Once again, the season is upon us with threats of snow and ice. This year the Parish Council have put the grit bins in place before the bad weather hits. These are situated at The George, The bergavenny and The Brecknock. The grit is to be used to help Parishioners access local amenities.

Community Transport in North Wealden

For several years, the “Wealdlink” minibus service has operated from parishes across North Wealden to shops in either Crowborough or Tunbridge Wells. This door-to-door shopping service, currently supported by Wealden District Council and seven Parish Councils, which is intended for people who find it difficult to use ordinary buses, now uses a locally based minibus driven by volunteers, and a monthly shopping trip to Eastbourne has recently been added to the schedule.

Frant Parish Council are in talks with Wealdlink about the possibility of extending the service to include Frant residents. This would be a weekly service, on Tuesdays to Tunbridge Wells and on Wednesdays to Crowborough. A subsidised fare is charged as concessionary bus passes cannot be used on this type of door-to-door service.

To register an interest, and for further information, contact Mike Rowland.

Allotments

The allotments, on a site near the playing field and the new school and behind a hedge at the top of Frant Hill, started about four years ago. They rapidly attracted considerable attention from enthusiastic vegetable growers. However, this initial surge of activity waned after a while and the plots became scruffy and overgrown: in fact something of a blot on the landscape. In late 2010 the associaton of allotment holders received an infusion of new blood in the persons of Jake, Susan and Kate and a transformation took place. The site was cleared of rubbish, a stock-proof fence erected and the number of plots slightly reduced. Today, all the plots appear to be in use and although the bleak mid-winter is not the time to see much in the way of growing produce there is evidence of keen cultivation with weeded, well-mulched beds and even a trio of plump Buff Orpington hens and a thin scarecrow. There is no doubt that this is now a well-used and popular local facility.

Deer

Parish News has recently carried a couple of articles on the hazard to both motorists and deer from the latter wandering in the road. In the United States, some drivers affix to their vehicles a small device which emits a high pitched whine, inaudible to humans but very audible to deer. The effect is to reduce the number of collisions. These “deer alarms” are now available at Frant Village Stores. You can save the life of a deer and at the same time protect your no claims bonus by fitting one!

The Parish Council takes this opportunity to wish you all a Happy, Peaceful and Healthy New Year.

Ask not what ERIDGE VILLAGE HALL can provide for YOU, but what YOU can do for it.

A take on a famous speech from across the Atlantic, but hopefully something which will inspire you to come to the AGM on Friday 24^th February, 2012 to voice your comments and opinions as to where we go next. If that doesn’t convince you to come then maybe taking part in a game of Bingo will!  For details of the evening, please turn over.

2011 has seen further progress in the restoration of the Hall to its former glory, and the management committee has worked hard to make it a venue for both local and wider community use.  Many who have attended events during the year will have seen how the Main Hall has been brightened up and the kitchen completely refurbished.

Much of this has been achieved through the kind and generous support of many local community members and organisations. It is a valuable village asset and one of which we can all be proud, and which the trustees will always seek to promote primarily for the optimum use of our village.

A major source of funding over the years has been Little Acorns pre-school but sadly, even after our best endeavours to assist, they had to shut down in October 2011. While this has left a significant gap in the budget, the upside is that we are now able to offer the hall throughout each weekday, with the potential to be more diversified and less dependent on any single activity for income.

However, we in the management team believe we have now reached a significant juncture, and we need to hear what you think would be the best route forward.

Steps have already been taken to ensure that the Hall will remain a going concern, and we hope these will allow us to at least stay afloat for a year or two.  However there are still areas of investment needed to upgrade the hall, most significantly the toilets and drainage system which need major refurbishment and a facility for the disabled, and this needs to be done whether we attract new sources of income or not.

In addition managing the Hall on a day-to-day basis will require more human resource(s) and time, rather than just relying on the goodwill of committee members.  If you would be interested in joining the management team of trustees, please ring Barry Bryant on 07919 666870.

And so we ask that you come to the AGM to put your point of view, to help us develop a way forward for the good of Eridge Village Hall and so also for the community itself.  And of course to enjoy an evening of Bingo!  We look forward to seeing you there!

23^rd-24^th-25^th March 2012

Presenting some of the UKs best choirs, and one of the world’s finest sopranos, Dame Felicity Lott

Dame Felicity Lott

(Picture credit Trevor Leighton)

Friday 23^rd March @ 7pm ‘The Chancel Singers’ with Music Director and Organist Christopher Harris MA FRCO. ‘The Chancels’ have sung in abbeys, churches and cathedrals throughout England, including Salisbury, Winchester, Bath, Lincoln, Chichester, St Paul’s etc. Christopher Harris studied music at Jesus College Oxford, and University College Cardiff, specializing in the medieval music of Britain and Europe. As organist, Christopher has played in Westminster Abbey, Chichester Cathedral, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and others. The evening will include a short organ recital, and will also feature a few songs by the Frant Primary School Children’s Chorus. Tickets £7, children 15 and under free

Saturday 24^th March @ 3pm. ‘Quorum’ Chamber Choir, with Music Director and Organist Adrian Goss.

Pursuing a mainly a cappella  tradition, the choir is equally at home in renaissance polyphony, baroque oratorio as well as lighter and more modern repertoire. They have performed in St- Martin-in-the Fields, Chartres and Laon Cathedral, France, and many cathedrals and churches in England. Adrian Goss studied at the Royal Academy of Music, and in a wide-ranging career, has performed as a tenor as well as organist, with experience embracing Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and broadcasts with the BBC. Tickets £5, children 15 and under free

Saturday 24^th March @ 7.30pm ‘Polyphony’ with Music Director Michael Fields. Rutter’s ‘Feel the Spirit’ will be performed, with other works, by this fine chamber choir. Soloists will be soprano Ansy Boothroyd and pianist Jane Spurr. Michael Fields combines his experience in music in a varied career, performing, directing, teaching and record-producing. As a soloist, he has give recitals in the USA, Australia and England, and as a conductor with ‘Polyphony’, he has performed works by Charpentier, Monteverdi and Vivaldi. Tickets £7 children under 15 free

Sunday 25^th March @ 7.30pm Dame Felicity Lott accompanied by brilliant pianist Sebastian Wybrew. Dame Felicity is arguably Britain’s best loved soprano, with an international reputation as a concert singer, collaborating with most of the great conductors currently active, Sir Simon Rattle, Haitink, Mehta, Previn etc. Felicity has appeared in all the great opera houses of the world, Vienna, Milan, Paris, New York, London etc, and has enjoyed a long association with Glyndebourne. Tickets £16

To buy tickets for all concerts individually would be £35, but a ‘weekend-pass’ is available for £22 to ‘pick and mix’ or see all of them!

Tickets available from Frant Stores, or by tel. Paul Barber 01892 750665 or David Cragg 01892 750845

The Festival is in aid of the conservation of Frant Church, a beautiful Grade 11 listed building (circa 1822) in the heart of Frant Village. Reg. Charity 243134

                         WEALDLINK COMMUNITY TRANSPORT

North Wealden Community Transport Partnership operates Wealdlink Community Transport Shopping Services and runs two 15 seat wheelchair accessible mini buses. Wealdlink is delighted that Frant Parish Council has now become a North Wealden Transport Partnership member and we look forward to running services from February 2012.

North Wealden Community Transport Partnership would like to hear from those people within the Frant parish who find accessing public transport difficult and are interested in using the new Wealdlink services suggested below.

Service 1

The Wealdlink community bus will be offering a service to Bells Yew Green, Eridge and Frant into Tunbridge Wells on a Tuesday. The bus would pick registered users up from their houses between 10.45am and 11.15am. The bus would return from Tunbridge Wells at 1.30pm and return services users to their door.

Service 2

The Wealdlink community bus can also offer a service to Crowborough for registered users on the 2^nd Monday of each month. This service would pick registered users up between 10.45am and 11.15am. The bus would return from Crowborough at 1.30pm.

Fare

The charge for using each service is £4.00 return and this service is not able to accept concessionary bus passes.

What next?

If you would like to find out more and register with our service please follow the steps below.

Step 1 – Ring our office on 01892 771 332 – our registrations and bookings hours are Monday to Friday (9.30am- 12.30pm) If for some reason you cannot speak to anyone please leave a message on our answer machine and we will call you back to confirm we have received your message and we will then  discuss your transport needs with you.

Step 2 – Register your name, address and phone number with our bookings staff and let them know which day you would like to travel ( if you become a regular user you will not be required to ring and book a seat each week)

                                   Between 9.30am and 12.30pm  

                    Ring  01892 771 332  To Register

                             www.4weald.co.uk

Afterwards the congregation enjoyed home made mince pies and delicious mulled wine kindly provided by Michael and Jane Stevens and hugely appreciated by all!

Eridge Choir is always looking for new members.  Enthusiastic singers please contact Michael Stevens at 852739.

There are plans to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with an evening concert at the beginning of June 2012

If you are interested in undertaking an apprenticeship, please go to www.apprenticeships.org.uk

b y C h r i s t o p h e r H a l l , E r i d g e Wa r d, F r a n t Pa r i s h C o u n c i l

The excellent copy of a postcard of the horse and trap beside The Crown Inn in Eridge made me wonder how many people know that there was also a pub there as well as the Crest and Gun, the Huntsman at the Station and the Goldsmiths Arms at Park Corner on

the way to Groombridge. The village was very well provided for and indeed it is still! The ‘new’ village Hall can be seen in the background.  I have a postcard of the Eridge Hounds at Eridge Station and of course this made me think. There is no sign of anything other than

horses and hounds and ponies and traps.  What a change!  As a boy, I used to go to school by train and I well remember four steam trains in Eridge station at the same as trains set off for London, Tunbridge West station, Brighton and Eastbourne. Doctor Beeching put an end to all that in the 1960’s.  I also remember an old vet telling me that the horses

and carts meeting the London Trains in the evening caused problems because they used to stretch from Tunbridge Wells Station to the Pantiles as they waited for the trains with their drivers for their owners travelling daily to London.

The commuters continue to cause problems but now it is their cars.  At Eridge there are far too many cars for the existing station car park so they are parked on both sides of the road approaching the station causing traffic problems and bad humour!  One of the reasons is that the fares from Eridge are significantly cheaper than those from Tunbridge Wells and parking a car in the road costs nothing. This attracts passengers from the town and further afield. It seems difficult to find an answer to the problem.

Frant has a different problem as commuters park along a stretch of road outside the station not wishing to pay £4.00 to park in the Station Car Park. That park is not large enough to hold all the cars currently parked on the road in any event. The County Council have undertaken to take action because, as I found out last week, to my cost, parked cars

completely obscure the visibility for cars travelling in either direction and in particular when coming out from the new houses in Broomfield.  I suffered a minor collision with a car travelling towards the Brecknock Arms as I came out of Broomfield and neither of us were able to see each other until too late. Fortunately neither of us were hurt but this is

a regular happening as one of those living there told us and others may not be so lucky.

I understand that the period permitted by law to consult all those affected, the shop in particular, will finish shortly and then the Highways Authority will be expected to take some action to clear this road to prevent further accidents. From a personal point of view this is clearly essential and the members of the Parish Council have done all they can to express their anxiety over this. A 20miles per hour restriction which could, I presume, be enforced on a temporary or permanent basis would be a practical start and could surely be

achieved very quickly.  Humps in the road in front of Frant station entrance would also be effective to slow drivers down but does not help visibility. Space to park all these cars is an urgent problem.

How our lives have changed since the horse and cart days!

BY STUART CROOKSHANK — CHAIR, FRANT PARISH COUNCIL

The Parish and District Council elections are now over and the Parish Council re-constituted. We welcome Andrew Rockingham as a new Councillor for Bells Yew Green Ward and we will hopefully have new councillors co-opted for Frant and Eridge Wards this month. The local elections are a cathartic experience which prompt some thoughts on what the Parish Council achieves and indeed what’s its purpose? At a recent Parish Council meeting these sorts of questions were actually posed by a Frant Parish resident and I admit to not having a ready answer at the time.

I suppose when things go wrong the role of the Parish Council becomes more evident and we have experienced some recent hiccups with grass cutting, posts on Frant Green and new ‘finger posts’ in Eridge and Frant—each costing over £900. We also have som proactive successes that we can be justly proud of the Allotments are now in great shape with money procured by the Parish Council, parking in Bells Yew Green is finally being addressed with the proposed parking restrictions being advertised in the Courier, grit bins for Frant and Bells Yew Green have been ordered and the Frant wedding Street party was a great success.

In addition we now have policies on advertising and our reserves, all on our new look web site. We will continue to support local initiatives regarding traffic, play equipment and local celebrations for the Queen’s diamond jubilee next year but I suppose most of our time is spent on planning and this goes largely unheralded and it is not as easy as it may appear. The resounding feedback from the Parish Plan was that Parish residents like Frant Parish for what it is and what it represents and its maintaining this but also moving on that is quite difficult to juggle. This is brought into sharp focus with some of the planning applications that we are asked to comment on, representing your local views and where necessary challenging some planning decisions. Some of these require considerable thought, local knowledge, expertise and the occasional site visit.  All of this time given freely by the Councillors,who, in my view do a great job.

If I had thought quicker about the question of what has Frant Parish Council done, I think I should have quoted John F Kennedy and said something along the lines of ‘you shouldn’t be asking what Frant Parish Council can do for you but what can you do for Frant Parish’?

Now that we have a new Parish Council I think it is probably time to look at how we communicate with the Parish—I don’t think we do this as well as we could nor do we use the Internet enough. I also quite like the idea of Ward Councillors having more specific responsibilities for their Wards and getting really involved in them and their local issues. Some of these are quite complex and will require some detailed local knowledge that we all need to acquire.

http://www.wealden.gov.uk/