Brian Holdstock PC

The Short Mat Bowls Club at the village hall has been so successful that a second mat was clearly desirable.  John Walter and Jay Ashworth successfully bid for a grant for the full cost of £2,240 from N+P IN EAST SUSSEX COMMUNITY FUND.  Congratulations – watch this space for news of the procurement of the new kit.

Six nominations were received for the seven places on the parish council so no ballot will take place on 4th May for parish councillors.  The persons therefore declared elected are Nicci Gagel for Penhurst Ward and Jay Ashworth, Ron King, Richard White and Chris Sinden for Ashburnham Ward.  One vacancy remains.  The election of a councillor for Catsfield and Crowhurst Ward of Rother District Council will go ahead on 4th May.   There are three nominations for the one seat.

Thursday 4th May is Polling Day for electing councillors to Rother District Council and to the Parish Council of Ashburnham with Penhurst.  Click the header above to download the official Notices including the timetable for nominations.
Notice of Election – District    Notice of Election – Parish

Greystoke Development wants to drop 211 Holiday lodges onto the Normanhurst Estate. The planning application states that the building period would take up to 4 years, but they don’t state where the materials are going to come from.  They do state that they will enter the site off the A271 and then use the Lodge Gate entrance, close to the Senlac Camping site.   They also want to place the main entrance to their proposed site, between the entrance to The Pines and the drive down to Starcroft Farm TN33 9DT.  This is possibly the worst location they could have picked being located between two local accident blackspots.  Local infrastructure cannot support this development whose scale is out of proportion with the local environment.  To have your say you have until 30 th March only.   Go to the Rother District Council planning portal and look for RR/2023/217/P or follow this link Normanhurst Estate

To see full details of the terrible effect of this application you can download this document Normanhurst Estate

East Sussex Astronomical Society are booking the pavilion and grounds for observation sessions whenever there is some celestial event of note such as a comet sighting.  They would welcome any visitors who care to stop by and events are typically from 7 pm until midnight.  The first session is planned for Saturday 18th March but if the weather is inclement then it will be the following Saturday 25th.  The evening plans to find as many Messier objects as possible.

The Sedlescombe planning application remains undecided.  Prior to Rother District Council considering it at their meeting on 21st September, the Secretary of State directed that they must not grant permission without specific authorisation so that he has time to consider whether or not to call it in for his decision.  Another round to the opposition to the application but it’s not over yet.

The parish council plans to hold an extraordinary meeting to formally authorise a letter to the Secretary of State requesting that he stop Rother District Council from approving a planning application for a new dwelling in a field in Sedlescombe parish.  The applicant is Chairman of Sedlescombe Parish Council, a Rother councillor and Chairman of Rother’s Planning Committee.   Officers have yet to formally sign off the approval which therefore remains technically in limbo.
The meeting is to be on Tuesday 13th September and the agenda can be found here.

Estimates vary but we can reliably state that there were well over 1,000 people on the cricket ground on the last Saturday of July.  From gate money we know that 877 adults paid their £2.50 entrance fee and the number of children under 12, for whom admittance is free, plus all the volunteers and stall holders will have comfortably brought the numbers at the event up into four figures.

£4,900 was raised with 25% going to those affected by the war in Ukraine.  We could have done even better had we had more volunteers – will you help next year??  Our grateful thanks go to the very small team of hard working individuals producing all the food and beverages, planning the layout of the stalls, manning car parking, organising the Flower Show, managing the cash and a myriad

£4,775 was added to the new village hall fund as a result if this summer’s fund raising activities.  The bar at the Barn Dance during the Platinum Jubilee weekend plus the catering our volunteers provided for the Vintage Motor Cycle Club’s Concours made £1,100.

The Country Fair and Flower Show raised £4,900 of which 25% was pledged to help those affected by the war in Ukraine leaving £3,675 for the village.

The Parish Council joins with the whole community in mourning the loss of Nick Wheeler, Master of the Coakham Bloodhounds, who died on Sunday 3rd April.  It was fitting that he died while doing what he loved – hunting with his wonderful hounds and riding a horse he bred himself.