Please note that Blackwell Hollow will be closed between 9.30am and 3.00pm on Monday 11th May to allow urgent treeworks to be carried out. Diversions will be put in place
MID Sussex District Council ranger Katie Chatfield is organising regular healthy walks over the coming summer.
The gentle strolls will take place on the first and third Thursdays of the month and will last up to an hour.
Katie says she plans routes which will be no longer than 2.5 miles in length and promises no clambering over stiles will be involved.
Departures will be from the East Court car park at 5.30pm 4/18 August and the 1/15 September.
EAST Grinstead Town Council is appealing for help and information to catch the people behind a scourge of fly posting which has defaced the town this summer.
The most recent adverts to appear have been for a circus, but there have been many others in recent months.
Town council staff have removed more than two dozen illegal posters in the past week alone and are hoping that someone can identify those responsible. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Council on 01342 323636.
TOWN Councillors attend surgeries at the public library in West Street every Saturday between 10am and noon. In August the following councillors will be available to answer questions, give advice or receive comments.
THE Millennium Mural around the restaurant area in Chequer Mead has been accepted as one of the nation’s ‘secret’ art works on a new BBC website.
The British taxpayer owns around 200,000 paintings nationwide, most of which are either hidden away in vaults, or hanging, unpublicised, on walls which most people don’t know about and never get to see.
So the BBC has pledged to discover the nation’s hidden art treasures and make them available to a wider audience on line.
And among the first 63,000 to be accepted are the 28 panels designed by the late East Grinstead artist Bill Lehan who organised the pictorial history of the town to mark the Millennium.
“The panels have been very popular with townspeople ever since they first went up, and they are also a real talking point with visitors, who appreciate being able to read a potted history of East Grinstead while they have a cup of coffee,” said theatre manager Hannah Kester. “So I am delighted that the mural will now, potentially, have a worldwide audience.”
MAYOR John Saull lent his support to a consciousness-raising sleep-out in support of the homeless by councillors, and members of the town’s Peace and Justice movement.
John was among several supporters who visited the group before they settled down for a night sleeping rough by the war memorial in the High Street.
* Pictured below front are Cllrs Peter Wyan and Dick Sweatman (left and centre) with Cllr Danny Favor who also supported to their fund-raising efforts. Behind them are members of the town branch of the Peace and Justice movement.
A stunning recent production of Les Mis set the bar high when it came to expectations for the Ariel Theatre Academy’s end-of-year show, but the talented youngsters who took part proved they were up for the challenge in a varied and well-thought-out programme of music, dance and drama.
The smaller members of the Academy certainly have the “aaaah!” factor, but they didn’t rely on cuteness to carry them through a series of well-executed dance routines.
And there were some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments, when their comic timing belied their tender years in the Little Red Riding Hood sketch, which was enjoyed as much by the small actors themselves as it was by their appreciative audience.
Natalie Boyd gave a simply beautiful performance of Hallelujah, with lovely harmonies provided by Lauren Merry and Charlotte Kenward. While Beth Elliott’s heartbreakingly original rendition of Winner Takes It All wrung real pathos from the end of a love affair turned sour.
The Prospero team’s choice of a dramatic tribute to the victims of 9/11 should on paper have been a difficult one for children still of primary school age: but their youthful gravity and careful delivery brought a special poignancy and dignity to their words as they recalled the horrors of the terrorism attack on New York.
Other highlights of the evening included monologues by James Rowsell and Polly Beaumont, and Gabriel Rathbone’s sweet-voiced Who Will Buy? from Oliver!
And by the time the whole school joined in the Shake Your Tail Feather finale, there wasn’t a parent – or a grandparent – in the audience – who didn’t want to shake along.
MAYOR John Saull cut the ribbon to mark the opening of East Grinstead’s newest business, Wok’n Rolls in the London Road.
The new restaurant and takeaway specialises in sushi, noodles and filled rolls.
Mayor John, who is pictured with owners Chris and Christine Pollard, was one of several councillors who went along to the launch to express their support for the new venture.
“The Council is always pleased to see new businesses starting in the town and we all wish Wok’n Rolls every success for the future,” said Cllr John O’Brien.
THE Town Council is looking at ways in which the whole of East Grinstead can celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June next year.
There are already plenty of ideas up for discussion including flower shows, gala dinners, concerts and fun fairs, with the broad intention of holding several days’ worth of activities around East Court over the proposed long Bank Holiday weekend, with a real “something for everyone” community celebration.
A small working party of Councillors, supported by Council officers, has been set up and members are hoping to identify others within the community who would be willing to join this steering group through a public meeting.
Invitations have been sent to organisations within the town, but the Council is also extending a general public invitation to gauge interest, explore ideas, and co-opt people to the working party: and if raising funds is a goal to cover costs and support a charity, how these funds would be directed.
The public meeting will be held in the Main Hall at East Court Mansion at 7pm on Thursday 4 August.
Chairman of the Amenities and Tourism Committee Frank Osborne said: “This is intended to be ambitious – a real community event with all areas of the town contributing. Our first step is to hold the meeting to see who is prepared to step forward and help make the Jubilee celebrations something the town can really be proud of, as the whole nation celebrates.”
DEPUTY Mayor Liz Bennett lent her support to a car-washing fundraiser in aid of Meridian FM, the town radio station, by giving their outside broadcast van, nicknamed Twiggy, a wash.
The station, which costs around £1,000 a week to run, has appealed for £50,000 to keep it going over the coming year.
“Meridian FM does a really important job within the community so I was very pleased to take part in the Car Wash which raised £180,” said Liz.
Later in the day she helped raise a further £900 in the Meridian FM Mighty Quiz.
“This was a brilliant effort by all the presenters and members at Meridian FM,” said Liz, “and its success shows the support the station has from the town community it serves.
“Everyone has rallied together at a crucial time in the future of the station, and the efforts being put into saving it show people appreciate the Meridian FM team who work as volunteers for the good of our community.”
Liz added that she was “very proud” of the station and the work it does, and appealed to everyone within its audience area to be generous in helping to secure Meridian FM’s future.
THE newly-elected East Grinstead Town Council has agreed to the setting up of a neighbourhood plan working group to start putting together a formal Town Plan.
This is in response to changes outlined in the coalition Government’s Localism Bill, first published in December 2010, which sets out the framework and key principles for a system of neighbourhood planning in England. It seeks to create new planning tools to help empower communities to shape and manage development in their local areas.
Chairman of the working group Cllr Heidi Brunsdon said: "This fundamental change to the planning system has a significant local impact. With neighbourhood plans, communities such as East Grinstead will have real choice about the issue of growth. We will have the opportunity to develop our own planning policies and ensure that those neighbourhoods which choose to grow feel the benefits of that decision. Our aim is to give people real choice, and real influence. Localism and neighbourhood plans firmly put decisions for such change back in the hands of those who know what’s best for this town – our residents."
The working party’s next steps are to revisit earlier plans and research, and to consider ideas drawn from a recent strategy-day to develop some formal proposals: these will then be subject to public consultation before being fed into the planning authority, Mid Sussex District Council, to include in the overall District Plan.
Throughout the project local residents, organisations and businesses will be invited to contribute their views and thoughts. These consultations are intended to be a mix of informal and formal including a public meeting to present emerging ideas towards the end of the year.