Etchingham

OPERATION CRACKDOWN: Some of you will have reported anti-social driving and abandoned vehicles to Operation Crackdown, but some may be unsure what Operation Crackdown is and how it works and how you can use it to report anti-social driving and abandoned vehicles. The September Parish Council meeting, in the Parker Hall, Parsonage Croft, on Thursday September 17 will start a little later than normal and will be preceded at 7pm by a presentation by Jim Stobart from Operation Crackdown he will explain what Operation Crackdown is and how it works, how to report anti-social driving and how it integrates with Community Speedwatch operations. This will be your chance to find out more about Operation Crackdown, what happens to the details you report and get your questions answered, full details will appear here nearer the date.
By Colin Boylett
Published 24th Jul 2015, 00:00 BST

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FLOWER & DOG SHOW: The annual Flower and Dog Show will take place in The Church and Queens Garden on Saturday September 12. So now is the time to start thinking about your entries, get your fruit, veg and flowers to peak condition ready for display. Get taking all those brilliant photos for the photographic section, this year the subjects are “Sussex by the sea”, “Red”, “My favourite place in Etchingham” and “Oh Dear!”. The schedules have been delivered in the village and to the Etchingham ends of Fontridge Lane, Sheepstreet Lane and Burgh Hill. If you live outside these areas and would like a schedule please get in touch on this email address [email protected] and someone will try to get one to you. Everyone who has offered to help will be contacted very shortly. Otherwise look out for updates and reminders in this and on the e-bulletin.

As in previous years there will be a display of old photos, postcards and memorabilia in the Church Chancel and choir stalls, so if you have missed the display in previous years a chance to see it. Some of the display will be on show at King John’s Lodge until the end of August, see next item.

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HISTORY IN THE HOLIDAYS: During the summer King John’s Nursery will have plenty to keep children amused, including metal detecting, shield painting and the hunt for Wilikin and his archers in the garden, special story telling and activities August 1st, 2nd, 15th & 16th, 2.30pm. Interesting things for adults too! The history timeline has a chronology of historical events, charting 2,000 years of Wealden history and a display of archaeological artifacts discovered locally. On some days, mainly at weekends I will also have some of my old postcards and photos of the area on display.

PARISH COUNCIL: A reminder that all contact details for the Parish Council, the Parish Clerk and Councillors are available on the village website www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk the site has recently been updated with the details of the new Councillors elected in May. Etchingham Parish Council operates a Portfolio system with each Councillor taking responsibility for certain elements of the Council’s activities, and reporting to and advising Council on those subjects. You can of course contact any Councillor regarding any item that you would like the Council to consider or discuss, but the portfolio holders are as follows. Personnel Management, John Barnes and Annette Childs; Property Management, Geoffry Lucas and Frank Brophy; Environment (including footpaths, trees and hedgerows), Simon Barrow and Frank Brophy; Community Safety & Police Liaison, Colin Boylett and John Barnes; Speedwatch, Colin Boylett; Flood Warnings, Colin Boylett; Highways, John Barnes and Colin Boylett; Children and Young people, Annette Childs; Senior Citizens, Mary Barnes; Transport (includes buses and trains), Mary Barnes; Financial Management, Geoffry Lucas and Frank Brophy; Council Communications, John Barnes and Colin Boylett. Residents are reminded that all Parish Council meetings are held in public in the Parker hall, Parsonage Croft, and all residents are entitled to attend, meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month, except August and December, the agenda is displayed on the notice boards at the Post Office and Parsonage Croft and on the website about a week before the meeting date, and previous agendas and minutes since 2012 can be viewed on the website. The first point of contact for Parish Council matters is the Parish Clerk, Paulette Barton, 01580 819048 [email protected], Paulette can also be contacted at the Parish Office, adjacent to the Parker hall, Parsonage Croft on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10.30am to 12.30pm.

VILLAGE WEBSITE: The village website is provided by the Parish Council, the pages are updated by a Councillor so that the annual cost is limited to the hosting fee. The site is designed to include details of all village events and organisations, if an organisation that you are associated with does not have information on the site use the contact details on the site to send the details for inclusion, there is no charge for adding any information to the pages. Every effort is made to keep the pages up to date and all links working, but often links to other sites stop working when the other site changes the address of a page or removes it and other information can become out of date. If you notice anything that needs changing or removing please report the error so that it can be corrected and the pages can be as accurate as possible.

VILLAGE EVENTS: If your organisation has an event planned for any date during the rest of the year send me the details now, i can then put it in this column so that people can put the date in their diary. To make sure your event gets mentioned it is always best to send the details at least two weeks before the event, if you send even earlier your event will get more than one mention.

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EVENTS CALENDAR: There is a calendar on the village website for residents and organisations to enter details of forthcoming events, this helps organisers check if an event has already been planned for a date they have chosen, and act as advertising for all village events. The idea of the calendar is for village residents and organisations to add details to the calendar themselves to reduce the workload of website admin.

To view or add to the calendar start on this page and follow the instructions www.etchinghamvillage.co.uk/calendar you will need a password to complete your entry, this is just a safeguard against the calendar getting filled up with spam posts. The password is the same for everyone if you do not have it ask me to supply it or ask someone who has already added to the calendar.

If everyone gets into the habit of adding their events to the calendar it will hopefully avoid too many clashes of events and people having to decide which event they will support. If you have any problems adding to the calendar contact me at [email protected] and I will get it added, but I do not want to have to add every event to the calendar.

COMMUNITY SPEEDWATCH: As you will be aware due to illness we have not operated any Speedwatch sessions for a few weeks, we are now back running sessions on most days, we will always welcome new volunteers, also help with other aspects of running the group welcome.

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INFORMATION: If you have given me details of your event to put in this column, please remember to send me some details after the event so I can let your supporters know how successful the event was, how much you raised, interesting facts etc. Your supporters will be interested to know how you did. Get information for this column to me as soon as possible, if you have a diary of events planned for the year let me have the dates and I will put in a list of village events for the year so that people can put the dates in their diaries. There are several ways to get your info to me, but email is preferred because there is less chance of errors during copying. I need information by 10pm on Monday to be sure it will be in time for inclusion, I can sometimes add extra items on Tuesday morning, but this cannot be guaranteed. Just a little reminder, I get plenty of information about events that are taking place, but I get very little follow up information, after your event try and remember to send me brief account of how successful your event was, it can be as simple as a thank you to those that attended and how much money was raised etc. You can deliver to 2 Park Farm Close, telephone 01580 819532 or 07941 786244 or email [email protected] .

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