Latest News of Local Interest

Call for contributors

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Call for contributors on children, business and farming
This website managed to deliver an average of just over a post a day during 2013. However, there are three areas of interest to many locals where our coverage has been very weak:

  • Children — there are many more in the village now than has normally been the case in recent years. We could usefully include a lot more news about their activities, their schools, their successes, their failures (okay, perhaps not), and their parenting.
  • Farming — we all live surrounded by farms. We walk the public footpaths through the fields. We can see the crops and animals. Occasionally we see a tractor doing what tractors do. But, for those residents who are not involved in the farming, that’s about it. Many would be interested in learning more. For example, the implications of changes in policy or regulation for farming in Fulking.
  • Local businesses — relative to the the size of the population, there are many hidden away in Fulking and the immediately adjacent villages. They expand and contract, introduce new products or services, employ new people, enlarge their premises, and so on. All of which is of potential interest to readers of this website.

Unassisted, we are unlikely to be able to improve our coverage of these three areas in 2014. If you think you could help with one of them, please get in touch with John.

Fulking Parish Council – Meeting Thursday 9th January 2014 at 7.30pm

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Please note there is a Fulking Parish Council meeting to be held on Thursday 9th January 2014 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.

Members of the Press & Public are welcome to attend.

Agenda

  1. Chairman’s Welcome.
  2. Apologies.
  3. Declaration of Interest.
  4. Report from MSDC Councillor Colin Trumble and WSCC Peter Griffiths
  5. Approval of minutes 10th October 2013
  6. Matters Arising from the above minutes not on the agenda (to include Old Pump House, Lady Brook Spring, Operation Watershed,Footpath 4f, Winter Management, Precept).
  7. Standing orders amendment.
  8. North Town Field –Parish Matter Autumn article, Grass cutting 2014-15 and fencing.
  9. Rights of Way
  10. Defib machines
  11. Aerials
  12. Financial Matters (including Cheque List & Stubbs, Income & Expenditure to date, Budget v’s actual, quarterly bank reconciliation).
  13. Suggested speakers for Annual Parish meeting
  14. Comments from the floor.
  15. Dates of next meetings.

Andrea Dickson
Clerk to Fulking Parish Council
01444 451 060
12 Turners Mill Road
Haywards Heath
West Sussex
RH16 1NN
andreadicksonfpc@gmail.com

Be an Angel – recycle your Christmas tree

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christmas_tree_recyclefront_MSDC_LogoOnce the festive fun is over, local residents are reminded that they can recycle their real Christmas tree at a number of convenient locations right across Mid Sussex.

Mid Sussex District Council is keen to help get 2014 off to a green start and has set up a number of local collection points so there will always be a place nearby where residents can recycle their real Christmas tree.
Residents with a green garden waste collection bin can put their tree directly into it, as long as the lid can still close firmly. Alternatively, people can take their real tree along to one of the Household Waste Recycling Sites at Fairbridge Way in Burgess Hill or Imberhorne Lane in East Grinstead.

There are also a wide variety of local drop off points in towns and villages across the district.

Sites will be open between Friday 3rd January and Friday 17th January 2014.

Town/village Location Street / Road
Ardingly Ardingly Recreation Ground High Street
Ashurst Wood John Pears Field Wall Hill Road
Albourne Village Hall car park The Street
Bolney Recreation Ground The Street
Burgess Hill Cyprus Road Car Park Cyprus Road
Burgess Hill Football Club Maple Drive
Copthorne Humphreys Field Borers Arms Road
Copthorne Haskins Garden Centre Snowhill Lane
Crawley Down Haven Sports Field Hophurst Lane
Cuckfield Whitemans Green Recreation Ground Whitemans Green
East Grinstead Imberhorne Lane Car Park Imberhorne Lane
East Grinstead Chequer Mead Car Park De La Warr Road
Handcross Recreation Ground High Street
Handcross Country Garden Centre London Road
Hassocks Dale Avenue Car Park Dale Avenue
Haywards Heath Beechurst Car Park Butlers Green Road
Haywards Heath Franklynn Road Car Park Franklynn Road
Horsted Keynes Recreation Ground Car Park Lewes Road
Hurstpierpoint Trinity Road Car Park Trinity Road
Lindfield Lindfield Common, Bowling Green Car Park Backwoods Lane

For more information please contact Julie Blackstock on 01444 477240 or Julie.Blackstock@midsussex.gov.uk

Our Bench with a View

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The new bench outside Fulking Village Hall
Thanks to the villagers who are transforming and using the village hall and thanks to local businesses who have supported them. For example: the village hall garden and our bench with a view.

Helen from Arcadia volunteered to improve the garden — do you remember the sad green plastic fence and patchy turf? When Helen shared her ideas with Rushfields Plant Centre in Poynings, they donated the bench! The attractive wooden fencing was reduced on request at AVS Fencing in Woodmancote and put up by Helen and Mike. Helen also planted the flower border and watered it through the driest summer.They were often spotted carrying watering cans down the street after a day’s work. Swains Farm Shop and Garden Centre in Woodmancote offered new turf and more next spring if needed.

People have asked who carved the beautiful lettering on the new bench. This was carved by cabinet maker Peter Jones of Nettledown. He also oiled it and delivered it ready for our shared pleasure.

Do please sit there and enjoy the view and the garden and perhaps be greeted by a passer-by. Or join the many village people who weed and paint and carry to keep the village hall going.

Gill Milner, Old Post Office

HC..CH to expand

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Hassocks Community Cycle Hire
Following Nick Herbert’s show of support, Hassocks Community Cycle Hire is planning to expand. The West Sussex Gazette reports:

Hassocks Community Cycle Hire (HCCH) is looking to expand with a new building on Hassocks Station.The building, which is expected to open in the spring, is to have improved storage, workspace and administrative facilities and will be used in addition to the existing HCCH hut in the grounds of The Hassocks pub. .. Improvements at Hassocks will increase cycle storage capacity and security and reflect Southern Railway’s move to expand cycling facilities along its network.

Fulking Bird Watch

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Edward Lear birds
Bob Rowland’s invaluable record of Fulking bird sightings over two decades has a new title — Fulking Bird Watch — and some new reference content. You will find it as ‘Bird Watch’ in the sidebar menu under ‘The Environment’. Check it out and follow some of the links provided. And if you see something that isn’t on the list, then let Bob have the details.

Christmas Party report

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Fulking Village Christmas Party
The annual village Christmas party was held in the greatly improved village hall on Friday 20 December. The evening was very well attended and many thanks to the principal organisers Jennie Wild and Carolyn Loveless, as well as all the other villagers who assisted. The mulled wine was excellent. A very successful tombola, which was enhanced by a magnificent hamper, donated by Jeremy’s the greengrocer in Henfield, raised £233 which well covered the existing shortfall in the amount required for the new fencing in the North Town Field.

Bob Rowland

Halifacts

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The annual Halifax ‘places to live’ survey [PDF] has just been published. Hart, in Hampshire, tops the list [PDF] as usual. Mid Sussex is the leading Sussex district, closely followed by Horsham district.

Hart Mid Sussex Horsham Brighton & Hove
District Rank 1 17 20 249
Weekly Earnings 843 728 734 647
Employment Rate % 80.1 81.4 82.9 71.2
Number of Rooms 6.3 5.8 5.9 4.6
Crime Rate 16.6 13.5 14.2 30.6
Population Density 428 423 249 3,336
Rainfall 746 858 838 824
Good Health % 97.4 96.5 96.5 94.7
Male Life Expectancy 82.9 81.9 81.5 78.7


Hart’s secret: a high earnings-to-rainfall ratio.