Icklesham

CHURCH NEWS: This Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent, and a relaxation of the disciplines of Lent.. It is Mothering Sunday, please, not the Americanism of Mothers’ Day. The 9.30 am service will be led by Rev. Christopher Breeds. 25TH March is the Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

EASTER LILIES: It is not too late to dedicate a lily in memory of a loved one. The lilies, along with the list of those remembered, will be used to decorate the church at this special time. As last year, the lilies will cost £2 for each name remembered. Please contact Janet Pegg at any church service or event.

LENT LUNCH: There is the next Lent Lunch in the Memorial Hall from 12.30 pm TODAY, FRIDAY. This week the charity is The Royal British Legion and Brian Pitt will give a short talk about the work of the legion.

WEATHER: Today, Monday, is the Vernal Equinox. It is wet and windy and the poor dancing daffodils are being a bit battered and laid low. Rather a day for staying in, not frolicking outside to celebrate spring.

QUEEN’S HEAD: The live music on Sunday from 4 till 6 pm will be played by J.P. Miller, playing Covers. There will be a Quiz on Wednesday 29th raising funds for Breast Cancer Care.

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: The Spring Flower Show will be on Saturday 1st April. Staging for the show is between 8 and 10 am. The Show opens to the public at 2 pm. As well as flowers and cookery classes, there is also a special class for the best home made compost. This class is kindly sponsored by Kate and Syd Mylrea. Schedules are available from Ann Osborne at 22, High Fords, Icklesham, and Judy at the Post Office in the Co-op at Winchelsea Beach. There will be teas, tombola, a raffle and hopefully, lots of colour. Entry is free and there is plenty of parking.

QUIZ NIGHT: 14 teams took part in the Quiz last Saturday, which raised £310 for the New Pavilion Fund. One Out All Out were the early leaders closely followed by High Fords Hooligans. Nobby’s Nuts took the lead at round 3 with Casualties on their tail. In round 4 The 30 Somethings played their Joker and scored maximum points which put them well in the lead. High Fords Hooligans scored a maximum on the Picture Round and put themselves back in contention. While this was going on, Fab 5 (wives) were having an individual battle with The Lashings World, (husbands). The husbands edged this one by 4 points. By round 7 Team Name and Empty Heads were making a move. Icklesham Reserves, Friends and Family, Saints and Sinners, Allsorts and Golden Arrows were putting in some good rounds. After round 8 the overall winners were the 30 Somethings, with Team Name 2nd, Nobby’s Nuts 3rd, One Out All Out 4th, Casualties 5th and Empty Heads 6th. Thanks to Alan and John for their help in setting up, Sean and Marc for help during the evening, Icklesham Casuals Footballers, those who helped with clearing up and special thanks to all of you who donated Raffle Prizes and bought tickets. The next quiz will be on 22nd April, which will be the last one until September. To enter a team contact Stuart Baker. It costs £2.50 per player, teams of up to 6, bring your own food and drink and there is a raffle.

NEW PAVILION LOTTERY DRAW: The draw was made at the Quiz Night by Marc Baker. The winners were 1st, £50 Tracey Young; 2nd, £25 Kevin Earl; 3rd, £20 David Pritchard; 4th £15 Ike Salfarlie; 5ht £10 Mark Easter; 6th £5 John Taylor. Thanks to everyone for their continued support which is much appreciated. New members are always welcome to join for £1 per month (£12 per year)

SCHOOL NEWS: CONCERT TODAY AT 2 PM. (Sorry I said it was last Friday !!) You should have booked your ticket already but you may be able to attend if you phone in quickly. Hope it went well yesterday. Apparently this focus on music for the term has been overwhelmingly well received. I always felt that it was a VITAL aspect of the curriculum which was being increasingly marginalised. A very positive survey of parents and carers has been documented.

Not only is there the Concert today, there is also a Red Nose Day Bake Sale after school. The Head Teacher Awards this week go to : Starfish Class, Annie; Stingray Class, Fynn; Dolphin Class, Mia; Octopus Class Lily Townsend. The class awards go to :Starfish Class, Deacon for being motivated and independent in learning and Betty for a positive attitude and being independent in learning; Stingray Class, Daisie for being so polite in class and Lola for fantastic progress in writing; Dolphin Class, Taylor for excellent work in guided Maths and Ford for extending himself in Maths; Octopus Class, Leon, Cam and Alfie for excellent improvement and attainment in spelling. Congratulations to everyone.

The Annual Parish Meeting: took place at Rye Harbour Village Hall. There was a good turnout. The Chair of the Council, Peter Turner, gave his annual report and asked for nominations to the new Allotment Committee to represent tenants from each of the four allotment sites in the Parish. (contact the Parish Clerk in interested)

The Meeting opened with a presentation on behalf of the recently formed Icklesham Parish Community Land Trust Ltd., who has taken over the affordable housing project from the Parish Council. Current Steering Group are Geoff Foot, James Justice, Peter Turner, Jayne Burns and Nick Warren.

The project is now at the stage of purchasing the chosen site on the North side of Main Road just West of Broad Street, Icklesham. The site will be owned by the Trust but the development will be carried out and managed by Hastoe Housing Association. The Trust will have input into the housing mix that is built and the design of the units and it should not be too long before a planning application can be submitted.

Anyone who lives in the Parish can become a member. A membership share costs just £1, you can buy as many shares as you wish and these entitle each member to one vote at members meetings, where the Directors of the Trust are elected. Maybe you have family or friends in the parish with current or future housing need or you are just interested in how a local community can own property for the benefit of that community?

If you wish to become a member or require more information contact Nick Warren at [email protected] or 07942 880858 and he will send you further information and a membership application form.

Anyone who may be interested in a tenancy of one of the houses when available must be registered on Rother District Council’s Housing Register.

Annual Awards - At the Annual Parish Meeting, the Council gave awards to:

Stuart Baker, Sandra Stunt, Derek Baker, Janet Pegg and Laurie Bowman for services over many years to Icklesham village and to Jonathan Hollands for the best kept allotment at High Fords.

Congratulations to all award winners.

Planning - The Planning Committee has recently made submissions on the Development and Site Allocations Plan – Options and Preferred Options for Public Consultations. Icklesham residents who use this surgery will be pleased to know that they supported a proposed allocation for a new Surgery on the Highways Depot in Chapel Lane, Guestling. This would replace the existing surgery in Chapel Lane. The Committee pointed out that 64% of the patients served by this surgery reside in Icklesham Parish.

The Committee has also advised Rother Planning about it’s concerns regarding the proposed development of the Old Woodyard, Main Road (opposite Guestling Green) in respect of the access of commercial vehicles onto the A259, the height of the proposed pole barn and noise from any logging operations. Whilst we all welcome the tidying of the site and removal of the old greenhouses, have told Rother that we cannot support any proposition that creates traffic and noise problems for local residents.

Dog Bins - The Council has put in a complaint on behalf of residents in respect of the failure of Rother District Council’s contractors to empty the bins on Icklesham Recreation Ground and we have been told that Rother DC have contacted the contractors to sort this out. We continue to monitor.

Your councillors are here to represent you and welcome your views on any matter. Please do talk to them or send your reviews/requests to the Parish Clerk at [email protected] or write c/o Wildgoose Cottage, Gorsethorn Way, Fairlight, East Sussex TN35 4BQ.

CONTACT: If anyone has any news, reviews, reports or information please keep me in the looop.

AND FINALLY: Enjoy all that you have planned this week and may you have a really nice surprise somewhere along the way.

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