As readers who heard Peter Griffiths speak at the recent meeting of Fulking Parish Council already know, Mayfield Market Towns has been caught telling porkies. You can catch up on all the details at the LAMBS website. Nothing that Mayfield says in the future can be taken at face value.
Category: Home Page
Not in our front yard
The Midhurst and Petworth Observer has an interesting report from a Chichester local plan hearing:
Ian Ellis, director of Southern Planning Practice, [said]
The [South Downs] National Park will do the least it possibly can to meet its objectively-assessed housing need, whatever that is going to turn out to be. It will expect a proportion of its objectively-assessed housing need is met by other authorities. My experience is when they go forward with the local plan, they will be .. saying ‘can you accommodate X per cent because we don’t want to accommodate it here and we don’t have to’.
In response, the SDNPA’s strategic planning lead Lucy Howard said the plan was yet to finalise its decisions: “The authority does need to consider the purpose and duty of a national park,” she said, highlighting its ‘landscape sensitiviy’ .. the SDNPA was in the ‘early stages’ of working on its strategic housing market assessment. “We do realise that if necessary we will be approaching neighbouring local planning authorities, but we’re simply not at that stage yet”.
Woodland Work Days
The Tottington Woodlanders need you:
Come along and have a go at coppicing.
You do not need any special tools as they are all provided, along with the training, however please wear suitable clothing and footwear for working outdoors. The most important thing is to bring a mug for the cuppa around the fire – the hot water, tea or coffee will be provided.
We always pair up newcomers or novices with volunteers who are experienced and training continues until everyone is comfortable that you can work safely unaccompanied. Some people previously have been worried that they may cut the wood to the wrong size or do something wrong. We are grateful for the assistance and it is unlikely that you could do any lasting damage.
The work starts at 9.30am on a Sunday morning and normally finishes around 1:00pm, but there is no requirement to be there at the start and still be there at the end.
Starting on 26th October, the dates include all Sundays until the end of March 2015 with the single exception of 28th December.
House prices 2014
Quantity surveyor required
Scott of the Antarctic at Henfield Museum
Mayfield Market Town flooded
‘Green Infrastructure’
Once upon a time there were urban planners. They gave us Crawley New Town. Today, there are rural planners. They don’t call themselves that, though. Their current buzzphrase is ‘green infrastructure’. Much of their activity revolves around GIS (geographical information systems). GIS software produces attractive coloured maps that can be used for giving presentations to other rural planners. Correlations are magically transmuted into causal hypotheses. Those who live far from ‘accessible natural greenspace’ have poor health. Eureka! The SDNPA is, unsurprisingly, heavily invested in this stuff. They held a ‘Green Infrastructure Workshop’ a couple of days ago and you can find the overheads here [scroll down]. If you want to.
On the market
Changing Times reprinted
Privately published in an edition of 550 copies in 2008 in aid of St. Andrew’s, Tony Brooks’s The Changing Times of Fulking & Edburton 1900–2007 has been out of print ever since. Secondhand copies occasionally show up on Amazon for £35.00–£50.00. The book recounts the twentieth century history of the parish by telling the story of each building and its inhabitants. It is based on Tony’s extensive collection of documents and photographs and his interviews with numerous residents and former residents. Tony himself has been in Fulking since 1965 and thus knows much of the history at first hand.
If you somehow missed out on the first edition six years ago, or if you are (relatively) new to the village, then you have another chance to get this fascinating book. It has just been reprinted in a limited edition of 50 copies. The reprint has an advantage over the original: many of the photographs are reproduced in colour (the original edition was black & white throughout).
It is available now from the Shepherd & Dog, Springs Smoked Salmon, or Tony himself (tel. 200) for just £15 (he might even be willing to sign it for you). You had better move immediately — it is bound to sell out rather quickly.