Iden Village Voice

A very excited, appreciative, grateful Mrs. Pat Buckland rang to tell me about the Quiz Night.

There was a wonderful turn-out with 78 people there, including four American visitors. Huge thanks to Quizmaster John and Bucket boy Paul who collected the fines.The fun evening was to raise funds for the M. S. Society, and a very grateful Pat has £520 to give to them.

Tonight in Iden church there will be a piano Recital by young Thomas Harris. There is a reception in the Old Hall at 6.30 pm, the music begins at 7.30 pm. Tickets are £10.

The first of the Winter Lectures is this evening in the village hall, when the Iden and District Natural History Society members will gather to hear Brian Gallop talk about South West Ireland. This begins at 7.30 pm and a season ticket costs £12. A single lecture ticket is £3. During the winter there will be 11 talks Therefore 11 talks for £12 seems a very good bargain, particularly considering the very high quality of the talks. All are welcome.

The Iden BIG Book Fair is tomorrow, Saturday 13th from 10 am to 3 pm. Apparently there are books to suit every taste. They are to be sold to raise funds for the village hall, which is undergoing improvements. If you need to contact anyone about this, ring Carol on 280 464 or Ray on 280 311.

There will be a meeting of the Shop Association on Tuesday 16th October at 6pm in the village hall. This really is an important meeting, as officers are needed and the future of the shop will be discussed.

The Mobile Library will be at the village hall on Monday from 12.05 to 12.45. The Pop-in Coffee morning will be serving refreshments from 11 am to 1.30 pm, covering the time that the library will be here.

Iden Stores has reopened after 10 days of refurbishment and it looks just grand. The closure helped to remind us of easy it is to shop there, the very wide range of items on sale, and now there seems to be so much more room to stand and gossip !

One particular new item is now on sale - the Iden Calendar. This year Rod Stuart has featured the shop on the front page, including many villagers wandering towards the shop in a sort of match-stick style.

Please take a look when you go in, all profits from the calendar sales are going to support the shop, and, who knows, YOU may even be one of the match-stick figures, together with your dog.

It would be a perfect present for friends or relatives living far away, and even though they would not be able to recognise you from behind, they may know your dog !

Iden Parish Council met on Tuesday 2 October at which 4 Parish Councillors were present together with District Councillor Nick Ramus. Apologies were received from Parish Councillor Chrissy Rodger, County Councillor Keith Glazier and District Councillor Paul Osborne. There were also 10 members of the public present. The Chairman welcomed everyone to the refurbished Village Hall and paid tribute to the efforts of the Trustees and volunteers who had all worked hard to produce a very attractive and welcoming interior. Mention was made of the very successful and popular Coffee mornings being held in the Hall every other Monday to coincide with the visit of the Mobile Library. This is proving an excellent way for residents to meet each other and there are also stalls selling books etc. The next one will be on Monday 15 October from 10.30am He also mentioned the substantial improvements to Iden Stores which has now reopened following the week’s closure for the work to be completed. The Shop was lucky to be able to obtain one of the last grants made by the WARR partnership. One added attraction will be that the shop will soon be able to sell Lottery Tickets. Unfortunately because of a misunderstanding, the Police session has had to be held over until the next meeting. Under Planning, permission has been given to lift the Agricultural restriction on Partridge Farmhouse. No applications had been received for the Council to consider. It was agreed that the Council would not spend £170 on Cold Calling Signage at either end of the village. It was felt that there would be very little benefit and there remained the problem of how Charity collections etc would be affected by the notice’s implications. The Council took the view that money was better spent on promoting the Neighbourhood Watch scheme and continuing to inform residents what they should do if they are concerned by doorstep salesmen A discussion ensued on the mole, rabbit and other wildlife problems in the playing field. The former are becoming more prominent as witnessed by the number of mole hills being seen which could present dangers to users such as footballers as their pitch is particularly bad. The cost of dealing with the moles would be approximately £400 but it was generally acknowledged that this was an ongoing problem and hence will incur further expense whenever the moles return as they will! The cricket team had not reported there to be any problems and all sports organisations using the playing field are covered by their public liability insurance.

For the time being no action will be taken but the situation will be kept under review. The point was also made that the playing field is the heart of the countryside and therefore all sorts of wild life could do damage to it. A report was made on the Iden Emergency Contingency Planning Forum when the last meeting met a representative from Rother District Council who manages their Emergency Planning and who has offered support. Good progress is being made in formulating an Iden Plan and the next meeting of the forum will be on Tuesday 23 October at 7.30pm in the Bell The question of the increasing amount of litter being dropped around the village was again raised. A larger and more user friendly bin has been ordered for the Play Area. A discussion ensued on the value of having voluntary groups who would go out litter picking when they would be provided with the appropriate equipment. This will be taken forward as part of the forthcoming Village Plan review. Thanks were again paid to those people who already collect vast amounts of litter which it mainly deposited by visiting and passing non residents, especially on the country lanes. To them it is very depressing to know that no sooner have they cleared up, then more rubbish returns A report was made on the two drinking binges that occurred around the Pavilion area on two successive Friday evenings. A considerable number of people must have been involved and the mess left behind was appalling. The police have therefore been asked to increase their patrols around the playing field. The question of having some sort of security lighting at the Pavilion will be considered and costing etc obtained There are several odd jobs requiring to be done from time to time around the village and it was agreed that volunteers would be sought, but on a very specific basis As there were not any objections expressed via the latest consultation for the new speed limit the 30mph zone will be introduced within the next few weeks. Highways have at last recognised the serious problem with the road surface on the Iden Road by the Peace and Plenty and apparently will now schedule remedial work, although it is not known when this will happen Councillor Ramus gave an update mentioning inter alia the news that the construction of the Bexhill by Pass will now almost certainly happen. The next meeting will be Tuesday 6 November in the Village Hall. This will start at 7pm to allow the Police to attend and for members of the public to question them on concerns etc On Saturday 6 October the Council held a very successful and well attended open meeting in the Village Hall to hear what residents want included as part of the forthcoming review of the Village Plan. The items covered included communication and keeping in touch, transport, sustainability, services and the environment and making better use of the council’s assets, for example the playing field and pavilion. It was also an opportunity for Councillors to hear residents’ various concerns Following this the Council will now proceed to formulate the new plan which will then be communicated to residents. If anyone who was not present at the meeting but would nonetheless like to make suggestions for the plan then they should contact the Council via the Clerk on 270790 Bearing in mind other commitments, it has been agreed that a Village concert will now be held next April and not on the 17 November as originally scheduled. Further details will be announced in due course. A report of the financial outcome of the recent Harvest Flower Festival will be made next week The mid-week services will be 9.30 am for Morning Prayer and 3.30 pm for Evening prayer.

The 9.30 am service for the 19th Sunday after Trinity will be Parish Communion led by the Rev. Stella Harmsworth.