Icklesham

Sunday 1 June 10.30 Parish Eucharist in All Saints with St. Nicolas.

4-6 Queen’s Head live music has Pete Prescott doing covers. Next Wednesday 4 June at 8.30 the pub has a Quiz Night in aid of St. Michael’s Hospice.

Eco-tourism is a term associated with the wide open and empty regions of the world and it’s good to realise that it is important in Icklesham and the surrounding area with its two major Nature Reserves. The 1066 and the many well signed footpaths plus the variety of habitats, wetland, salt marsh,mixed woodland,coast and cliffs, attract visitors and local pubs and shops benefit. Between 11 and 17 May Kate and Syd at Manor Farm Oast had their regular guests, a group of nature lovers, whose main interest was birds. In that short time they saw 106 species of birds,recorded 86 different plants in flower plus mammals,butterflies,moths,reptiles,dragonflies and other invertebrates. There in not enough space to list them all but if anyone is interested let me know and I can give you the details. It is not a definitive list as none of the birds who visit in winter are here by mid May.Amongst the birds are some iconic species like the Bittern, the Red Kite,Bearded Tit and Goldcrest. In the plant list are many unusual names - Nottingham Catchfly, Common Mouse-Ear,Dove’s Foot Crane’s Bill, Common Twayblade and Hemlock Water Dropwort. Moths too have poetic labels -Clouded Bordered Brindle, Least Black Arches,Bright Line Brown Eye and Hebrew Character and they saw a dragonfly called The Beautiful Demoiselle. I admire the skills of these naturalists who could see Porpoises and Glow-Worms and could identify a Noctule Bat when there are 13 other different species of British bats to choose from .

Tuesday 20 May. The New Pavilion Lottery for May was kindly made by Richard Phillips in The Robin Hood. The winners were

1st £40 Anne Grainger

2nd £20 Nigel Sellman

3rd £15 Wayne Carter

4th £10 Ann Rachlin

5th £5 Ainan Ahmad

Three new members joined the draw bringing membership for May to 182.Thanks to all who support the lottery. Over £1500 has now been raised.

East Sussex Hearing Resource Centre is a registered charity, working in partnership with Adult Social Care, to provide a no charge mobile information and advice service for the deaf,deafened and hard of hearing people living in this county. The vehicle, which is funded by the Big Lottery, is equipped to offer demonstrations of assistive equipment and hearing screening tests(if time permits).

Thursday 26 June 1.30 -3.30pm the mobile unit will be in The Robin Hood Car Park.The bus is accessible to wheelchair users and representatives from both the East Sussex Hearing Resource Centre and Adult Social Care will be available to provide individual information and advice on all aspects of hearing loss.

For further information please contact;

East Sussex Hearing Resource Centre,

01323 722505 (voice/text/fax) e-mail [email protected]

Monday 19 May Icklesham Parish Council’s Annual Parish Meeting was held in Winchelsea Beach Community Hall.This meeting is held in rotation so that in future Icklesham,Winchelsea and Rye Harbour will be hosts.The meeting summarises the Council’s year but only 5 residents from the 4 communities attended.-This was a pity as Ian Nunn of the Environmental Agency’s account of the survival of this area in that so wet winter was very dramatic.Rye had its highest ever tide. The report of the Chair Peter Turner was the main part of the meeting. The start of the year was inauspicious for both Mr Turner and the newly appointed Parish Clerk Mrs Anna Evett. Between them they had to cope with the difficult process of disqualifying a Councillor for failing to attend and then administering the subsequent bye-election. Peter Turner continued to describe the Council’s achievements. In April 2013 the Youth Club started in Winchelsea Beach Community Hall. It has now moved its base to Icklesham Memorial Hall and has gone from strength to strength. He said the Council was “both pleased and proud to have provided financial support to this project and wish it every success in the future.I would like to add my personal thanks” “to those directly involved namely Councillors Lywood,Moore and Warren”.

Last summer the Council supported the provision of further activities for the young at Icklesham. This project was organised by”Street Games” and this was well attended.

The Council is responsible for the regular maintenance of the recreation spaces in each of its 4 wards -grass cutting,hedge cutting and fence repair.Play equipment is managed by the Council and this year Icklesham’s play space was completely reconstructed. This has been a great success with many more children and adults using the Recreation Ground and most( not all) safely crossing the A259 at the controlled traffic lights.A review is now underway of the play equipment in Winchelsea,Winchelsea Beach and Rye Harbour. There are 4 allotments managed by the Council including a small site in Icklesham and 2 larger areas in Winchelsea. There is usually a waiting list but any resident of the Parish Council area can apply so if you are interested contact the Acting Parish Clerk.

The Council provides bus passengers shelters and is looking to provide an additional shelter in Icklesham where school pupils have to stand in the opening all weathers.

All 4 Halls receive an annual grant to help with running costs. This support is vital as none of the Halls achieve much more than to break even on operating costs on an annual basis.

Outside Icklesham itself the Council is responsible for Winchelsea’s street lighting; it is negotiating with Rother about the future of the Car Park and toilets at Rye Harbour and has started on an emergency plan for Winchelsea Beach. Mrs Evett who was Parish Clerk at the star of Peter Turner’s Chairmanship has resigned to take up a similar post in Battle. The deputy clerk has stepped in but the pressure on the staff is obviously increased.

The Chairman’s Report concluded with a reminder that a Parish Council’s powers are limited.”What it does have is the ability to pressurize principal councils and such bodies s public utility companies to improve their services to residents of the Parish.It is not always successful but there are no limitations on how long the Parish can pursue a particular issue.”

In the Euro elections on Thursday 22 May the total number of people in Icklesham eligible to votr was 726. 272 actually voted in the Memorial Hall which is a 37.5% turnout. There were 90 applications for a postal vote and theseare not taken into consideration when turnout ic calculated.

Laurie Bowman

Magpies, Oast House Field