Mountfield

SW NEWS: Peter writes: For various historical reasons, the residents of Eatenden Lane have now become the focus of attention with the Southern Water construction works. The original design for the sewerage system involved simply plugging the new public sewer into the lower end of the old, British Gypsum-owned sewer that runs down the front of the houses as far as 1, Eatenden Lane and it was therefore assumed that those 18 properties would be linked to the new sewer whether they liked it or not. Two things then came to light. First, SW realised that amounted to forcing residents to connect, which was beyond their legal powers. Secondly, they belatedly discovered that 16 of those properties currently channel their stormwater (that is rain water from roofs and gutters) into the old BG sewer as well as foul waste. The planned waste water treatment plant cannot accept storm water as this dilutes the waste too much for treatment plant to work.
By The Newsroom
Published 7th Jul 2017, 07:00 BST
Updated 12th Sep 2017, 11:13 BST

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Mountfield news

This meant a major rethink and redesign. They now therefore intend to put a new sewer, parallel with the old one, roughly down the route of the path in front of the properties from John and Ann in Castle Gardens at the top down to 1, Eatenden Lane at the bottom. They have this week written to residents to explain the situation and seek their permission to “enter” the property of all these residents to install the new sewer. They then plan to visit residents tomorrow to answer questions and, they hope, to collect the signed consent forms. Some residents have already returned their signed forms.

It should be stressed that this consent is for SW to install the new sewer only. Residents then have the choice to link to the new sewer or stay on the old, existing one. At the time of writing (Tuesday) there have not been any conversations with BG about their long term intentions. I hope to have preliminary discussions with them before Saturday.

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As you might expect, the five properties south of and beside the crossing is not as simple. SW are in the process of setting up discussions with these households. There is no change to the previous situation for the properties to the north of the crossing: Duncan’s, Martina at the Chapel, Hannah and the girls at Holly lodge, the barn workshop opposite, and The Old Bakery.

This is a fast moving situation with Jim and I chasing to try and keep up.

SW NEWS 2: According to Glen Oaten, the Site Engineer with MGjv, they hope to have Solomon’s Lane open by the end of the month. Fingers crossed. And finally some unequivocally good news. The Mountfield Family Bonfire will be able to go ahead on the same basis as last year. The only question is whether the railway crossing will be open then but that is in the lap of Network Rail and so beyond the guesswork of normal mortals. Otherwise, all we need to worry about is the weather.

SHARON’S TREES: Barbara Valentine writes: “One of the leading members of Mountfield Community Arts, Sharon Morris, is having an exhibition of her artwork at ‘British Design, British Made’ in Battle High Street, from the 5th till the 19th of July. Sharon makes the most amazingly beautiful and accurate model trees, either free-standing or to be hung on walls. They range from about a foot high to over two feet (I’m just guessing, as I’ve seen and admired them, but haven’t actually been round to measure them!) and are black, copper or silver-toned. There will also be some of Sharon’s lovely paintings on display. It is going to an interesting exhibition, and well worth dropping in to look at.”

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LASTS BUT NOT LEAST: Last Saturday saw the wedding of Jodie Last to Elliott Jeffs. There were no fewer than four generations of Mountfield’s Last family present, not least young Freddie. The bride arrived on the trailer of her Dad’s tractor, the weather was kind, the service was joyful, the photographs taken up at the Court were perfect and the bash afterwards was fantastic, with disco and BBQ bacon rolls to round off proceedings. Now that really is a village wedding (even if Elliott is originally a Battle boy). Oh and the Club bar took the highest all time takings!

CAROLINE HOLLAMBY: Caroline is in training for her biggest cycling challenge yet: a 100 miles sponsored ride in aid of Bliss, a charity that for babies born prematurely or sick. If you go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/cyclingforlife, you will find the story of Caroline’s sister whose little baby, Zara, was born at 24 weeks — yes, you read that right. Zara weighed 1 lb 3 oz. There is the most extraordinary photograph of Zara. If you don’t have internet access yourself, get a child or grandchild to visit the page and print it off for you.

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Related topics:Southern Water