Author: Andrew Taylor

PENSIONER Roy Elliott’s stunning front garden earned him the prize for the “most colourful” in town last summer when he filled it with a riot of seasonal blooms from pavement to roof level.

With his wife suffering from ill-health, 79-year-old Roy says he probably won’t have the same time to devote to his garden this year, and will just have to “do his best”.

But with him out of the running, the man who has scooped the top garden prize for the past three years running hopes other gardeners will now take up the challenge.

“When I started I didn’t have much experience, but I had worked as a decorator all my life and I loved colour.

“So when we moved here from Forest Row seven years ago I bought myself a small greenhouse and looked forward to spending some time outdoors.”

But Roy’s ambitions, like his garden, just grew and before he knew it he had transformed his Tudor Close home into a showstopper which has strangers knocking on his door to congratulate him on the pleasure he gives to neighbours and passersby throughout the summer months.

He demolished the existing front garden, and replaced it will stone walls and troughs, pillars and planters – when he ran out of room at ground level he headed for the sky, covering his flat garage room in a glorious array of bizzie lizzies, petunias and begonias, and hanging flower-baskets by the bedroom windows.

“The only place I didn’t decorate was the roof,” he laughed.

Roy buys most of his plants as tiny plugs and grows them on, which is an economic way to raise the hundreds he needs each year.

And he has made his garden as maintenance free as possible, using slate and pebbles to provide texture and interest around his planters, rather than grass.

Even so, Roy spends around two hours a day caring for his glorious garden.

“I use a watering can, not a hose, because that can damage the flowers, and while I water I keep an eye on how everything is doing, and check to see whether the plants need deadheading.”

Working outside with the sun on his back is one of Roy’s greatest pleasures – and he advises anyone keen to emulate his success to get out and get growing.

“It’s a marvellous and fulfilling hobby, and my wife and I both enjoy the garden very much,” he said, “so if you are at all interested now is just the right time of year to get stuck in.”

MERIDIAN FM, East Grinstead’s own radio station, has celebrated its first birthday as a full-time channel.

Launching the community-based station on 1 March 2010 in the middle of a recession was a tough call, admitted manager Pru Oliver.

But the experience of the past 12 months has also been a rewarding one which now sees 22,000 listeners regularly tuning in on the internet alone.

The station, which is run by a team of volunteers, features music, local news and interviews.

“Our mantra is Your Radio, Your Station. We are here to support the business and social life of the community, and to make a positive difference to life in East Grinstead and its surrounding villages,” said Pru.

New ideas in the pipeline in the coming months are a food festival and the Meridian Awards, to “celebrate the best the town has to offer”.

“We are striving the whole time to improve the content and quality of our service, and to give a greater voice and support to the community as a whole.”

THERE will be a reunion at the Meridian Hall at 7.30pm on 5 April for anyone involved with the Community Play last December.

The evening will feature a Pot Luck Supper, so guests are asked to bring along a dish to share, and drinks of their choice.

This will be an opportunity to meet old friends and consider whether to be involved in future community plays organised by the Claque Theatre Group under director Jon Oram.

A DVD of the play, which will be a lasting souvenir of the historic production, will also be available on the night.

SUSSEX Police has pledged to protect or improve its frontline services despite the financial challenges imposed by budget cuts.

In a report to East Grinstead Town Council Chief Inspector Edward De La Rue said this could not be achieved by working in the same way with less money and fewer people but would require the police to look at different ways to eliminate waste and reduce bureaucracy.

One way this is being done is by merging two police divisions (North Downs which covers Mid Sussex, Horsham and Crawley, and West Downs) to form one division covering the whole of West Sussex from April this year. This will save 800,000 in management costs and make it easier for the police to work more closely with its community partners.

It will also see the introduction of a new policing model.

Local Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPT) will continue to provide community policing, but other officers will be divided into two teams.

Neighbourhood Response Team (NRT) officers will continue to patrol and attend emergency calls but will now hand over further investigations and prisoners to a new Response Investigation Team (RIT), freeing them up to get back out on the street.

This approach has already been tried successfully in Brighton and Hove, where it has been found that response officers have had much less paperwork to complete so they can get back onto the streets more quickly after answering a call.

Response times have fallen, and the average time it takes to investigate a crime has fallen from 44 days to 16.

JIGSAW4U, the bereavement counselling charity which has its headquarters at East Court, will be holding a seventies disco night fund raiser at the Meridian Hall on 13 May.

The event starts at 7:30pm and features entertainment from Not Actually Abba and 2/3rds Village People. Tickets are priced at £15.

To book visit: http://www.jigsaw4u.org.uk/secure/bookings/70snight/ 

EAST Grinstead’s long history and architectural heritage are worthy of care by present and future generations, and so The East Grinstead Society was founded in 1968 as an independent unit to improve the town’s amenities and to protect its buildings and environs.

Members are mainly residents interested in the town’s quality of life and concerned for its future. The Society is a registered charity (No. 257870) and member of the Federation of Sussex Amenity Societies. It has a Constitution and is led by a committee elected annually by its members.

Meetings scheduled for the coming months are listed below and new members are always welcome. For more details about the Society see their website at http://www.eastgrinsteadsociety.org

6 April 6th: Spring Garden Tour, with tea at cost, led by the head gardener of Gravetye Manor
Maximum 16 places – reservations on 01342 321525.

15 April: Scattered squalor Downland homes
Unregulated housing along coastal South Downs between the wars by Geoffrey Mead

23 April: Town and country heritage – West Hoathly to East Grinstead
1pm Walk from St Margarets Parish Church, West Hoathly led by Christopher Wheatley.
For help with transport call 01342 321525.

1 May at 2.30pm: 19th & 20th century East Grinstead – Town Trail 2
A guided walk starting from the High Street War Memorial led by Angela Cole. For further information call 01342 321525.

2 May 10am: May Fair – Society stall in High Street
A chance to buy secondhand books, homemade jams, cakes and the Societys publications

20 May: The Balcombe Tunnel murder
by James Gardener.

28 May: Stained glass and convent architecture
At the Ashdown Park Hotel, Speldhurst and Tudeley, with pub lunch. Reservations/details on 01342 321525.

12 June: East Grinsteads Victorian heritage – Town Trail 3
At 2.30pm, a walk starting from Chequer Mead Arts Centre, led by Christopher Wheatley. For further information call 01342 321525.

17 June: The third Earl of Sheffield and his passion for cricket
by Brian Tester

THE grassed area of land at the corner of the Lewes Road and Blackwell Hollow will be a wild flower meadow this summer.

The town council’s outdoor staff have already put three inches of top soil over the area which will be seeded in mid-April with a “pictorial meadows” seed mix.

The area, which until now has been grassed over and has only had spring colour from daffodils, should come into summer bloom within eight weeks of sowing and remain in flower until the late autumn.

A NEW “professional” kitchen has been installed at East Court to bring it up-to-date for hirers.

The all-steel kitchen replaces a much older one and will be easier to use and clean said council spokesman Keith Astley.

“More and more people want to hire East Court for meetings, conferences and social events including weddings, and we need to offer them a modern, hygienic kitchen with up-to-date equipment and easy-to-clean work surfaces," he said.

THE lower end of the East Court estate bordering the Holtye Road has been given a facelift with new fencing.

The 82 metre stretch is currently steel, but will be painted black as soon as the weather permits.

PRINCESS Anne will visit East Court to meet Mayor Stephen Barnett and other civic dignitaries when her helicopter lands on the estate on 22 March.

The Princess will be in East Grinstead to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Blond McIndoe Research Foundation of which she is patron.

Her visit will be marked by the unveiling of a painting donated by the conservationist and painter David Shepherd, who lives just outside the town, and with a Spitfire fly-past

Blond McIndoe’s chief executive Jacquie Pinney said: "Having The Princess Royal as our patron is an honour and we are absolutely delighted that she is able to join us in celebrating this very auspicious anniversary.

"The Princess takes a real interest in the work of the charity and her patronage is invaluable.

"We are celebrating 50 years of innovative research but also showcasing our research strategy going forward and her support is a real endorsement of the value of the work that we do which has direct clinical relevance.

"We rely solely on regular donations for us to continue our valuable research into the repair of skin wounds, especially burns.

"We are determined to continue the pioneering work started by Sir Archibald McIndoe for the benefit of future generations."

The party at East Court Mansion is for specially invited guests and has been paid for entirely by business sponsorship.

The mayor, who chose the research foundation as one of his charities for his year in office, said he was "delighted" about the visit.

* Sir Archibald McIndoe’s dream to open a research centre in the grounds of the Queen Victoria Hospital became a reality with the help of close friends Neville and Elaine Blond, shortly after his death in 1961.