Malling

TRINITY SOUTH MALLING: (Parish Church). This week, Sunday worship begins with a joint breakfast which starts at 9am and finishes at 9.30am, when the service begins. This Sunday, there is an informal service of Morning Praise. The Associate Vicar responsible for South Malling, Revd Jeremy Bamber, will lead the service which introduces a series on the teaching of St Paul to the people of Colossae (eastern Turkey). He picks up the teaching that they have already begun to listen to and goes on to help them build Christian lives, firmly fixed in a sound understanding of who Christ is and what his teaching means to them. In the service as a whole, the breakfast kind of breaks the ice and helps people to get to know each other better, very appropriate when the teaching is about living and learning a new way of life. Children have their own activities during the service. All are welcome.

RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION: Last Wednesday, Malling Residents met a wide selection of police and parking officers to talk about the neighbourhood’s biggest problem, parking. What was very clear was that the police and local authorities take this really seriously and fully understand the issues. Whether anything can be done is another matter. Inspector Ripley, who has overall responsibility for policing Lewes and neighbourhood issues, gave a quick run down of the history. He was supported by two other police officers with this area of responsibility, and Rob Hill form parking enforcement. Solving the problem is taking a long time and each solution paves the way for further problems. In phase 1/2, 240 new parking spaces for police officers have been created, taking them off Malling roads, and will be ready by the end of April, but they won’t make an enormous difference in the long run because the demand constantly increases. Also, other matters arise such as access problems for emergency and utility vehicles, partly caused by inconsiderate parking. A shuttle bus is bringing people from the station, helping to save 30-32 parking spaces, Lift Share arrangements also help. Improvement continues from year to year, and ‘hopefully we notice a little difference.’ A lot was said, much is being done, the police are taking the problem seriously, working with officers responsible for patrolling parking and trying to solve problems. In the end however, we can look forward to small improvements if we are lucky. Everyone takes the matter seriously, but with every development come changes which run counter to improvement. Now for example, people coming to HQ for one-day courses, create their own additional demands, which were not there before. When HQ was developed in 1970 it fitted needs, now everything is congested and it is difficult to see how the problem might be solved. ‘Parking in Lewes as a whole is very difficult; whatever happens, new spaces will be filled. We are all on the same side, but there are no easy answers’. It helps to talk.