Barnham and Eastergate Community Newsletter

Feb 5

Written By Tim McOwan

SPRING 2022

£175,831 National Lottery Community Grant helps our neighbourhoods to thrive!

WELCOME

From Barnham and Eastergate Parish Council and Community Trust

This newsletter is brought to you by the Parish Council in partnership with the Barnham and Eastergate Community Trust.

You might reasonably ask who these organisations are and why do we need them?

Put simply both organisations work in partnership to meet the current and future needs of our community.

The Trust has the capacity (staff and funds) to manage our community halls whilst the Parish Council employs staff and contractors to manage the sports pavilion at Eastergate and the playing fields at Barnham and Eastergate.

The Trust is also able to mobilise community volunteers and enables us to raise money through local fundraising and major grants programmes (e.g. the Lottery). It is managed by 5 permanent staff, 10 volunteer Trustees and over 50 volunteers. In addition to the management and upkeep of the two Community Halls the Trust manages a full programme of community events; community support programmes and fund-raising initiatives to develop, grow and modernise our facilities.

The Parish Council can secure monies for community projects from housing developers through the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and other mechanisms. It can also secure long term public works loans that the future community pay for through the Parish Council precept which is part of Council Tax.

The Trust and Parish Council together have huge ambitions for our growing community and have been working hard to establish the right governance structures so that we can bid for and receive the investment in community facilities that we deserve.

You don’t need us to tell you how challenging the last 18 months have been. However, we all must thank the Parish Council staff, Community Trust staff and numerous volunteers who have provided many forms of support to the isolated, secured grants and run an innovative community programme throughout the pandemic.

Finally, we’d like to thank the editorial team for this newsletter. Communication is vital and we are also investing in 2022 in updating our website and social media channels.

Visit our websites for full information regarding current online and future events

CHRIS ALLINGTON

Chair Barnham and Eastergate Parish Council

www.barnhamandeastergate-pc.gov.uk

TERRY BEDFORD

Chair Barnham and Eastergate Community Trust

www.barnhamandeastergatecommunitytrust.com

YOUR COMMUNITY, YOUR OPINION MATTERS

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY - TUESDAY 26TH APRIL, 2022

Every year the Parish Council hosts a meeting for residents to enable them to engage with Parish Councillors. This year we hope to hold this in person at one of our Halls so put the date in your diary and come and join us. Refreshments will be available from 6 p.m. The meeting will start at 6.30 p.m.

This meeting is a meeting for you, the residents, organised by the Parish Council, and you can set the agenda if you wish – just let us know what you might like to discuss. In the meantime, we will put together some ideas and items that we would like to tell you about in terms of what the Council has been doing and what we are planning to do. These will include:

Looking at investing in our community as we are starting to receive funds from the large-scale developments;
Looking at green issues in the Parish, including climate change
Ensuring we use our Neighbourhood Plan to achieve the best outcomes for the Parish with the development we know we have to accept;
Letting you know what we’re doing with the Community Trust that runs the two Community Halls in the parish.

Contact the Parish Clerk, Alison Crabb if you want something on the agenda.

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES

Are you community minded? Can you spare a few hours every week, once a month or even just occasionally? If you can then the Parish Council and Community Trust have many opportunities for you to help them.

We currently have one vacancy on the Parish Council, which might be a slightly bigger commitment but is a very interesting and rewarding role (with a very small financial allowance).

We are also always looking for volunteers to help with regular activities and large-scale events organised by the Community Trust.

If you want to know more please get in contact with Alison Crabb, our Parish Clerk by calling 07565 052617 or emailing clerk@barnhamandeastergate-pc.gov.uk.

The Parish Council and Community Trust

The Parish Council is a local authority and is the level of government closest to the community. The Council is managed by a Clerk, 2 Assistant Clerks and 13 Councillors who are either elected every 4 years or co-opted when vacancies arise. It raises the funding it requires to manage its responsibilities through approval of a budget and precept sum which is then paid by all eligible Council Taxpayers in the Parish. The Council has limited powers, but it has the ability to influence and resolve matters on behalf of its residents, make certain decisions on behalf of the people in the Parish, and it has an overall responsibility for the well-being of the local community.
The Council has a separate Planning and Environment Committee that considers all new planning applications in the Parish, development of our Neighbourhood Plan and a whole range of environmental matters.
The Council has many assets and responsibilities including Murrell’s Field and the recreational facilities on it; Eastergate Playing Field with the children’s playground and pavilion; streetlights, Eastergate War Memorial; and some street furniture.
Our last major investment was the development of Murrells Field and Barnham Community Hall (£1.5m) which opened in 2013. This project received no money from our District Council and housing developments but was delivered by the Trust supported by the Parish Council (who still own the building but it is operated and managed by the Community Trust on their behalf). A volunteer project team was formed who envisioned, fund-raised and project managed the construction. The project was funded through grants and fundraising events by the Trust; the sale of some Parish Council land and public works loans taken out by the Parish Council. Since then, we have done many smaller projects and built a valuable reputation for on-time, on-budget delivery with excellent financial governance. This reputation helps us significantly when we apply for grants or commit to spending housing developer contributions to our community facilities.
We now want to focus on adding more detail to our vision for Barnham and Eastergate and the Parish Council and the Trust have developed some priorities and goals. In summary these are:

Improving the places and spaces in Barnham and Eastergate that matter to our community
Working in partnership with other statutory and voluntary bodies, businesses and individuals to ensure an improving standard of services and facilities to meet the needs and expectations of our growing community. Barnham and Eastergate is forecast to grow from circa 9,000 to 21,000 residents over the next 10 to 20 years
Promoting, supporting and creating local voluntary groups, clubs and societies that seek to assist all sections of our community
Helping to create a socially inclusive and caring community which embraces all its residents, irrespective of age, culture, income, race, sexual orientation or religion, and which seeks to develop their well-being, knowledge, understanding and mutual co-operation

Our capacity to deliver everything is always limited by money and time, but we have repeatedly shown that if volunteers come forward to help with a project, large or small, then we find the money to get it done. The conversation about the priorities for our villages is a public one and we invite all residents to participate.
Across the UK Parish Councils have typically been starved of cash and have been talking shops. Community charities have struggled with financial sustainability and availability of volunteers. This is not the case in Barnham and Eastergate as every member of staff, councillor, trustee or volunteer can deliver real change.

Our eternal thanks go to the volunteers and staff that have developed the Trust and the Parish Council over more than 20 years; built a Neighbourhood Plan that has legal powers; supported fundraising events too numerous to mention and; secured major grants. This has enabled us to secure the funding and services that our community deserves in an environment where higher authorities are cutting budgets and many cherished community services.

One of the biggest issues we as a Parish Council try to protect the Parish from is unwanted development. The Council, unfortunately, is not the decision maker when it comes to development but the best defence we have to protect us is the Barnham and Eastergate Neighbourhood Plan (BENP). The Plan covers a huge range of topics; at its heart are the principles that our community, not higher tiers of government, should decide where new housing development should go; what green spaces must be preserved and protected; and what community infrastructure must be funded to support new housing.

We have just completed a Revised Plan that will shortly be ratified as a legal document by Arun District Council. It’s clearer in its intent to protect and enhance our community and whilst it won’t give us complete protection from predatory housing developers and central government policy, we will use it to send the clear message to politicians and policymakers - at district, county and national levels - and to developers that we will not accept housing development other than that allocated for in the Plan.

Given the 3,000- to 4,000-house Strategic Site in the parish, Barnham and Eastergate already has 15% of Arun’s proposed housing development with only 3% of its current total population. The Parish Council believes that the BENP must be upheld to protect the community from any additional unwanted development. However, moving forward, if we lose a planning battle we can now legally force a financial contribution from a developer towards our community infrastructure projects, whereas in the past they would have contributed nothing.

What we did to help…

Over the past three years the Trust has run a growing range of activities to address loneliness and isolation in the community, reaching many people, enabling them to make new friends and new interests - from babies/toddlers, through to the elderly; people with health problems such as alcoholism and diabetes, through to fitness classes, films and concerts, sports and interests, social events and activities to combat loneliness.

The Covid-19 outbreak stopped all these forms of get-togethers, putting many at risk of loneliness and neglect, leading to isolation and all varieties of mental, emotional and physical problems. Whilst many have coped and just got on with it, others have struggled, in particular those with age, disabilities, loneliness, fitness or other problems working against them or their families.

The Trust (together with the Parish Council) immediately set up a telephone helpline, a Covid information website, and delivered helpline leaflets to every house in the Parish – backed up by a team of over 50 volunteers. This helpline was heavily used by worried, occasionally desperate people in the villages, and help was provided in the form of advice, reassurance, and direct action along with shopping and prescription collections. Further to this, the Trust set up a “cake-and-contact” service, delivering home-baked cakes and other goodies – and a cheerful chat—to many of the elderly or self-isolating stuck in their homes.

Prior to the pandemic, the National Lottery visited us to discuss supporting our community efforts. During the crisis we contacted them and asked them to help with our Covid support programme - they awarded us a grant to be used within 6 months to help the community recover. Our initial budget plan allowed for our community halls to re-open with socially distanced activities. Sadly, none of us realised that things were going to get much worse. Many further restrictions and lockdowns transpired, and we had to diversify our ideas.

We initially hoped to hold healthy cookery classes in our halls but instead filmed 3 cookery instruction courses and released them on our Facebook pages with thousands of views. We arranged for exercise and yoga classes to be Zoomed to members of the community – this reached many who actually do not have the confidence to attend public classes. We were allowed to use our halls for exercise classes in November whilst we were in Tier 2 but continued to Zoom sessions into the New Year. Our live monthly Facebook Quizzes proved very, very popular. Our Christmas ‘event’ was a concert filmed by Dave Harris who is a ‘Crooner’ – he previously has sold out at our halls with his ‘Brat Pack’ performances.

In January 2021 we realised that our elderly neighbours were in a desperate state. So many were shielding, alone and living out of their freezers. We decided to start a fresh vegetable box delivery service, this was quickly followed by freshly prepared meals. We supported residents in Barnham, Eastergate, Fontwell, Aldingbourne, Westergate and Walberton. Community has NO parish boundary. We must thank Barfoots of Botley, Mark Dunne from Chefs On The Move for their unbelievable generosity and the Sussex Community Fund. But most of all we must thank our volunteers. The ladies from Eastergate Village Hall’s Tuesday coffee morning literally did not stop baking for 18 months along with lots of other new volunteers who are now lifelong friends to so many.

This was just the beginning for our community. Due to our hard work, we are delighted to announce that in September we were awarded a support grant of just under £176,000 for a 3-year programme from The National Lottery Community Fund to help us recover from COVID. So far, we have achieved the following:

Rent support for existing hall users and new users.

At both buildings this has helped to encourage and give confidence to our returning community groups and new starters. For example:

The two WI groups at Eastergate Village Hall (monthly on a Monday morning and a Friday evening) were very worried about the financial impact of re-starting due to the age of lots of their members, the rent support has enabled them to do this and when the support stops, they will be financially independent. Over the past four months confidence has grown with their members and they even have new subscribers.

Parent and Baby drop in.

Facilitated by a local midwife at Eastergate Village Hall and a baby massage specialist at Barnham Community Hall, in September we started parent and baby drop-in sessions. Over 60 families visit us on a regular basis. The pandemic has greatly affected parents of young children and this simple drop in has managed to help immensely. A cup of coffee and a chat whilst the children play and engage is so beneficial.

Mindfulness Yoga and Tai Chi.

Free sessions in both Yoga and Tai Chai have encouraged those who have been isolated to leave their homes and join in socially distanced exercise in a Covid safe environment. These classes are so popular and we hope to offer more over the coming months. Tai Chi is also taught outside if the weather is kind.

Community Hub at Eastergate Village Hall. The major building works for the new Community Hub area are nearly finished with just two more windows on order. The new lottery signage at the front of both buildings have created much more awareness. Knit and Natter, Breastfeeding Guidance, Flower Arranging, Photography, Book Clubs, Meditation, Citizens Advice Bureau, Mind UK and West Sussex Libraries all have started to use the space or shown a very positive interest in starting for the New Year.

Community Events

Monthly community Sunday roast dinners, weekly coffee mornings, Sunday afternoon concerts, film screenings, a family Halloween event, quizzes, bingo, Remembrance Sunday Celebration, Christmas Tree Lights Turn on plus many, many more community activities are in the process of being organised. We look forward to the New Year with much more positivity than last year although the new Covid variant Omicron is a concern. In February we have two part time members of staff joining the team to help both of our very busy Hall Managers. We have always been and always will be stronger together – we know that whatever is thrown at us – as a community we will get through it.

Speed indicator

The two villages already suffer from excess traffic, increasing queues, antisocial commuter parking and a shortage of short-term parking at our shops. Speeding, rat-running and HGV’s on narrow roads and the B2233 are ever-increasing problems, and the Parish Council has no legal powers or authority over these.

Emissions are monitored by Arun District Council and we are fortunate enough to have no areas of high concern for area quality just yet, but lengthy rush-hour queues at the War Memorial roundabout are already causing noticeable local pollution.

But we are doing what we can. You will probably have seen our VAS (speed indicator that shows motorists their speed and monitors traffic numbers) as we move it around the speeding hotspots. It is not only encouraging drivers (including the author!) to moderate their speed, but it also gathers traffic flow data so we can present evidence to the planners of future developments, West Sussex County Council and the police.

We continue to press West Sussex County Council to use its many powers to address/alleviate the problems of parking and access in the villages. We are pushing Arun District Council and the many developers to improve access to the village centre, whilst also encouraging linked-up footways and cycle paths from the new estates, many of which are designed with just one road in and out, which is tough if you are a pedestrian, wheelchair user, cyclist, pushing a pram, or a schoolchild walking to the school or the station! We have highlighted that the problems will increase with new developments and have called for better and safer infrastructure along with sustainable transport links, for example bus routes to the station.

And we ask you, our parishioners, to gives us your views. Please come to the Annual Parish Assembly on Tuesday 26th April to discuss this further, or if you are unable to make this date you are welcome to email planning@barnhamandeastergate-pc.gov.uk with your thoughts.

Going greener in Barnham and Eastergate

Both the Trust and the Parish Council take their environmental responsibilities very seriously.

By working with the planning authorities, the different housing developers and the local community, the Parish Council is seeking to reduce the environmental impact and carbon footprint of existing and new buildings and to protect our natural environment against the worse ravages of development. Whilst the Trust is improving and investing in a lower carbon and more sustainable way of operating.

What does this actually mean in practice?

The Trust built (in 2013) the new Hall at Murrell’s Field to high insulation standards with Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs); it is steadily improving the energy efficiency of the Hall, and planning the next series of “renewables” to further reduce the building’s carbon footprint.

The Trust is also installing major energy-efficient improvements to the historic Eastergate Hall. Plans for extensions to both halls, and additional buildings, will use clever design to minimize “embodied carbon”, overall environmental impact and to maximise long-term energy efficiency. More investment on renewable technology is planned. We will invest in low energy technologies and renewables (such as solar PV, air-source heat pumps etc.), and minimize use of plastics and other environmentally harmful materials in our public events and day-to-day operations.

The Parish Council will promote the newly updated Neighbourhood Plan with its high environmental standards and building design efficiency in all its dealings with the developers and the planning authority (Arun District Council), particularly regarding flooding, carbon footprint/ thermal efficiency of new buildings, embodied carbon in materials, and protection of wildlife/biodiversity. In particular, the Council has strengthened the Plan’s commitment to preserving the areas of floodplain to the south of Barnham, so they can fulfil their natural function of holding extra water- a new ‘protected gap’ area which will have the dual purpose of protecting this land and making a buffer to development east of the village.

The Council will also promote our tree planting policies and green corridors to protect wildlife, biodiversity and the beauty of our rural parish.

The protection of biodiversity and wildlife in and around the villages is of the utmost importance. Our wetlands and rifes, copses and hedgerows, are home to a huge variety of plants, birds, animals and insects that benefit us all and we have done everything we can do support them. We have added to our list of ‘biodiversity corridors’ through the most valuable habitats across the area. We continue to earmark significant ‘green space’ including the two areas of ancient woodland, Nanny Copse and Hedge End wood. We have added two new policies to reflect our situation near the South Downs National Park – these are to do with the international site of scientific importance for bats at Singleton and Cocking tunnels, since the bats’ foraging routes extend all the way over to our parish; and linked to this, we have a Dark Night Skies policy, discouraging strong lighting over rural areas where it disturbs bats and nocturnal insects.

You will all have seen the various new developments in and around the Parish—and will understand that this is an urgent matter, and as ever an uphill struggle. The Council hopes that it will be able to persuade the Planning Authority and the developers that this is not good enough, and to point to our Neighbourhood Plan as the guide to a better, more sustainable built environment.