Udimore

SAD NEWS: The many friends of Christine Compton and Megan Williams will be sad to hear that Christine has died of cancer and Megan has had a serious accident. After many years at Watlands Oast, Christine had moved to Winchester several years ago to be near one of her sons, but made a point of revisiting Udimore from time to time, when it was always a pleasure to see her again. She will be remembered with great affection by those who knew her here and with great respect for her high standards in everything she did.

Megan suffered a fall in the house of her son Gareth while visiting him. This resulted in a broken femur, for which she was successfully operated on this last Monday. Since then she has been a patient in the Great Western Hospital, Swindon, and hopes to be transferred from there to the Conquest during the coming week.

CHURCH PEW CUSHIONS: The Friends of St Mary’s Church have already gratefully received many donations towards the cost of supplying the excellent new cushions. If there’s anyone else who would like to commemorate someone’s life in this way, or simply to make a donation, you should contact Liz Turgoose (01424 813785) or Gill Rothery (01424 882775) by the end of August, when the list will be closed. To commemorate someone’s life the full cost is £120, including the embroidering of the name on a cushion.

EMERGENCY HELP DURING THE WINTER: Looking well ahead, our Parish Clerk, Sarah Willoughby, has started to compile a list of Udimore residents who could find travel difficult or impossible during lengthy periods of frosty and snowy weather, and would welcome assistance by the many owners of four-wheel-drive vehicles who live in the village, for essential shopping or visits to a doctor. If you’re likely to be in this position yourself, or know of others who would be, please contact Sarah as soon as possible, either by phone (01424 813785 or 05755 126387) or email ( [email protected] ).

PARISH COUNCIL MEETING: At last week’s meeting councillors discussed the recently published results of the 2014 traffic survey, which have now all been placed on the Udimore parish website ( www.udimore.org ). Among the most significant of these is the increase in traffic on B2089 since the last survey in 2011, no less than 36% during an average day. The chairman is to find out from the Highways Department how these survey results compare with recent traffic surveys on other local A and B class roads. Cllr Knight also suggested that the police should be urged to be more active in enforcing speed limits at the times when this survey showed most excessive speeding occurs, especially in early morning.

Invited to report on progress in the provision of an improved broadband service for Udimore, Brad Callett said that we may now reasonably expect the installation of the necessary fibre optic cable and nodes to be completed by next March.

Among the planning applications discussed by the Council was one for the installation of a commercial-scale solar panel array in a field on Court Lodge Farm adjoining the main road. Some of those attending the meeting raised objections to its impact on the landscape, others to the potential subsequent expansion of a development fully acceptable on its present fairly modest scale. All of us who are in any way concerned about this planning application were urged by the Parish Council to look it up on the Rother website and submit our comments (www.rother.gov.uk - Planning - RR/2015/1395/P).

The next Parish Council meeting will be on Wednesday September 15, at 6.30pm in the Hall.

CHURCH SERVICES: In St Mary’s Church this Sunday there will be Holy Communion at 8am and Evening Prayer at 6pm.

MOBILE LIBRARY: The Library will be visiting us again from 11.45am till 12.15pm on Wednesday (July 29) at the Hall, where tea and coffee will be available as usual.

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