Latest News of Local Interest
Extreme Social Distancing
No bonfires!
The Parish Council has received several complaints about bonfire smoke. Please remember that Mid Sussex District Council is asking us to not burn garden waste, or any other waste, during this period. Recently they said: “People are experiencing breathing problems due to the Covid-19 illness and bonfire smoke aggravates these symptoms. We can issue fines of £100 if you continue to burn despite being asked to stop”. Since recycling centres have reopened and garden waste collections have restarted this week, there’s now even less reason to burn waste. Click here for the MSDC guidance.
Back at the tip update
South Downs News, May issue
There’s another plug for the food map that we were impolite about last month. It has improved very slightly: food is now reported to be obtainable in Steyning (from Sussex Produce and Truffles); and nutrition has also come to Small Dole (The Raw Chocolate Company and Truffles, again). There’s a cute picture of an “ecosystem engineer” (a water vole) who is celebrating a small grant for new livestock fencing. There’s a report from Rolls Royce (Chichester) who, thanks to an SDNPA grant worth less than 10% of the cost of one of their vehicles, has been able to move from car production to honey production. And there’s news of “a net zero carbon emissions” housing development near Fernhurst with emissions to be tackled by “photovoltaic panels and wood burning stoves”. Wood burning stoves??
Community Skills Swap
The community skills swap whatsapp group is going so well. It has become a wonderful thing of people giving, lending and accepting, befriending and supporting. We have seventy five members at the moment. If anyone would like to join just click the logo above.
Find a Fulking filming venue
We are hoping that before too long we can start work filming for BREMF@home. We are keen to use a variety of interesting locations in and around Sussex but will be working on a very tight budget. Can you help us? If you, or someone you know, owns or has access to any of the following types of buildings, rooms or places, and would be prepared to let us use them for a day once it is safe to do so (preferably free of charge beyond expenses), we would be very grateful. In some cases it might be a case of knowing about a rather wonderful place with free access:
- A field with old breeds of sheep
- A traditional rural cottage garden
- A flowing stream
- A wildflower meadow
- An old rustic barn
- A traditional farmyard
- An elegant period drawing room
Back at the tip
Downland Churches News
We have been holding our Sunday services on-line during this Covid-19 lock-down. It has been encouraging to see so many people coming together via Zoom; last Sunday 37 devices were signed in, many with two people on board, and guests are joining us from as far away as Spain and Australia. If you would like to join us please do get in touch with your email address so that we can add you to the weekly invitation list.
Closer to home; our church finances are a bit worrying. We had a (virtual) meeting of our Benefice Council this week where we learned from our treasurers that each of our four churches is likely to be down on income by around £4,500 this year as we are not able to hold our usual fundraising events and, of course there are no weekly collections or gifts from visitors to our churches. Unfortunately the savings we make as a result of our churches being closed are very small as most of our outgoings continue regardless – such as our insurance premiums and Parish Share to the diocese.
Green bins uncancelled
