Please note. This column will now include Hadlow Down in its copy. Any organisation wishing to promote their event please contact: melbutch160@gmail.com
A267 ROAD SAFETY GROUP
The A267 Road Safety Group has now received a comprehensive reply from ESCC to the group’s Vision and Strategy Speed Reduction document. It looks very positive that the speed on Wellbrook Hill looks set to will be reduced from 50mph to 40mph. This is very good news as it is in line with the A276 RSG strategy to turn the A267 onto a blanket 40 mph proposal from Wellbrook Hill to Horam, (excluding Five Ashes which is 30mph.) The reply was received late on Friday evening and will take some time for the committee to digest and make comments.
MAYFIELD and FIVE ASHES PARISH ASSEMBLY
Joel Mitchell, CEO of Stagecoach South Eastern has defended his company's decision to halve service times of the 51 bus providing the only public transport link to residents of Mayfield and Rotherfield. Mr Mitchell was speaking at Mayfield and Five Ashes Parish Council's annual parish assembly held at Five Ashes village hall.While explaining why cuts were 'economically necessary' he also held out hope to residents saying an additional half-hourly service would be re-introduced at peak times. The chief executive explained how he had left the rail industry to work with buses which, he felt, better served the transport needs of communities suffering the greatest deprivation. But he noted the bus industry had been in 'terminal decline' with bosses raising fares again and again as numbers of passengers reduced. The body blow came, he said, with Covid. "We never had a chance." But he was determined to reset this company's viability after redundances and other cutbacks saved the company £1.5m. He also introduced a five year plan. Stagecoach overall had borrowed £1b which was being paid back at 7%. This was coupled with the need to decarbonise and schedule introduction of a new, electric fleet. He noted that to succeed, buses must offer a better alternative than getting the car out, offering regularity, reliability and a more comfortable method of getting from A to B. He also quoted the most effective and well-resourced bus services in the UK were based in Edinburgh, Brighton and London where timetables were hardly needed as 'there is a bus along every few minutes.' He was questioned over the service's unreliability where passengers were left waiting in the cold, sometimes for two hours. He said the 51's problems arose from unpredictable roadworks, particularly in Eastbourne which suddenly popped up and made accurate scheduling impossible. They also occurred along the route in Hailsham and Heathfield. He also cited the county's potholed roads which affected ticket machines and made the service app even more unreliable. The 51 bus, he said, was viable from Eastbourne to Hailsham, OK from Hailsham to Heathfield but from Heathfield to Tunbridge Wells it clocked one passenger per mile travelled, with a net loss of £1.2m. The service costs £1.7m to operate. He said: "To continue we had to strip the resource out and drop from a service every 30 minutes to one every hour." And he emphasised the need for financial support from county councils "on top of all the other things they have to pay for. like adult social care." To comments from the floor reporting how families had to use the car to ferry children to important exams as buses did not turn up, he said he understood the predicament as he had children of his own needing to travel to schools in Ashford and had to drive them there. But he held out a glimmer of hope saying better management and improved savings meant a peak-time half-hourly service could be re-introduced this autumn. Mr Mitchell was praised for being brave enough to face his critics, many of whom were elderly and had no other means of transport. However I feel it’s a shame that the service fails to compete with Heathfield’s recently-introduced no 29a bus which runs from the town through Uckfield and Lewes to Brighton. I fully understand why traffic hold-ups delay the 51 but everyone I talk to who uses the 29A notes it arrives in Brighton, and all the intervening stops, on time. It also has digital and audio info about stops en-route and automatic phone-charging on all services. A pleasure to ride, people say.
NATIONAL GARDENS SCHEME
Hoopers Farm (TN20 6BD) will be open for the National Garden Scheme (NGS) on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th June between 11am and 5pm. Tickets cost £6 and can be bought at the gate or booked online at ngs.org.uk. This is a large south-facing garden with wide ranging views. It is tucked away at the bottom of Vale Road. The garden features many roses, including a rose arbour and an abundance of island beds packed with early summer flowering herbaceous plants, annuals and shrubs. There is a productive vegetable plot, a rock garden and a lawn area which has been repurposed to create a wildflower meadow with meandering grass paths. There is also a long meadow walk to a wild-life pond and, as always, two friendly donkeys! Homemade teas will be provided by the very efficient Pre-School team and lovely plants from Rapkyn’s Nursery will be on sale. There will be live music on the afternoon of Sunday 15th. Also open in June, after a long break, is the superb garden at Tidebrook Manor, Sunday 1st June, 11am – 4.30pm. See more details of this garden and many 13 others in the Sussex County booklet available at local shops, cafes and garden centres. Sarah Ratcliffe: 01435 873310
St DUNSTAN’S CHURCH
Our Churchyard Working Parties have started again and our next one will be on Saturday, 7th June from 10am to 12noon. Please do come and join us and bring your own tools. Coffee is provided!
Chorister Probationer We are offering local children, aged 8 upwards, the opportunity to become a chorister probationer. Singing training is provided, and probationers will rehearse once a week during term times, sometimes with the church choir. A small fee will be given to probationers for singing in Sunday services. This is an excellent opportunity for young people to develop their musical training, including reading music and sight singing. Social events to including pizza parties! Please email Lucy Piercy, Director of Music, on: music.stdunstans@gmail.com for more details.
St. Dunstan’s Parish Choir
The Choir of St Dunstan’s has an extensive repertoire and long-standing tradition of excellence. The robed choir averages 20-25 on Sunday mornings and leads the musical worship in a variety of mass settings, anthems and hymns. The choir additionally sings Choral Evensong once a month, usually on the last Sunday of the month. Their schedule also includes singing at weddings and funerals when requested in addition to leading our Advent and Christmas Carol services. In June 2019 the choir joined with Salisbury Cathedral Choir for services at Salisbury Cathedral which included Widor’s Messe and an Easter Cantata by Bach with period orchestra. The choir has been fortunate to work with some of the country’s leading church musicians and commissioned two anthems by Malcolm Archer which were premiered by the choir under the direction of the composer. Recent events have included a liturgical performance of excerpts from three of Bach’s Advent Cantatas including ‘Wachet Auf’ with the Mayfield Festival Baroque Orchestra in December 2021 and singing Choral Evensong at Chichester Cathedral where they sang the rarely-performed Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in G by Henry Smart in February 2022. We always welcome new singers, so if you think you might like to join us, please contact our Director of Music, Lucy Piercy on music.stdunstans@gmail.com