COUNCIL leader Norman Webster and town clerk Julie Holden have visited the East Grinstead Sports Club to see the site of the club’s proposed new squash courts.
Work on the courts, which is being funded by the club with the help of grants from East Grinstead Town Council and Mid Sussex District Council, is due to start this autumn.
Cllr Webster is pictured, right, with Jeff Morris who conducted the tour of the club’s facilities.
MAYOR John Saull performed the official opening for the new exhibition at the town library in Cantelupe Road.
Running until the autumn, the exhibit tells the story of East Grinstead’s Art Deco past.
Entry to the museum is free.
TOWN Councillors are available at public surgeries held each Saturday at the West Street library between 10am and noon for anyone who would like advice, or to comment on Council affairs.
THE Mayor, Cllr John Saull, will attend the following functions in July:
MAYOR John Saull officially launched summer in East Grinstead when he lent a hand to the Council’s outdoor team as they hung the first of the 252 baskets which will
decorate the town centre in the coming months.
"The High Street is the historic heart of East Grinstead," he said, "and it looks even lovelier bedecked with blooms.
"The superb job done by the outdoor staff in hanging and maintaining dozens of baskets and other containers around the town throughout the summer makes it even more attractive for everyone who lives here, and for our many visitors."
Paralympian Richard Schabel cuts the ribbon on the Victorian carriage adapted for wheelchair users by the Bluebell Railway
The first two in a regular series of biographies introducing members of the East Grinstead Town Council features Council leader Norman Webster
NORMAN Webster was born and raised in an asbestos mining town in Zimbabwe and has lived in East Grinstead for almost ten years.
After completing his education, Norman worked for a multinational medical company with responsibility for strategic planning in India and southern Africa.
Before moving to the UK he worked for a number of charities and ran his own business in South Africa.
Norman has worked for a national charity in London for the past nine years and his wife teaches in a local independent school. Their daughters both attended attended Sackville school, where Norman was a governor, and he is a member of Trinity Methodist Church.
He has been involved in a number of local organisations including being a member and past chairman of both the Haywards Heath and District branch of Arthritis Care, and the South East England regional committee.
He also belongs to West Sussex LINKs for which he has led a review of care homes in Sussex.
"The new 3Ts hospital development is to replace the hopelessly outdated Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and I am proud to be a member of the Patient Public Design Panel for this new flagship hospital. It will provide greatly improved health services to residents across Sussex and the South East."
"I serve on the Brighton and Sussex Medical School Fitness to Practice subcommittee which is responsible to the BSMS Academic Board and advises the BSMS Admissions Board, for determining whether a student or potential applicant is fit to register on the Under Graduate Medical Course or to practice as a doctor after graduation."
"I also assist in the training of second and fifth year medical students as a patient role model."
"Having lived with inflammatory arthritis since the age of eleven, I care deeply for, and am dependent on, the NHS as are many people in East Grinstead. I will use my influence to ensure services in Sussex are maintained and improved where possible."
"As a town councillor I represent the East Grinstead Council for Voluntary Services and look forward to supporting their work where I can."
"I also actively participate in meetings of the Association of Charity Officers, Occupational Benevolent Funds Alliance and the Institute of Fundraisers; these groups interact with government to influence policy and to assist those in our society who need a helping hand."
"I care passionately about creating opportunities for local people of all ages, to live and work in an economically vibrant area."
Together with the residents, businesses, voluntary sector and my Town Council colleagues, I want to create a thriving town in which to live and work.
COUNCILLOR Bob Mainstone, who represents Imberhorne Ward, is leader of the Town Council’s Liberal Democrat group and is also a Mid Sussex District Councillor for the ward. He has been a member of the Town Council since 2007.
“East Grinstead is a special town and I want to see it develop to its full potential. We have the Bluebell Railway linking to the town soon and this will bring in many tourists.
“It is important we make the most of this unique opportunity, and I will strive to do all I can to improve the town for our residents and visitors.”
Bob arrived in East Grinstead back in 1970 to take up a teaching post at Sackville School where he was responsible for Physical Education and Social Education. In 1979 he moved up the road to Imberhorne School as Head of Key Stage Three. During this time he also worked at Baldwins Hill Primary school.
In 1997 Bob retired from his senior management position but continued to work part-time at Imberhorne as a sixth form tutor specialising in A-level Travel and Tourism. In 2011 he finally decided to complete his 44-year teaching career.
“Every day I meet people who I used to teach and we have a good old chat. I love to find out how their lives have progressed since leaving school and what is on their ‘wish list’ for the town.”
While working part-time Bob also created his own business specialising in wedding photography and often found himself filming his former students.
Away from work, Bob spent much of his younger years playing rugby, and has represented Loughborough Students, Lewes, East Grinstead and Sussex. He was a member of the East Grinstead Sussex Cup-winning side in 1983. His interests now are photography, golf and motor cycling
“Sport in East Grinstead is something we should be very proud of. For a small town we have a remarkable number of high quality clubs which produce teams which compete strongly at local and national levels.”
After his school days at Worthing High School, Bob studied at Loughborough University and later at Sussex University. In 2009 he was awarded an Honorary Degree by Loughborough University in recognition of his contribution to education.
In his role as a town councillor Bob has served as Deputy Mayor, Chairman of Public Services and Chairman of the Business Support Group. At present he is a member of the Planning committee and the Amenities & Tourism committee. Outside the council chamber Bob is a founder member of the Imberhorne/Baldwins Neighbourhood Panel, a trustee of the Town Museum, a member of Chequer Mead Friends, a member of the East Grinstead Music and Arts Festival, a committee member of the town’s Christmas Promotions committee, an honorary member of the Guinea Pig Club, a member of the Mid Sussex Young Enterprise committee and a vice-president of the East Grinstead rugby club.
“Being a councillor is a busy life but I like it that way,” he said. “I enjoy getting involved with trying to improve the quality of our town by attending meetings and joining committees – sitting watching TV every evening is not for me and I definitely prefer to be out helping people and their organisations.”
Bob is married to Christine who, until 2011, was an elected member of the Town Council for sixteen years and served as Town Mayor.
Their daughter Sally, a community nurse, lives in Crawley with her husband Mark and four-year-old son Toby.
TOWN MP Nicholas Soames was appointed to the Privy Council in last month’s Birthday Honours list.
Mr Soames, a grandson of the wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, has been a Conservative MP for 28 years and has represented Mid Sussex since 1997, having previously been MP for Crawley.
He is a former Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and served as Minister of State for the Armed Forces between 1994 and 1997.
His appointment to the Privy Council makes him the fourth of his family over four generations to receive the same honour.
He said: “I have been a member of parliament for 28 years and I am very grateful to my constituents who made me an MP.
“This is a very great honour for myself and my family.”
There was also an MBE for East Grinstead’s Eric Mackie for his services to the community through his voluntary work as president of the town’s Access Group for the disabled.
The group was established in the mid-nineties to look at ways life in East Grinstead could be made easier for people with disabilities.
The issues Eric has tackled since then include the group’s Pavements for People campaign, to keep car drivers from parking on pavements, and a recently revised booklet which lists facilities for disabled people across the town, including a list of local shops which ‘Care with a Chair’.
But the success of the Access Group is all down to team work, says Eric.
"We can’t afford to pay anybody, so we need to run on volunteers and the team here is smashing.
"I don’t feel like a conquering hero, I just feel there’s a job that needs to be done."
Mark Cutler who works at the Queen Victoria hospital was also awarded an MBE for his work on maxillofacial prosthetics.
Mark studied at Brooklands College in Surrey before graduating with a diploma in dental technology in 1983. After completing both the Prosthedontic and Maxillofacial Prosthetic advanced national certificates, Mark then worked at St Thomas’ Hospital, London and at Queen Marys’ Hospital, Roehampton.
With a particular interest in post-burn tissue hypertrophy, Mark was able to attain the European Association for Burn Injury Scientific Fellows Award and is a member of the British Burns Association and The International Society for Burn Injury.
A Royal Navy (Reserve) officer, he was commissioned in 1989, and took on an operational role with the Navy’s medical branch.
From 1993-97 he was a part-time lecturer in maxillofacial prosthetics at Lambeth College in London, and an external examiner at Manchester Metropolitan University from 2002-06.
In addition to his work at the QVH, Mark has lectured and presented workshops in Europe, North Africa, Scandinavia and South America.
MAYOR John Saull marked the 70th anniversary of the town’s connection with the world famous Guinea Pig Club by inviting 26 members and their guests to tea at East Court.
Despite their long and affectionate association with East Grinstead, it was the first-ever official visit by the badly-burned former airmen who dubbed themselves Guinea Pigs after being operated on by pioneering plastic surgeon Sir Archie McIndoe.
The tea was also attended by former mayors who had been made friends of the Guinea Pig Club, and members of the newly-formed Town Council.
It was one of the new mayor’s first official engagements, and – after his own career in aviation safety – one particularly close to his heart.
John, who has made the Guinea Pig Club one of the two official charities for his year in office, was himself honoured by being made a friend of the Guinea Pig Club at the AGM Luncheon, as was Mike Hollis, the president of the East Grinstead museum, and Town Clerk Julie Holden.
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TOWN Mayor John Saull attended a charity concert given by the ConChord Big Band at Chequer Mead in aid of the Royal British Legion.
"The event made £1066.96 in addition to around £400 given in donations on the night", said band member Cllr Frank Osborne, pictured centre, with the mayor and Legion representative Martin Forde.
