Latest News of Local Interest

Maharajah arrests

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The Maharajah restaurant in Bramber
The West Sussex County Times reports that officers from a Home Office Immigration Enforcement team visited the Maharajah in Bramber at 9:15pm on Thursday March 13th and arrested three Bangladeshi men:

Two, aged 28 and 32, had overstayed their visas while a 32-year-old was found to have entered the country illegally. .. The business was served notices warning that a civil penalty of up to £10,000 per illegal worker found will be imposed unless proof is provided that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out. This is a potential total of up to £30,000 for the restaurant.

Small Dole Auxiliary Unit Patrol

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Old Erringham by Simon Carey

Old Erringham (Simon Carey) / CC BY-SA 2.0

Auxiliary Units were a secret resistance network of highly trained volunteers prepared to be Britain’s last ditch line of defence during World War Two. They operated in a network of cells from hidden underground bases around the UK. [CART]

There’s now a page of information about the Small Dole Auxiliary Unit Patrol on the CART website. The Sussex Regional Headquarters was at Tottington Manor. Volunteers in Sussex, as elsewhere, were mostly local farmers. If you have any information about the Small Dole unit, or its members, please contact CART. If you have never previously heard of the ‘Auxiliary Units’ but think they sound interesting, then the book to read is Stewart Angell’s (1996) The Secret Sussex Resistance, 1940-1944, Midhurst: Middleton Press (readily available).

Drumming & Percussion Group

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djembeDrumming & Percussion Group on Sunday 27th April (date changed from March 30th)

– with West Sussex Music tutor Steve Morley – Poynings Village Hall from 2pm – 3.30pm

With a view to meeting on the last Sunday of each month, the emphasis will be on enlivening but relaxed music-making for adults using traditional West African djembe rhythms; no experience is necessary. £7/person.

A diverse range of percussion instruments will be provided but do bring your own drum if you have one. Hope to see you there!

Call Steve on 857590 for more information

Birdsong for Beginners

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Mike Russell Birdsong for Beginners

Tutor: Mike Russell
Venue: Woods Mill
Date: Wednesday 16th April
Time: 10:00 — 16:00

This course is aimed at those people interested in getting started in finding out about bird song and learning to recognise the song of a few of our common birds. It may also interest those who are a bit rusty on their bird song and would like a refresher.

** Booking and detailed course information sheet **

New planning guidance

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Blot on the landscape
The West Sussex Gazette has a long report. Extracts below:

A highly significant change in the guidance says that councils will no longer have to identify specific sites for development for the last five years of their 15-year plans. The provision was widely seen as unrealistic and was forcing councils to allocate unpopular ‘strategic sites’ for development, like the proposed new Mayfield ‘market town’.

The new guidance also states that infrastructure constraints must be considered in assessing a site’s suitability for development. This addresses a key local concern in West Sussex, where there is a strong feeling that development is allowed without the necessary infrastructure, such as roads and drainage, to support it.

The new planning guidance also addresses another local concern by making clear that emerging local plans should be given weight in decision-making even before they are passed.

The new guidance also encourages brownfield development and clarifies the ‘duty to co-operate’, under which neighbouring councils are required to consult each other on their plans.

A place to park

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School Keep Clear road marking
The Shoreham Herald reports:

Just three schools in the whole of Shoreham, Southwick, Steyning and Upper Beeding are currently covered by a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO). Despite the majority of schools using School Keep Clear (SKC) markings near entrance gates, the rest have no TRO, meaning the police cannot take any action if people park on them. West Sussex county councillor Robin Rogers has led a lengthy campaign since he found out in 2009 that all but 10% of SKC were totally unenforceable.

A TRO does currently apply to Upper Beeding Primary.