirements, are set to come into fruition in early 2019. Following the Town Council’s submission of the Draft Neighbourhood Plan to Wealden District Council in April, the next step in the process will be a final public consultation on the Plan documents in accordance with Regulation 16. The Town Council has been notified by Wealden District Council that a Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) and a Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) would need to be included in the Neighbourhood Plan, due to a recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union. The implications of this case on the Hailsham Neighbourhood Plan means that the Regulation 16 Consultation period, which was scheduled to take place in September, had to be postponed until the appropriate assessments have been undertaken. The Hailsham Neighbourhood Plan, written by a group made up of members from the community and from Hailsham Town Council, proposes a number of policies relating to what infrastructure and development is needed to sustain future housing growth in the Hailsham area, taking into consideration local environment and sustainability, design, housing type, traffic and transport, economy, services and facilities. Once the required legalities have been met and the environmental assessments are complete, it will be the responsibility of Wealden District Council to collect all comments and representations at a final/Regulation 16 public consultation, which will then be submitted to an independent examiner for inspection of the Plan documents before proceeding to referendum next year. To find out more about the Hailsham Neighbourhood Plan, its progress and latest announcements, visit www.hailsham neighbourhoodplan.co.uk.