Etchingham

For a parish of our size we can elect seven councillors to sit for the next four years. If more than seven eligible people come forward there will be an official poll carried out by the Rother team at the same time and in the same premises as they conduct the poll for the District Council. If less than seven people come forward then those standing will automatically become parish councillors.

Details of how to be nominated for election, and links to download a nomination pack and guidance notes, are all on the Etchingham village website.

Nomination forms need to be delivered by hand to the Town Hall, Bexhill-on-Sea, and need to be delivered between March 25 and 4pm April 3, forms must be delivered by hand, you are not able to post to the Town Hall, but if you are unable to go to Bexhill you can ask someone that you trust to take the forms in for you. Nomination packs can be obtained from the Parish Office at Parsonage Croft or downloaded from the village website http://www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk

CHURCH ELECTORAL ROLL: Your chance to affirm your support for our church!

Every sixth year a new church Electoral Roll must be prepared; 2019 is such a year.

The existing roll will become obsolete this month. A new roll will be displayed in the Church at the Annual Parochial Meeting on April 7 which is to be held after the morning service at 12 noon. Enrolment is your chance to show support as well as entitling you to vote at the Annual Meeting and participate in Parochial Church Council activity

Forms are on the table just inside the Church or from Julia Barrow at Hillcrest, Burgh Hill, Etchingham. Telephone 01580 819475 to request a form and Julia will endeavour to get one to you.

SLOW BOAT: Nick Smith has been persuaded to deliver a talk, Slow Boat around the UK, on Saturday April 6 on his adventures last year in his yacht Gin @ Six, to help raise funds for the Etchingham Trust for Sports and Recreation. Nick is a local resident and Trustee of ETSR. Having purchased a boat he set out to explore the glories of the British coastline in slow time; making it from Falmouth, along the South Coast, past Dover, all the way up the East Coast to Inverness and then through the Caledonian Canal before beginning to explore the Hebrides. Do come and join us and hear about his travels and travails, through the multitude of photographs taken, with the aid of a glass of wine. In Etchingham Village hall, Saturday April 6, 7.30pm, doors open 7pm. Tickets £5 each, contact [email protected]. All proceeds go to ETSR.

GRAND IRISH CEILIDH: Come, watch and dance, St. Patrick’s Grand Irish Ceilidh, with the Catsfield Steamers, Etchingham Village Hall, tomorrow (Saturday March 16). There will be a bar, doors open 7.15pm, showtime 7.45pm, tickets £10 each from Jarvis Butchers, wegottickets.com or Etchingham Music Festival, PO Box 100,Etchingham TN19 7US www.etchinghammusicfestival.co.uk

SPEEDWATCH: The Speedwatch operators continue to run as many sessions as possible with the currently reduced number of available operators. The number of volunteer operators is currently reduced, due to some operators not able to as many sessions because of health issues or work commitments, and other operators moving away. So we could do with a few more volunteers to enable a useful number of sessions to be run each month. It is not complicated to volunteer as an operator and you do not need to commit to a lot of time, if you can only do an hour occasionally it is just as useful as being available for several hours a week. If you are interested in considering joining our volunteer team contact [email protected] or phone 01580 819532 for details, or take a look at the Community Speedwatch website https://www.communityspeedwatch.org

PLAYGROUNDS: Etchingham Recreation Ground Trust (ERGT) is the charity responsible for Queen’s Garden and the Viper site. ERGT are working on fund raising for repair and replacement of equipment. There are a couple grant applications in progress that if successful will help build the total. You can generate funds for ERGT whenever you shop online and it does not cost you anything extra. You register at Give as you Live https://www.giveasyoulive.com/join/ergt then whenever you shop online you sign in to the Give as you Live website first and use the link on the site to access the retailer you are purchasing from, there are over 4,000 online retailers available so your favourites are bound to be there, a small percentage of your purchase will be donated to ERGT, the amounts are quite small but if lots of people remember to use the system for every purchase it will soon add up to a useful sum of money. You will find more details of how to use Give as you Live on the ERGT fundraising page of the village website www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk/playgrounds/give-as-you-live EVERY PENNY COUNTS. There is also a fundraising page online where you can make a donation https://www.everyclick.com/etchinghamplaygrounds if you are a tax payer please remember to fill in the Gift Aid form when you make your donation so that ERGT get an extra 25% from HMRC. If you want to make a donation but do not have the ability to do it online, you can a payment with cash or a cheque payable to Etchingham Playgrounds and deliver it to the Parish Office at Parsonage Croft, or in a sealed envelope clearly marked ‘playground appeal’ at the Post Office. The target to be raised is £25,000, at the time of writing just over £660 has been raised, with some more donations and gift aid waiting to be approved, so quite a way to go yet. If you have any fundraising ideas, and more importantly, time to help organise fundraising, email [email protected] . The annual safety inspection for 2018 has just taken place and as expected it was not good news, more items may now have to be taken out of use.

CHURCH SERVICES: Church Services for March, all Sunday services are at 11am, this Sunday March 17, Reverend Christopher Channer; March 24, Reverend Iain Morrison; March 31, (Mothering Sunday) Reverend Sally Epps.

CHURCH CONTACT: Churchwardens, Mary Barnes 01580 819142 and Geoffry Lucas 01580 819439. For Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals and Pastoral Matters contact Reverend Sally Epps 01435 882301 [email protected]

CHURCH OPENING: The Church is open every day for visitors from 11am to 4pm.

HURST GREEN: As you will be aware there is not currently a Village Voice correspondent for Hurst Green. If you are connected with with a Hurst Green group, or organising an event in Hurst Green, I am happy to add the details to the Etchingham column if you send the information to me. Or, even better, perhaps there is someone in Hurst Green who would like to take on the Hurst Green column, if you want to know more you can contact me or the Battle Observer.

SENDING INFORMATION: Thank you to everyone who has sent me information for this column during 2018, please keep your contributions coming in during 2019. Get information for this column to me as soon as possible. There are several ways to get your info to me, but email is preferred because there is less chance of errors during copying. I need information by 10pm on Monday to be sure it will be in time for inclusion, I can sometimes add extra items on Tuesday morning, but this cannot be guaranteed. You can deliver to 2 Park Farm Close, telephone 01580 819532 or 07484 635014 or email [email protected]