Rodmell and Southease

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY: Tuesday, Rodmell and Southease WI meet in Rodmell Village Hall at 7.30pm. There will be Line Dancing with Chester Funnell. Sunday March 26, Mothering Sunday. There will be a special service in Southease Church at 11am. Wednesday March 29, Coffee Club in Rodmell Village Hall from 11am. A popular, chatty monthly event to which all are welcome. Saturday April 1, Rodmell Spring Show, 2.30pm in the Village Hall. A schedule will be dropping through your letterbox soon.

LETTER: I had a letter from HM Revenue and Customs recently, giving details of my mother’s tax code for 6/4/17 to 5/4/18. As she died last year I thought I had better let them know, so I phoned the telephone number given. What did I get, you guessed it, a machine answering service which gave several options, but none on reporting bereavement. I now need to go to Rodmell Good Neighbours Scheme to get help via a computer to report Mum’s death. Now I am lucky enough to live in a village which gives me support when needed on these things. But suppose I was an old person, hidden away in say a high rise flat, on my own, no family, maybe no friends and no computer (and believe me there are such people, and they are not the forgotten few but as I’m told many), how will they cope?

CHILDREN: Seeing all the healthy children in our village, and comparing them with the four-year old children working 12-hour days for about the equivalent of our £1 a day, digging in unsafe mines for cobalt to make billions for companies which use it in all forms of technology, brings bile to the mouth. Technology helps our world in many ways, but it is destroying it and its people in so many other ways.

BAD LANGUAGE: Hearing that Bolton is going to fine people for swearing in its town centre, in wonder how they are going to do this. I can remember the days when we had bobbies on the beat and you would be reprimanded for using foul language and you learnt from the reprimand, because there were standards then. As bad language is used frequently on TV, especially in alternative humour, is it any wonder that standards have slipped and people think it is the thing to do? I wonder how it would go down in Lewes if they decided to follow Bolton? £100 seems a bit hefty and how would they do it? My friends and I hate swearing but it seems it’s yet another factor of modern life. Just as a thought, would alternative humour be less funny if the F and C words were cut out? Eric and Ernie, and Ronnie Barker etc, seem to have managed to keep fans over the years without it. I know many youngsters love to watch them so it isn’t always a youth thing.

CRUFTS: Watching Crufts this year, I was pleased to see a Beagle get placed in the hound section. As I kept Beagles for over 40 years, I have a great love of them.

SHEEP WORRYING: We are still hearing about farmers having to cope with their sheep being chased and killed by dogs. Is it too much to ask people to keep their dogs on leads at this time of year when lambs are everywhere.

ACCIDENTS: Yet more prangs on the C7 on Saturday. I hear one was at the farm at Kingston, and we had a three-car prang on our corner yet again. Speed is often the factor on this road and blind entrances onto it from villages. I’ve heard so many people being hooted at whilst I’m in my garden, only because they are waiting to turn right up Mill Lane and someone flying around from Lewes is suddenly confronted by a car waiting in the middle of the road.

PARISH COUNCIL: At our parish council meeting, the matter of having a notice or yellow line put around the pub corner came up, as so many people park there. It’s so dangerous as it’s very narrow and doesn’t give people much space to manoeuvre as they turn left from Lewes to go down The Street. One villager has already had her car written off and surely human life is worth saving for the sake of a yellow line, a notice and a little thought.

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