Parish Council Meeting Agenda 9th October 2025

You are cordially invited to the Ordinary Meeting of Fulking Parish Council, on Thursday 9th October 2025 at 7.30pm to be held at Fulking Village Hall. The meeting will consider the items set out below. 

AGENDA 

Public Participation: There will be a period of 15 minutes set aside at the beginning of the meeting for the public to ask questions or make comments on items on the Agenda. Comments on items not appearing on the agenda can be made at the chairman’s discretion.

25/051/OM. – Apologies for Absence. 

25/052/OM. – Councillor Resignation 

25/053/OM. – Declaration of Members’ Interests. 

25/054/OM. – Approve the Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of 3rd July 2025 and Planning meeting 21st July 2025 The minutes, subject to any amendments, to be approved and signed as a true record of the meeting. 

25/055/OM. – Matters Arising & Outstanding Actions – To clarify and report on actions brought forward from the last meeting. 

25/056/OM. – Abandoned Car 

25/057/OM – Reports from District and County Councillors. 

25/058/OM – Village Hall Grant Request 

25/059/OM. – Fulking Parish Council Budget 2025/2026  

25/060/OM. – Reports from Outside Bodies, Information Items & Correspondence 

25/061/OM. – Financial Matters: To receive the report on the Council’s income and to approve future expenditure. 

Date of the next Ordinary Meeting: Thursday 15th January 2026 

 

Celebrating 200 years of Hassocks Station

On Saturday 27th September, we will celebrate 200 years of the modern railway.

Pop into the ticket office between 9:30am and 5:00pm where Hassocks Rail Group will have:
Historic exhibition: discover the station’s history through photographs
Model railway: miniature trains with sounds
Railway memories: sharing your stories
Kid’s corner: stickers and colouring books
We’ll also have keepsake cards produced by a local artist to take away

For further information click here

Bobservation No. 132: Old Friends and Quotations


Quotations Group
This group continues to meet in the village hall at 11am on Mondays. It is a friendly group of villagers who have become good friends. Each meeting has a catalyst of a word chosen by popular demand around which the meeting is based. Attendances are rarely more than ten which we have found is an ideal number for a discussion. We seem to be mostly female but welcome anyone. Discussions are friendly and cover any subject that those present care to bring up.  It would be of great value if more and similar groups could meet up and possibly discuss local ideas and problems as well as international matters.

Old Friends
Just bumped into Harry Diamond in a restaurant. He was looking very fit and it reminded me of an occasion probably twenty years ago or more: I was then Chair of the Parish Council and Harry and I met the Chair of Mid Sussex District Council (MSDC) in the field next to Harry’s house whish was too large for just he and Charmaine to live in. The  purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of Harry transferring the whole of his bottom field to the Parish Council, completely free with no charges whatsoever so that that a new village hall with adjacent parking might be built. In exchange for this very generous and highly practical offer Harry was to get planning permission to build a smaller house than his own in the adjacent field. The MSDC Chair immediately dismissed the offer saying ‘we don’t do deals at MSDC’. So that is why a considerable amount of money is being raised to acquire the current village hall.

Bobservation No. 131: Fulking Village Hall

The fund raising appears to be on target for the acquisition of the Village Hall from the Church.
It would be good to know that plans are in place for the really necessary repair and maintenance work that is going to need to be funded.
Because I am aged and disabled I am particularly concerned about the highly dangerous steps and entrance door opening out onto those steps. Wheelchair access is impossible which excludes anyone with that need from attending the hall. In order to update this entrance from the entrance gate to the front door must cost several thousand pounds and I hope this has been budgeted for in future costings.

In setting out the foregoing I am only expressing concern that the enthusiasm for acquiring the hall has not obscured the serious costs that are going to be needed to improve and indeed maintain the hall, if it is going to continue to be the asset it has been in the past.