Fairlight

It’s well worth noting that Pett’s Messy Church meets next Monday, April 8, at 11 am.

Looking a little further ahead, on Sunday of next week, April 14, which is Palm Sunday, Pett Methodists will be having a donkey procession from the grassy corner by Allards on Pett Road along to the chapel. Meet at 10 am and process to the church with the donkeys and flags! Worship at the chapel follows at 10.45 am as usual!

MOPPs today: Today, Friday, April 5, Celia King will be here with her chair-based exercises, and also Nicola’s Age UK toenail cutting service. Lunch is beef lasagne and salad, with fruit saladto follow. Next Friday, April 12, Bon Marche will be here, as well as Movie Day., and lunch next week will be roast gammon, followed by panna cotta.

That MOPPs co-ordinator vacancy: It was bare facts last week, in saying MOPPs needs a Co-ordinator, plus a Chair and Deputy Chair, but this didn’t make mention of the fact that current post holder Carolyn Smith had been forced to resign due to some very difficult personal circumstances, and had been obliged to move to the Derby district. Carolyn will miss being at MOPPs, and all, from members, Officers, Committee and volunteers will miss her very much indeed.

The Gardening Club’s April meeting: Despite the sunny Monday afternoon this week, members of the Gardening Club forsook their gardens in favour of listening to a very informative and interesting talk by Barry Yates from the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. This, their April meeting, was well attended and Barry proved to be as entertaining as always with plenty of historical information about how the Reserve was formed plus new facts and figures about the different species of birds, insects and plants to be found there. A major project underway is the construction of a new Discovery Centre which will replace Lime Kiln Cottage as a sophisticated visitor-and-education centre and the plan is to open this new building in 2020, celebrating the Reserve’s 50th birthday. Among others, it’s sure to prove a popular attraction for many in Fairlight!

Easter Fun Event: On Easter Saturday, April 20 in the village hall from 10 am to 1 pm, the Fairlight Playgroup will be running a fun event. Admission is free, but each activity is individually priced. There’s an Easter Egg Hunt, cuddly critters and feather and fan dancing, with sustenance from tea, coffee and cakes when you need them. Please notice the donations bucket at the door – and don’t just pass it by!

The Club Quiz: Easter Saturday, April 20, is promising to be a thoroughly entertaining day for, following the Playgroup event at lunchtime, the Club will be hosting a Quiz evening starting at 7.30 pm in the village hall. It will cost you £2 per person entrance, in teams of no more than six each. Nibbles will be provided. Oh yes, that’s right – the tickets are either at the Post Office or direct from Wendy Hatch.

The Community Library: Our Community Library, situate in the Post Office and General Stores, will be shutting for the Easter recess after the closing at 4 pm on Maundy Thursday, April 11, and will re-open once again on for 2 pm on Tuesday, April 30. Get your books for Easter before April 11!

Rye and District Dementia group: The group AGM will be held from 6.30 to 8 pm on Wednesday, April 10, at Tilling Green Community Centre, Mason Rd, Rye. There will be

Information stands, and a guest speaker from Unicook, the stove guard experts. Refreshments will be available. If you intend to go along, please reply to Daliea Redman (Chair) [email protected], or phone 0773 735 0896.

The Players’ Poetry Group: The Group next meets on Wednesday, April 10, in the village hall at 7.30 pm. Chairman Keith Miller is hoping for ‘something creative and inspiring (or just something!) about Fashion or Footwear’. If you’ve never been before, give them a look…

Dramatic Tragedy: Events last Saturday caught the attention of everybody in the village, with the arrival of several major fire appliances plus Air Ambulance presence pursuing a fire in Lower Waites Lane. The homeowner, Frances Winch, was airlifted to hospital suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. Sadly, the lady died of her injuries the next day. I understand Frances had been a History teacher at Helenswood School, and will be remembered with respect and affection by countless ladies who were her pupils of several years ago. A lady of considerable charm, she will be missed about the village.

An elderly planning event: There is to be a free seminar in the village hall on Thursday, April 18, when Peter Wallace of Hastings and Rother Legal Services will be discussing many aspects of administering an estate, wills, probate, planning for funerals and so on. This session is designed to be a forum at which you can ask questions about a multiplicity of details that you may find a worry. There will be no selling at this meeting. If you would like more information about the event, please call 813346.

Easter Treasure Hunt!: The Club is running an Easter Treasure Hunt on Wednesday, April 17. Meet up at the Clubhouse ready for an 11 am start, and then at 5 minutes intervals. The hunt will be followed by hot dogs! For families or groups of friends to search out clues and EGGS! The cost individuals is £2, and for families, £5. Donations would be welcome for hotdogs!

Meet at the Clubhouse Start at 11am and at 5 min intervals.

Parish Council News: Bad Parking: The March meeting of the Council immediately followed an hour’s get together with current Councillors in attendance questions from members of the public who could be interested in standing for the PC when the May election date comes around. A number showed their interest, and there could be sufficient to fill the known imminent vacancies. The normal monthly Council business was concluded smoothly within an hour, but there was considerable attention accorded to two features proposed as future agenda items by Cllr Issy Horsley. The first was with regard to the increasing number of cars being parked half on the road and half on the pavement, which can be exceptionally dangerous for pushchair users and their contents, while bad and selfish road parking changes the road configuration completely, making increased accidents and crashes far more probable. Incidentally, the silver car permanently camped on the west side of Waites Lane has been shown to be an abandoned vehicle, so get used to it as it could be here for a long, hot summer before it gets towed. Parking too close to corners, as happens outside St Peter’s, is another selfish, lazy and mindless exercise, which is probably most likely to result in damage to the badly parked item.

Social Media: Cllr Horsley wants the PC to discuss ‘What’s Going On in Fairlight’ with its administrator or moderator, which she believed, correctly, had had several posts recently traducing her roundly for something patently not her responsibility – some cutting back of the undergrowth round the Wood Field tennis court. The matter was raised at the PC meeting last November, and reference was made in the post to the minutes of that meeting. What had not been mentioned was that Cllr Horsley had merely asked the question about cutting back, and that the start of the minutes show both her and Cllr Mier as declaring an interest as tennis club members, which means that they both left the meeting when their colleagues discussed the point. We have surely come a long way since the days of ‘shooting the messenger’, haven’t we? Does anyone remember some forty years ago – ‘Ensure brain is engaged before operating mouth’? It looks as if an update is necessary – ‘engage brain before putting fingers on keyboard’. A further irate post on the subject traduces the Cricket Club for the heavy pruning, without any rhyme, reason or logic. This group seemed like a good idea when it began, but is slipping down some nastier by-ways.

Our major Minor Road, continued: Having pointed out recently that we do not agree with the East Sussex assessment that the Fairlight Road is a minor entity, because it is our only road, God bless it, and we now turn to the further East Sussex statement that this road is safe, based probably on the fact that only one cyclist has died along the road in the recent past. Possibly speed was involved, but the point at which the accident occurred happened to be where the slope is steepest and the bend sharpest, a point in space which makes local motorists sense there is an adverse camber on this bend. Which is not going to help much if you’re on a speeding bike.

It appears that the County Council is prepared to react to the survey that returned over 90% of our residents being unhappy with the state of the roads. It might have been more had I ever seen a survey, but no… Anyway, it seems likely that the ridged bit of road surface at the south side at the top of the hill, like mini sandbars at low tide, may be dressed fairly soon, a cosmetic nothingness. Which just proves they’re still missing the point – Fairlight Road needs serious money spending on it, for several stretches need to be completely re-built. Double deckers and very heavy goods vehicles use this road every day, and it is incapable of carrying these loads.