Hurstpierpoint Village News

HURST FESTIVAL: This is the first week of our wonderful festival.  Amazingly, this is the twenty-second year! Congratulations to the organisers for the wide range of events; the plan has always been that there is ‘something for everyone’ and I hope you have discovered the events that particularly appeal to you. There are big gigs in the church and village centre, small gigs in houses, all sorts of music, plays, talks, art and comedy, walks, films, poetry, the heritage trail. It’s YOUR Festival, please support it! www.hurstfestival.org.

DISTRICT PLAN: Alison Bennett, our Member of Parliament, has responded to the plan for additional housing. She very kindly thanked me for putting this item in last week, so I am repeating it.  She reports that Mid Sussex District Council spent years preparing its District Plan. Sites were assessed, communities were consulted, infrastructure needs were considered and the Plan secured cross-party support from Green, Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors. Then, late in the examination process, Mid Sussex was told by the Government’s Planning Inspectorate that it needed to accommodate substantially more housing. She emphasises that Mid Sussex has not refused to build homes. It has planned for housing and has a strong record of delivering it. But communities should not be expected to accept thousands more homes without the same careful planning that went into the District Plan in the first place. The consultation closed on Monday 7 September.

HIGH STREET NEWS: No more changes that I have noticed this week.  But there will be a very sad change after the end of this week as Andree and Lee Tite are closing Pierpoint Pet Supplies after more than thirty years. We thank them for their dedicated service and sheer hard work, for the range of their stock, and for their friendly service. I don’t have a pet any longer, but have been very pleased to feed the birds in our garden with the excellent range of bird food that they stock. One closes and another opens, so we welcome  Marples Cakery which is shortly opening in the premises formerly occupied by Hurstpierpoint Alterations. Apart from the former Nationwide premises, which is still unoccupied, I think that completes the High Street. Please keep using our shops. It’s no good driving out of the village to a superstore and then expecting our local shops to be there when you have forgotten to buy something. They need us.

SOUTHEAST WATER HOSEPIPE RESTRICTIONS: I’ve checked their website and confirm that this is still in place as we still haven’t had any significant rain. My brown lawn is looking forward to the rain which has been forecast but not yet arrived.  Their website asks us to continue to use water carefully. www.southeastwater.co.uk

HURSTPIERPOINT & SAYERS COMMON PARISH COUNCIL:  www.hurstpierpoint-pc.gov.uk  September 17th - Finance Governance & Estates; 24th - Full Council. All are open to the public and most take place in the Village Centre with others in Sayers Common Village Hall.

HURST FILMS: 22 September, 7.30 pm, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’.  26 September, 10 am: ‘Flow’, which took the Golden Globe and Oscar for best animation last year is certainly original.  Without dialogue but using real recorded animal sounds, it follows a cat avoiding a flood and being forced to coexist and cooperate with various other animals.  Aimed at our younger audience for sure, but any animal, in particular cat, lovers, will find plenty to enjoy.  8 October, 7 pm:  NT Live's ‘The Misanthrope’, starring Sandra Oh and Paul Chahidi in Moliere's classic.  Tickets from Hurst Films, Charlotte Grace or the Festival website.  www.hurstfilms.com.

HURSTPIERPOINT HISTORICAL & GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY: Tuesday, 29 September, 7:30pm, Players Theatre. “The History & Natural History of the Ditchling Commons”. This talk is about the history of these Commons and their vast range of flora and fauna. The speaker is Phil Cribb, a Trustee of the Commons and a former Kew Garden Botanist. £5 for Non-Members. All welcome.

HURSTPIERPOINT HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, Tuesday, 13 October, 7.45 pm, Village Centre. Fungi and Mushrooms, an illustrated talk by Iona Fraser on their identification and many uses.

HURSTPIERPOINT MACMILLAN COMMITTEE, Friday, 25 September, Annual Coffee Morning, 10 am to 12 noon.  Bowls Club, South Avenue.  Entrance is £4 which includes your coffee/tea and a slice of delicious homemade cake! There will be a bric a brac stall, tombola, a bottle tombola and a raffle. Any enquiries please phone Hilary on 07779 802026.

PLEASE SEND ME YOUR PROGRAMMES. Many groups and organisations send me information about their activities, but many don’t! If you are a member of a committee or group in the village that would like people to know more about what you do, please let me know and I shall be delighted to include the information.

Thank you for reading this column. It is also available online on www.yourworldnet/sussex/west-sussex/mid-sussex.  Please keep the information coming so that I can keep people in touch with what is happening. It’s particularly useful for people who don’t use social media or the internet.