Ticehurst Parish Council

TICEHURST PARISH ANNUAL ASSEMBLY APRIL 2008

There were thought to be over 200 people who attended the Assembly on April 22nd in the Village Institute. Of these, approximately half completed the questionnaires that were handed out. Of the 103 papers collected, one was from a non-parishioner, one was insufficiently completed to be included, so the actual numbers of the remaining ones are used as being actual percentages:

Not surprisingly, 75% of the attendees came from the Ticehurst Ward, 15% from Flimwell and 10% from Stonegate.

Rather unexpectedly, 43% have lived in the Parish for less than ten years with 31% having lived here for over twenty-five years, the balance having lived in the Parish for between ten and twenty-five years. We always thought that we had a fairly static population of long term residents. Perhaps the long-timers don’t turn out for the annual assemblies?

To the simple question ‘how many in your household’ an unexpectedly high 18% did not respond, of those that did, they represented 269 people, although there could be some double counting if, for example, a husband and wife both filled in a questionnaire.

On vehicles, the Council is clearly right to lobby for at least two parking spaces per household, as nearly 66% have two or more vehicles. 4% had none, with the balance being one car per family. 80% can park on their own property, although 9 vehicles were admitted as parking over-night (either wholly or partially) on the pavement – technically illegal in the U.K. 15% park on the Highway.

The Action Plan update seems to have gone quite well, with 63% of people having read it ‘carefully’, 20% have put it aside to read later and the remaining 17% either lost it or threw it out as junk mail, or did not let their partner see it! Paradoxically, of those who ticked the ‘put aside’ box or even the ‘threw away unread’ box, a number of them ticked the ‘limited but sensible’ answer about their thoughts on the content of the update. 80% ticked the good or sensible box with only 1% marking the ‘seriously flawed’ box! 6% had referred back to the original Plan on the internet and 4% referred to their 2003 copy.

Action in Rural Sussex (AIRS) clearly need to get their act together, with only 12% claiming to know what their aims are. 32% had heard of AIRS before but over 50% had never heard of them.

In terms of the threat to the Village Post Offices, it is encouraging that 77% claim to use the Ticehurst Post Office regularly, 22% sometimes and only 1% rarely. Local shopping is still quite strong with 19% reckoning on doing over 50% in our parish shops, 41% between 25-50% and the balance being between 5 and 25%. Only one person owned up to doing less than 5% in the Parish shops!

The Stonegate Farmers Market had 12% of regular visitors, 41% of ‘sometimes’ visitors but over 50% put down that they had never visited it.

Rother District Council seem to have recovered from the pummelling that they got, over the botched start to their ‘recycling’ efforts last year. Over 33% of responses claimed that the new arrangements have made no difference , as they were already re-cycling a lot but 46% say they are re-cycling much more and 24% ‘a little more’. 19% reckon that the new arrangements are ‘a great success’, 54% as ‘better’ but there is still work to be done for the 13% who rate it as a ‘disaster’. The main complaint which kept on being mentioned is for re-cycling facilities for cardboard. The Parish Council will have to lobby Rother District Council on this matter.

NOTE - Cllr. Tom Semple is organising this, and will be launching a scheme within the next month.

Before leaving re-cycling it is worth noting, that an astonishing 92% are still using other re-cycling facilities in addition to the regular collections. Over 70% of this is at the Pickforde Lane car park and Stonegate Hall car park sites. There is a weak call for an additional site in Flimwell – presumably on the Corner Farm site. The East Sussex County Council tips at Wadhurst, Mountfield and Heathfield all seem quite popular, while others cart their additional waste to Sainsburys in Tunbridge Wells, Hawkhurst Car Park, or unexpectedly to Lamberhurst.

About 25% of the respondees have visited the Wealden Woodnet site, whilst slightly fewer – 23% have never visited our splendid new Ticehurst and Flimwell Primary School.

That just leaves the Assembly itself – only four people thought it was ‘not exciting/interesting enough’, whilst half reckoned it to be ‘a jolly good do’ or ‘ I would not want to miss it’. The rest clarified it as ‘useful’. We are told by our peer villages that the ‘Ticehurst Annual Assembly is the one to copy’. The fact that there are no speeches seems to be popular. A pat on the back for our Parish Council??

John Poole – (former Parish Councillor)