THE town’s Neighbourhood Working Group will be holding consultations with residents and business people on three consecutive Saturday mornings this month.
Starting on 8 October between 10am and 12.30pm, teams of councillors will be at the former Wickenden’s sweet shop in the High Street, in Queens Walk and at the entrance to Sainsbury’s.
Councillors will be present at all three locations on the 8/15/22 October to talk to residents and gather their views through the use of a short questionnaire.
Robert Meldrum – until 5 October:
A series of paintings from around Crawley and Croydon.
“MY approach has been founded on my favourite American painters, Rauschenberg, Johns, Guston and Basquiat, using oil and spray paint. John-Luc Godard said once you only needed a girl and a gun to make a film and my aims have been to try and paint traditional English landscapes using the most basic, clichéd subjects to find complexity within them…”
Zero3 – 7 October to 19 October:
Zero3 returns to the Greenstede Gallery with their third touring exhibition, Signature III. The exhibition will feature innovative contemporary work, offering an insight and understanding of modern textiles and techniques occurring within the Arts today.
Retrospection – My 38-year journey through Art – 21 October to 26 October:
STEPHEN Cox started attending art evening classes with professional artist Mary King. She specialized in a particular form of mixed media, using paste and water colour agents together with fine muslin, which Stephen immediately related to and has since developed to evolve his own unique style.
Bend One’s Steps – 28 October to 2 November:
IN their first joint exhibition, textile artists Jude Kingshott and Penny Watts invite you to share their individual love of mixed media textiles.
CLLR Danny Favor and his wife Maribel joined 50 participants in a sponsored Walk for Life and litter pick along the Worth Way in September.
The event, which was organised by parishioners of Our Lady and St Peter’s school, was supported by various community groups and town councillors and ended at Worth Abbey.
Money raised from the walk will be used to support vulnerable young mothers and their babies at homes run by the Life Charity in West Sussex.
MORE than 700 residents, including Town Mayor John Saull, visited 999 Day at East Court to see demonstrations by the town’s emergency services and talk to crews about their work.
It was a hugely successful day and one which was greatly appreciated by the many families who enjoyed the free event over the Bank holiday weekend.
"It was spectacular, the crowd loved it and it was evident how much the emergency services, whose personnel gave their up time for free, love their jobs," said Town Clerk Julie Holden. "It was educational, great fun and a really wonderful community day out."
EAST Grinstead Farmers Market organiser Tony Martin informed the Town Council on Thursday 22 September that he was stopping the weekly markets held in the High Street. Mr Martin feels the markets are no longer viable in their present format, despite the Town Council’s continuous support in promoting the weekly markets with large display banners.
The market began13 years ago as a monthly event held at Chequer Mead car park, which subsequently increased to twice monthly and then weekly, in its new venue in the High Street.
Previously the markets have attracted a strong footfall, particularly in the summer months, and numbers of stalls varied from around 10 to 12 during the high season to rather fewer in the colder months. For the past few months however the number of stalls has rarely risen to 6 and at times has been as few as 3. It should be borne in mind that East Grinstead was a rare example of a weekly farmers market, and hence more difficult to fill with stalls, which by their nature are often one person operations with other markets in the area to service.
The Town Council is now considering other options including the possibility of running an indoor winter market which would include farmers produce and local crafts which could be run on a Saturday. The Council is also in discussion with the remaining stall holders should they wish to find a new manager to continue with the market.
Councillor Frank Osborne, chairman of the Amenities and Tourism committee, said: “If we can possibly help to keep a market going in the town we are keen to do so. However we clearly cannot incur costs, and will be carefully monitoring arrangements over the coming months.”
Anyone wanting to express an interest in taking a stall in an indoor market should contact Simon Kerr, the Town Councils Tourism and Business Development Officer, at the East Grinstead Library or by emailing tourism@eastgrinstead.gov.uk
THE Town’s traders are being urged to support the 30th anniversary of East Grinstead’s Christmas Lights despite on-going hard times in the economy.
Melvin Philips, the chairman of the annual lights appeal, said the highly-popular Christmas display was going ahead again this year. But he warned it needs generous financial support from the town’s business community to secure its long-term future.
“We saw last year that other towns of a similar size across the country either reduced their displays drastically, or cut them out altogether.
“We know how popular the lights are with everyone in the town, residents and traders. But in the present financial crisis, and in the face of ever-rising prices, it is a struggle so unfortunately we won’t be putting on any new displays to mark our 30th birthday.
“But the town will be lit up with the red and green which has been so popular over recent Christmasses, and we are appealing to everyone to support us again this year.”
THE opening of the state-of-the-art recycling centre in Imberhorne Lane will be delayed until January, after the discovery of unforeseen problems including soil contamination.
East Grinstead’s Household Waste Recycling Site, which was closed for a £1.6million refurbishment last March, was due to reopen this autumn.
But a spokeswoman for contractors Viridor said the work will not now be completed until Christmas Eve, after delays caused by the results of soil analysis tests.
Meanwhile East Grinstead residents can still use the site at weekends, and by arrangement with East Sussex District Council they are also being allowed to use the dump at Forest Row.
Mid Sussex District Council has reduced the cost of arranging the pick-up of bulky goods from homes while the Imberhorne Lane site is out of action.
Tips are also available at Crawley, Horsham and Burgess Hill.
A post box in Woodbury Avenue which disappeared, presumed stolen, in June was replaced with a new one last month. Local resident Mr Barden originally alerted the Town Council to the loss of the post box, and the Council contacted the Royal Mail to ascertain whether it would be replaced, and a likely date for the work to take place.
When an original date for replacement of around the middle of August passed and no box appeared, the Town Council chased the matter further and was told one would be installed on 2 September.
"We are pleased to report that the new box is finally in place," said Town Clerk Julie Holden. "This will be a huge relief for the local residents who have been inconvenienced by its loss over the summer."
In our regular feature introducing councillors elected to the Town Council last May, the spotlight turns on Peter Wyan who represents Imberhorne Ward.
PETER was born in September 1939, 10 days after the declaration of WWII, and grew up in Hull, East Yorkshire, where he was educated at the all-male Grammar school.
“I got good ‘O’ and ‘A’ level results,” Peter laughed, “but my school reports were always to the effect that if I had applied the same interest to my studies as I did to sport, I would have been an outstanding scholar.”
But his prowess on the sports field earned him a place in the 1st XV rugby squad and the title of Victor Ludorum (Champion Athlete).
After leaving school at 17, Peter worked in a shipping company, quit to do his National Service and returned two years later.
He married his wife Diane in 1971 and the couple moved to Cherry Burton, where they raised the first of their children, Donna and Mark.
“My main hobbies at the time were fishing and rugby, which I played until I was 40,” said Peter.
“Then I broke two ribs, and my wife told me I was getting too old to carry on.”
So at 40 Peter changed his life completely.
He moved his family to Otley, and took a new job as a supervisor with the Leeds Marine Centre of the Commercial Union Group.
His youngest daughter Natalie was born in 1984, and the same year Peter was promoted to Marine Centre manager in Manchester.
Four years later he was given “the opportunity of a lifetime” when he was offered a new job as regional manager of the Far East Regional Office in Singapore.
“I travelled to all of our offices throughout south east Asia, my wife and chilldren were with me and it was a wonderful experience for all of us.”
Further promotion brought Peter back to London and the family moved to East Grinstead almost 20 years ago.
Since retiring as manager of the UK Marine Department in 1999, Peter has enjoyed fishing, attending the gym and taking on the role of Vice President at the East Grinstead Rugby Club.
“We’ve lived in the town for almost 20 years, and all three of our children have attended local schools so I decided it was time I gave something back to the community which is why I decided to stand as a town councillor.“I have been appointed chairman of the Planning committee and also vice chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan Working Group whose challenge is to help the community create the East Grinstead it wants over the next 20 years.”
VOLUNTEERS who run the Costume Store at Chequer Mead hope to mark their third anniversary this month having raised £14,000 in support of the theatre.
The store, which opens on Saturday mornings for private hire, or by appointment for theatrical productions, has a huge and ever-expanding stock of costumes ranging from historical figures, to dinosaurs.
And as they enter the autumn, the team are looking forward to their busiest months of the year.
“Hallowe’en is always a good time for us, and then of course we have Christmas and New Year to look forward to, so we anticipate that we’ll have quite a rush on over the next few weeks,” said co-founder Barbara Stovold.
“The past three years have been very successful and we are delighted that the money we have raised has gone into supporting the town theatre, because we know it gives a great deal of pleasure to a great many people.