Fairlight Focus

Government Consultation on a Mayoral Combined Authority for the whole of Sussex

Dear Resident,

Here is the Government’s consultation paper on the creation of a Mayoral Combined County Authority across the whole of Sussex – East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove.

The three existing Higher-Tier Authorities (East and West Sussex County Councils and Brighton and Hove) have already opted to go down this route in principle, but this is your chance to comment.

The closing dates for comments is 13 April –

https://eu-west-1.protection.sophos.com/?d=www.gov.uk&u=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ292LnVrL2dvdmVybm1lbnQvbmV3cy9kZXZvbHV0aW9uLXByaW9yaXR5LXByb2dyYW1tZS1jb25zdWx0YXRpb25zLWxhdW5jaD9mYmNsaWQ9SXdaWGgwYmdOaFpXMENNVEVBQVIwcXFVdGd5ZUpGcWJCUHlrT3ctNUxCWmhmZ3JoS2pXa0l1cXliQWNrcHVlWWdwNkRXbjVjWk9sVzBfYWVtX2ZsQjk5NEt1MVhGOV94OVMwQUMzaGc=&i=NWNkNDMwZTVlZjNjZjAxM2ZlNTAxOWI1&t=TExmSEJUS0NsdVc0cXJlQm5CVlRnemdSNjFCY1h4bnlaN29HbUhmSC93az0=&h=42d973ccf9104a79ae5fa7f90b42a72c&s=AVNPUEhUT0NFTkNSWVBUSVZ3H2VJeSYRlf_3gy-35dAi2CiSXYdtGqRfjvHMxITxAw

Best wishes,

Andrew

Andrew Mier (cllr.andrew.mier@rother.gov.uk)

Please join us for this event at the Pett Methodist Church on Saturday 8th March; tickets at the door are £5 (free for members) plus donations for tea/coffee and cake.

The format will be questions and answers with photos on a screen.  Annie will also have copies of her book and cards for sale of which a percentage will go toward supporting the ARC.

We do hope you can join us.  Doors open at 2:45 for a 3pm (or soon after) start.  

Our membership year starts again on 1st May and we do hope you will join (form attached to bring with you or they will be available at the door) or better yet set up a Standing Order with your bank for £15 pp each 1st May (our bank details are on the attached form).  Your contribution will help support this valuable community resource which protects our history. 

Thank you, once again, for your ink cartridges.  We have raised another £24 for our Preservation Trust.

Please keep them coming.

Unfortunately, we can’t take toners.

Jill Lewing

MOPP Needs your Help!

Marsham Older Peoples Project provides weekly social activity and a hot meal to residents in and around Fairlight.  This is a lifeline for some members and may be the only time during the week they leave their house. We provide subsidised transport and chiropody, plus in-person advice on benefits
etc.

We survive on members’ lunch payments and transport contributions, plus occasional grants.  Due to the economic climate, grants are becoming almost impossible to obtain and we are now struggling to cover our costs.  Despite cutting our expenditure and increasing fees for lunch and transport, if we cannot improve our income there is a very high likelihood that the charity will cease to function in the Autumn.

So…. We are appealing for your help and asking for people to set up a regular donation to this much-loved charity.  If everyone who receives this email, or reads the appeal in the magazine or Facebook was prepared to donate a monthly sum (of any amount), we would have a stable income and may be able to survive for the foreseeable future.  If you are a UK taxpayer, we can also claim Gift Aid and increase the value of your donation.

We appreciate that most people are not in the age group covered by MOPP, but one day you may  be and it would be a shame to lose such a vital form of support for our members.
If you would like to set up a regular donation, please email mopptreas@gmail.com for further details or a gift aid form.

Thank you.

Ann Hohenkerk

Attention Fairlighters!

The Fairlight Residents Association are proud to announce their forthcoming Spring Time event.

The Spring Fling will be held in the village hall on the evening of Saturday, 5^th April, 2025.

Doors will be open from 7:00 pm that evening. Music to be provided by The Kytes, hot supper, a bar, and many great raffle prizes.

Tickets sold out in record breaking time last year and all indications are that it will be the same this for this year.

So, don’t delay, avoid disappointment and get your tickets now!

Tickets are available from DISH, MOPP’s and Hairbase at £15 each.

Keep an eye out for more updates coming soon!

The Fairlight Astronomers are meeting Thursday 13^th February in the village hall at 7:00 pm.

This months meeting will be reviewing different free software to help you take your astronomy images to the next level.

A step by step guide to using these apps, and some simple techniques, will help you produce some amazing shots to be proud of.

Following our customary break for refreshments there will be our usual slot of “what’s in the night sky” for the following month.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible

How to prolong their life & reduce unnecessary expense

Hello Fairlight!

Activate Youth Club has been on the winter break but will be reopening with a party on Saturday February 1st at Fairlight Village Hall.
The information is attached !
Spread the word!!!
Any questions contact Wendy on familyhatch1@gmail.com

Wendy & the team!

Wow! What an amazing evening.

So many people braved the chilly evening to come and see the stars and planets last night at Wood Field.

With close up viewings of Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars the night sky really did put on a show for us.

Not a single cloud in sight made for uninterrupted views of what ever we fancied.

Even the moon was stunning through the telescope, with fabulous up-close views of craters, mountain ranges, and valleys.

Hot Chocolate, muffins and cake was on offer for people looking for  a quick warm-up between the targets.

A massive thank you to everyone who came along.

Keep an eye out for news of the next viewing session.

Fowarded from East Susses Highways 

I am writing to advise that we will be carrying out drainage works on Waites Lane, Fairlight, on 20 and 21 January 2025. Works will be taking place between 9am and 4pm under temporary traffic lights.

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards

Liam Reilly

Stakeholder Liaison Team

East Sussex Highways

T: 03450 712715

E: customerservicemanager@eastsussexhighways.com–

Steve Stewart

Chair. Fairlight Parish Council

07581 305310

Dear Resident,

Further to my previous email and following the Government’s 16 December White Paper the Chief Executive of East Sussex County Council has issued the following statement –

“I promised to update you on the fast-moving events in East Sussex around the Government’s ambitions for devolution and local government reorganisation.

For those of you who weren’t there, today our [East Sussex County Council] Cabinet has agreed to ask the government to approve a proposal for a combined mayoral authority for Sussex with an elected mayor to take a strategic lead on issues including transport, housing, health, environment, public safety, skills and the economy.

This request was simultaneously agreed by the cabinets of West Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council.

If the Government agrees the proposal, the three councils will work together – and with all our partners – to develop plans for a mayoral authority which provides a strong voice for Sussex and pulls down more powers and investment for the area from central government. We expect to hear from the Government by the end of January.

Separately, East and West Sussex County Councils will write to the Government to request that our respective local elections, due in May 2025, are postponed by the Government to ensure devolution can be delivered at pace and mayoral elections can take place in May 2026.

We have also confirmed we will work with others to suggest a model of unitary government to replace the two-tier model here. This is in response to the Government’s request for such a proposal which it believes would be cost efficient and easier for residents. As you know we can all expect the Government to write to us later in the month with more details about the next steps on local government reorganisation.

There is more information in the joint press release we are issuing today with West Sussex and with Brighton and Hove.

  Sussex councils agree to submit expression of interest to devolution priority programme | The Newsroom   “

Assuming the government accepts what the Counties propose, and it will, then Rother District Council will be abolished, along with the other district / borough councils in Sussex. The reorganisation will take at least a couple of years to achieve. Rother councillors and officers will need to work with County and the government to secure the best possible outcome for residents and the smoothest of handovers. 

Parish (and Town) councils seem set to continue under the new system. The White Paper reiterates the government’s commitment to localism – taking decisions at the level closest to the people. It is likely that Parishes will be further professionalised with improved training and a Standards regime with teeth. Arrangements will have to be made of the governance of Hastings which will cease to be a Borough Council, but does not as yet have any Parish Councils.

I assume that the transfer of assets and liabilities to the new unitary County Authority will be interesting. Fair treatment of all parts of Sussex will need to be achieved. 

Planning will be a County / unitary responsibility and we shall have to see how that is handled. It is possible there would be area planning committees, but what form they will take is not known. The White Paper sees it as a positive change that there will be fewer councillors (and elections) following restructuring and it is important enough councillors with the appropriate skills to sit on such committees are available. The government has wider plans involving the planning system and planning committees –

Major overhaul of planning committees to get Britain building – GOV.UK

I have to say there is little to support the contention that planning committees are a significant cause of the failure to build the number of houses the government needs – the causes are far more complicated and beyond the scope of this note.

For the time being Rother and County continue to provide their usual services – residents should experience no change.

Best wishes,

Andrew

Cllr Andrew Mier

Southern Rother Ward

(The villages of Fairlight, Guestling, Icklesham and Pett)

Mistral, Shepherds Way, Fairlight TN35 4BB

Tel 07941-693737

Email cllr.andrew.mier@rother.gov.uk

The Fairlight Pantomime presents BUTTONS the Pantomime on Thursday 23rd, Friday 24th and Saturday 25th January.

This is a new production, not to be missed. If you haven’t already got your tickets there are a few left  particularly on Thursday night.

Do come along and join in the fun. We look forward to seeing you at the Village Hall.

Dear All. 

Please see the poster below for our next meeting on 9th January. 

As per, the evening will be divided in two. The first half presentation will be an introduction to a “step by step” way to explore some easy ways to process your astronomy images. 

The second part will be your “homework” for the following weeks until we meet up in February. 

I look forward to seeing you all. 

Please keep a close eye on messages for any updates. If it looks like a clear evening, we could try for some observing on Wood Field 🤞🏼

Unfortunately Ron Fellows Turnbull will not be able to give his talk on January 8th.  Instead Sue Kirby will tell of the Alexandra Park Greenhouse Restoration Project.

The meeting is at the village hall and starts at 2.30.  Visitors very welcome for £3.

Shirley Gilbert

Local NHS hearing aid maintenance sessions will continue in 2025 at:

Pett Village Hall on the first Wednesday of every month (except January) between 10am and 11.30am

Fairlight Village Hall on the first Friday of every month between 10am and 12noon

NEXT DATES

Because of New Years Day, January’s Pett session will be delayed one week meaning the next dates are:

Fairlight Village Hall on Friday 3rd January

Pett Village Hall on Wednesday 8th January

At these sessions new tubes can be fitted, other non-electronic maintenance carried out, batteries supplied and basic advice provided. The service is provided free of charge to NHS hearing aid users by trained volunteers from the charity East Sussex Hearing who work in conjunction with NHS Audiology and support their services across the whole of East Sussex.

Other local sessions include Hastings, St Leonards, Rye and Bexhill.

For further details visit http://www.eshrc.org or call 01323 722505

Another roaring success from Bob and Dec.

As well as being a fantastic night out, this year’s Christmas Quiz raised £1,103 for East Sussex Hearing.

Well done guys

Following on from our previous email we have arranged a shuttle service to serve Fairlight, which will be operating tomorrow (14/12/24). This shuttle service will operate to and from the Ore, Co-op bus stop.

Please see below for the timetable. This timetable has been created in accordance with the existing 101/100 services timings, so that passengers are able to travel towards Hastings/Rye, without too much transfer time.mentioned previously, Flexibus has also been made available to residents in this location, whilst this emergency closure is in place.

Regrettably, we are unable to offer a shuttle service for Fairlight on Sunday 15/12/24. As far as the shuttle service on Monday – Friday is concerned, Rambler coaches is able to operate the same timetable as applied today, next Monday 16/12/24, and from Wednesday 18/12/24 onwards, next week, as required.

Negotiations with operators to try and secure a service on Tuesday 17/12/24 are on-going. We hope to update you regarding this on Monday.

Following is a copy of an email I sent to the Parish Councillors. I’ve been asked by Andrew Mier to publicise it and encourage as many people that I can to protest to Rother Planning about this potential eyesore throughout our village. You can register your comments by entering “Fairlight” and the dates between 3rd November and 10th December here https://planweb01.rother.gov.uk/OcellaWeb/planningSearch

QUOTE:

Dear all

I’ve just listened to Tuesday’s PC meeting and noticed a potential problem.

There are a couple of planning applications for “telegraph poles” that, with respect, I don’t think you’ve understood the potential ramifications for the village if you accept them.

The application has been made by a company called Trooli who are a high speed broadband supplier. https://www.trooli.com/

If these applications are approved they will almost certainly be used as a stalking horse for poles to be erected all over the village together with fibre cables joining them together and properties buying into the service, effectively doubling up on all the BT poles and cables, plus the electricity poles and cables already in the village. Obviously poles and cables are cheaper than burying them but they create an eyesore.

As can be seen in Hastings, where Lightning Fibre have installed high speed broadband, it is perfectly possible to bury the cables and, thus avoid the eyesores.  https://www.lightningfibre.co.uk/home-broadband

I believe that Fairlight is on Lightning Fibres’ hit list so perhaps the PC could ask Trooli why they are installing above ground rather than below. Also I think it might be a good idea for the PC to contact Lightning Fibre to find out when they could cable the village. In my view, even if it results in a delay in getting high speed in the village, we should pursue the below ground option if possible and avoid further eyesores.

Regards

Chris Bunch

UNQUOTE

Dear Resident and fellow jigsaw puzzle enthusiast.

As usual I will at the Village Hall Christmas Fair this Saturday.

I hope to see Santa and you there 12.00 -3.00pm.

Thank you for donations, but my stock is overloading my storage, so please no more donations and please do not leave puzzles in the Village Hall.

Many thanks

Trevor

Dear Fairlight Residents,

As many of you know, at the beginning of 2024, there was a building number of complaints about Hill Surgery; in response, we established The Hill Surgery Action Group (HSAG), and two committee members also joined the now-dissolved Patient Participation Group (PPG) as committee members. Much of the disruption stemmed from the merger, the disastrous computer transition, and a shift to an outsourced call centre. The HSAG committee met with the NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) several times, and they took the complaints seriously enough to implement an action plan for the surgery.  In fairness, much of this has been followed and executed. In addition, the surgery was already working with the CQC recommendations, which they were obliged to correct to improve their CQC rating from the Harold Road Special Measures rating issued before the merger.

The HSAG committee is considering disbanding the group. Still, we would like to assess the current situation to determine if the surgery has gotten back on track before we make that decision. Since the PPG’s dissolution and the transition to a newsletter-based patient participation platform, we have not held face-to-face meetings to discuss patient concerns as the surgery did not feel our input was representative of the entire patient base, a decision we never understood but had to accept.  However, we believe that most of the initial dissatisfaction has been addressed; ultimately, they listened and took corrective action, which was always our objective – service improvement.  Therefore, we would like to survey patients and HSAG members to see if they feel there has been sufficient improvement for us to step down.

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. The QR code attached will take you to an online survey we have added to our website. Simply open and point your smart phone camera at it and click the link.  You can also click here on the homepage to go straight to the page. Scroll down to the survey.  Finally, if you prefer to go via the website, go to www.hsag.org.uk  and scroll down, where you will also find all the meeting notes, particularly those we took at the final PPG meeting, which proved significantly eventful for all concerned!

The survey is anonymous. We will publish the findings in a few weeks and share them with the surgery team.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a healthy New Year!

Kind regards,

Maxine Green, on behalf of The Hill Surgery Action Group (HSAG)

Fernbank, Shepherds Way.

From: LWLRMA Fairlight (lowerwaiteslane@gmail.com)

A Fairlight Pathfinder and other Southern Water matters open meeting will be held in the village hall on Thursday 6th February 2025 between 15:00 and 19:00

Apart from representatives from the Fairlight Pathfinder Group there will be others representing mains water leakage and information about the correct stuff to put down your toilet and kitchen sink to avoid blockages in the sewer system.

The later time has been arranged for the benefit of the increasing numbers of working residents in our village who have missed out on the previous ones held at lunchtime during DISH

It’s open to ALL residents so please take this opportunity to come along and ask as many questions as you like. It’s a great opportunity to understand the problems that have confronted Southern Water in the Fairlight catchment and what they are doing to address them. They are currently spending many £ millions in our area and onward to Rye Harbour.

Please click the link below to read your Parish Council’s xmas newsletter.

Parish Council Newsletter – Fairlight Parish Council—

Steve Stewart

Chair. Fairlight Parish Council

07581 305310

The parish council are meeting on Tuesday the 10th December at 6.30  where the market garden is on the agenda. 

There has been a revised planning application RR/2024/997/P submitted on the 28th November.  

The application suggest the installation of a pre seeded erosion control blanket at the east end of the market garden (no12) and reprofiling  the bank which may affect residents in the Avenue and Lower Waites Lane .

Regards 

Lee miller

FREE NHS HEARING AID BATTERIES & FREE MAINTENANCE

It is the first week of the new month so this is a reminder that the next local NHS hearing aid maintenance 

sessions will be held at:

Pett Village Hall between 10am and 11.30am on Wednesday 4th DecemberFairlight Village Hall between 10am and 12 noon on Friday 6th December

Please note these will be the last local sessions before Christmas

An EGM meeting for the FPC has been called on the 10th of December to discuss the setting of the budget for 2025/6.

Agenda here

Steve Stewart

Chair. Fairlight Parish Council

07581 305310

Please find below the email address of  the Fairlight Parish Councillors including the clerk/RFO

The councillor email addresses will change, in time, to bring them in line with government standards.

Clerk/RFO

Mrs. Danielle Gould

fairlighparishcouncil@gmail.com

07487 822729

Steve Stewart

chair.fairlightpc@gmail.com

Geoff Smith

cllr.g.smithfpc@gmail..com

Lyn Cooke

cllrlcooke99.fairlightpc@gmail.com

Dominc Pichard

cllr.d.pichard@gmail.com

Stephen Baker

cllrsbaker.fairlightpc@gmail.com

Michael Clarke

cllr.m.clarke@gmail.com

Sarah Whiteman

cllr.s.whiteman@gmail.com

Lee miller

cllr.l.miller@gmail.com

Many thanks.

Steve Stewart

Chair. Fairlight Parish Council

07581 305310

Dear resident

You may be aware that the new Fairlight War Memorial has been installed at St Andrews Church and the War Memorial Group are arranging a dedication service to be held on Saturday 30^thNovember at 11am in St Andrews Church.

As a member of this Group, I have been asked to invite Fairlight residents to this service.  As seats are limited this will be on a first come, first served basis and requests for a seat should be sent to my email: wmsg.fairlightpc@gmail.com.  If you wish to attend, please let me have your name and numbers by the end of the day on Friday 22^nd November.  

Could I also remind residents who have already been invited to RSVP.  If I don’t receive a reply your seat will be re-allocated.

Thank you for your time

Pauline Collins

Dear Resident,
A message from Rother District Council –
I would really appreciate it if anyone who was aware of anyone rough sleeping locally that they could be asked to report via

StreetLink – Connecting people sleeping rough to local services

Start by clicking on help someone rough sleeping, it then allows you to give detailed information around the location. Our outreach team could then target these areas and it may also allow us to check these locations as part of the annual street count.”
At previous counts numbers sleeping rough have been very low in Rother, though nationally and locally homelessness is increasing and Rother has a duty to support those affected.
Best wishes,
Andrew Mier