Cooksbridge, Offham & Hamsey

REMINDER: Tomorrow, Saturday, Charity Christmas Fair in the village hall, Beechwood Lane from 2pm to 5pm. Organised by the Friends of Hamsey supporting the church restoration fund. Tea, cakes, mulled wine, book sale, local produce, craft stall and lots more. MALTHOUSE PLAYPARK: Is now wholly owned by Hamsey Parish Council who will be responsible for maintenance and any improvements that may be required in the future. If you have any suggestions regarding its future, please contact the parish clerk clerk@hamsey.net UNDERCOUNTER FREEZER: In good working order. Used for a couple of years in the village hall. To be sold for hall funds. To make an offer call the hall manager on 07762 118985. PUBLIC PHONE KIOSK: Hamsey Parish Council and Hamsey Neighbourhood Planning Team have contacted Lewes District Council to request adoption of the telephone box in Cooksbridge. Residents will have seen the notice stating BT’s intention to remove the kiosk due to low usage. A 42 day consultation period ended on November 8. The parish council would like to adopt the kiosk for use as a community library or similar. SINGING WORKSHOP: During the summer, Julie Nye ran a very successful singing workshop at Hamsey Church, to help raise funds for its restoration, raising an incredible £500 for the Hamsey Church Fund. Inspired by the fun they had at the singing workshop, Julie now runs a local monthly singing group. Everyone is welcome from Hamsey, Lewes and beyond. They have their first gig too, to sing at the Carols by Candlelight Service at Hamsey Church at 3pm on Sunday, December 11. CHARITY DIG: Another fundraising effort in July, when Liam Nolan at UK Metal Detecting Forum, organised a metal detecting dig at Mount Harry House by kind invitation of the Renton’s. Some interesting artefacts were found as well as enough small change to keep them in tea and bacon butties from the pop-up kiosk. Diggers gave generously towards a total of over £60 raised on the day for the Hamsey Church Restoration Fund. LITTER PICK: In October the quarterly parish litter pick was held with 10 local residents lending a hand. A large amount of litter was collected resulting in a huge pile of full black bags which were later collected by LDC Waste and Recycling team. Coffee and biscuits were kindly provided by Fred and Oscar at the Blacksmiths Arms at the end of the litter pick and were gratefully received by all present. The next litter pick will be on Saturday January 14, meeting at the village hall, Beechwood Lane. Note the new time of 10am. All are welcome to join. DOG FOULING: This issue is becoming a big problem within the parish with the actions of a thoughtless minority affecting the quality of life of the majority of residents. The parish council are now considering what additional measures can be implemented to address the problem. ACTION GROUP: Cooksbridge Area Rail Action Group (CARAG) have been campaigning for a regular stopping service and has had moderate success in persuading Southern to stop the weekday 2047 and 2147 services from London Victoria. The group say: However, there is no double that the profile of Cooksbridge has been raised and maintained with senior management and, as a result, there is now a proposal for an off-peak service every two hours, seven days a week. CARAG has the same core membership as the Station Partnership. More help would be very gratefully received. If you want to get further involved with one or both, please do get in touch with any of the members. The Partnership has only four members. Robert Baughan, Ian Ginn, Dinah Pryor and Kevin Froude. BATS: It makes very sad reading about how wind farms could be killing 80,000 bats a year, scientists have found. Researchers at the University of Exeter used sniffer dogs to locate the bodies of stricken bats near turbines. A survey of 29 wind farms showed that 194 bats were killed, although the number is likely to be higher because many would have fallen prey to scavengers. When the figure was extrapolated to include all of Britain’s onshore wind farms, it suggested that about 80,000 bats were being killed each year. The person who led the research said operators should be encouraged to switch turbines off during peak migration and breeding seasons, such as summer nights. The scientists think that bats may turn off their sonar when high up because they don’t expect anything to be blocking their path. They may also be attracted to insects which gather round the blades. ‘An open field might not be very interesting, whereas once new structures are built, the bats may investigate it or feed round it. Bats have been around for at least 30 million years and during that time have been able to fly happily without the risk of colliding with spinning objects. The main bat casualties of wind turbines are the common pipistrelle and soprano pipistrelle, tiny creatures with reddish brown coats and blackish-brown ears. Bodies of the noctule, one of the larger European bat species which sometimes comes out before sunset to feed on moths, beetles and other large flying insects were also found near turbines. A dead nathusius pipistrelle, a species which has recently been found to be migratory, was also discovered, raising concerns about whether onshore and offshore wind farms could pose a threat to their navigation route.’ I found the above quite upsetting because some years ago when Cooksbridge faced having a turbine in its midst and objectors raised their concerns about how it would affect the wildlife and birdlife in the vicinity, we were told not to be so ridiculous as it would not do any harm. The very first person to put it to the test took their dog for a walk past it and had to turn back as the dog was terrified and the dogs owner told me that it affected her hearing and made her feel ill. I have little bats around here and during the lovely summer evenings when it is getting dusk, it is a delight to see them flying about over the ponds searching for insects and enjoying their supper. Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live. Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on. 1) Make our website your homepage at www.sussexexpress.co.uk/ 2) Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Sussex-Express/ 3) Follow us on Twitter @sussex_express 4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here. And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out! 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