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News
October
- December events (see also Activities)
Friday October 17
41st ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Followed by a talk by The Warden of Sackville College
Saturday October 25
LOCAL HISTORY FAIR
10 am - 4 pm See an exhibit by LAURA SANSOM on our activities and what is under way in Sussex
Friday November 21
STEAMING THROUGH SUSSEX
Railways seen from the West Sussex Record Office, by BILL GAGE
Friday December 12
THE QUEEN VICTORIA HOSPITAL TRUST
By a retired Trust Governor, HOWARD MATTHEWS
Schools Poetry Competition 2008
The Society invited four schools to
take part in this year’s competition, the project being to write a
poem. Two schools participated—Stoke Brunswick (with 17 entries) and
Brambletye (with 22 entries), from two levels : Year 6 (under 11) and
Year 7 (under 12). Judging was undertaken by three members of the
Committee. The standard of the entries was high which made decision
difficult. The winning entries are reproduced below. The prizes were
distributed at Stoke Brunswick and at Brambletye during assemblies in
June.
Stoke Brunswick
School
First Prize
Stoke Brunswick our
school
Children busy
working hard,
Teachers ready, on their guard.
Lunch smells nice
And there is no price.
English, Maths, Science and French,
Choir sitting on a bench.
Playing games and having fun
Now their homework is all done.
Smelly trainers after break.
The cooks are baking us a cake
Everyone’s queues and waits their turn
The children here are ready to learn.
Games is next and little tea after,
Lots and lots and lots of laughter.
Playful pre-prep going home.
Mrs Double answers the phone.
The bell has gone for the end of school,
Swimming squad wander down to the pool
Mums are chatting, cars drive away.
Another end to a Stoke Brunswick day.
Second
Prize
Our School Stoke
Brunswick
When first
you step into our school,
You’ll realise that our school is cool,
The chapel, the art room, our DT centre,
But some doors you cannot enter.
What happens behind the staff room door ?
Maybe the teachers sleep and snore,
Maybe they slouch and watch TV,
Maybe they sit and drink their tea.
To the field we head at break,
Sometimes we run until our legs ache,
We play rounders, cricket, netball too.
You never run out of things to do.
History is the subject I like best,
Mr J, our teacher, beats the rest,
He makes the past come to life,
Especially Henry, with wife after wife.
But the best sound is when the bell rings,
It’s time to go and get my things,
My day at Stoke has come to an end,
But I’ll be back tomorrow to see my friends.
Brambletye School
First Prize
The Golf Ball
They hit me 100 times a day
O how I could wish I would fly away
But when I am high what a feeling of joy
Then sometimes I play hide and seek in the rough
Then my cruel master goes home saying he’s had enough
I lie there forever buried in soil
O what a terribly tedious toil
And when I am on very flat ground
Then he gives me a tap and I go round and round
I then fall into a very big hole
It has a big stick and I think It is his goal
Second
Prize
The Painting
There it is the great white
material,
I take a few steps forward,
take the HB pencil,
my eyes beam at the picture,
I scribble on the white
there it is the building of Venice
then the blue and green sea,
and finally the beautiful fluffy sky.
I step back and take a look,
I look around for the paint,
the blue and green, white and brown,
take my paces towards the drawing,
take hold of the paint brush and express.
I flick the blue paint at the sky,
paint my white fluffy clouds,
wash my brush and plunge it into the green,
the seaweed in the sea and mix it with my blue,
there the green and blue sea,
and finally my brown Venice building
I painted the brown windows.
And finally I finish,
I retrace my steps back,
and admire my piece,
I leave it to dry,
I lock it away,
and leave it there to stay.
Third
Prize
Born Again
trapped in the darkness
nowhere to go
nothing to do
feeling alone
but not knowing it
feeling the warmth
hearing voices
but from where
waiting for a signal
that beckons me to leave
the day has come
I shall come out
is this the signal
that beckons me to leave
I want to stay in
I like it in here
the warmth and the dark
the voices for comfort
oh why do they want me to leave
Proposed
development of 2,500 homes at East Grinstead
Background
The West Sussex County Council Structure Plan was adopted at the end of 2004 following an Examination in Public (EiP) in December 2002, at which this
society opposed the Plan. An area to the west and southwest of the town was identified as a Strategic Location for 2,500 homes. Associated with the new homes several "relief road" route options were proposed by Mid-Sussex District Council (MSDC) in successive Area Action Plans (AAPs). Most options would pass through an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). A traffic report has indicated that not one option would reduce traffic congestion in the town, indeed that all options would add to it. This is important because a requirement of the Structure Plan is that without significant traffic relief to 2004 levels the development should not proceed and alternative proposals should be prepared.
Current situation
MSDC's Core Strategy
issued for public consultation in January 2008 resulted in over 5,500
responses from the public and local organisations. Previously, some
7,000 responses, mostly objections, were received by MSDC to an Area
Action Plan (AAP) for East Grinstead for 2,500 new houses to the west
and southwest of the town. It is now known that the total number of
houses to be built over the plan period at EG is likely to exceed
4,500, including infills and small-scale developments over and above
the 2500. An associated relief road scheduled to pass through an area
of AONB would not, according to traffic analyses, relieve congestion
in the town as was expected in the 2004 WSCC Structure Plan.
A major change to the Local Development
Framework for East Grinstead, announced by MSDC in October 2008, is
that an AAP in rather diluted form (limited to broad site allocations,
transport and relief road issues) is to be incorporated into the Core
Strategy for the Mid Sussex district. As a result the East Grinstead
AAP will not have a separate existence, open to comment by residents,
nor will it have its own Examination in Public before an independent
inspector. Instead a reduced detail EGAAP will be integrated with the
Core Strategy for the Mid Sussex district, to be considered by an
inspector at an Examination in Public in 2010. The Core Strategy is
required to be in accordance with the South East Plan issued by
government in late 2008.
This Society's view remains that a major
housing development here is unsustainable for several reasons
including: unnecessary damage to the natural environment, a
significant increase in traffic congestion and carbon emissions, and
lack of readily accessible employment prospects. By comparison other
sites already identified to the east of the M23 would, we believe,
prove more sustainable and should be investigated in a revised Core
Strategy for Mid Sussex district.
Campaign
The East Grinstead
Post Referendum Campaign (PRC), supported by this Society and other
local organisations, opposes the Plan for 2500 homes and the so-called
relief road. For details of the PRC campaign and background see www.eghouses.org.uk
News
Archive (2007)
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