Information from Sussex Health and Care Partnership, published on 18 January 2021

Thanks to an extraordinary effort by the NHS across Sussex, a GP led vaccination service is due to go live on Wednesday [20 January] to provide the COVID-19 vaccine to people in Rural Rother.

The GP led vaccination service at Etchingham Village Hall is a partnership between Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust and the following GP practices:

Fairfield Surgery [Burwash], Ferry Road Health Centre, Martins Oak Surgery [Battle], Northiam and Broad Oak Surgery, Oldwood Surgery [Robertsbridge], Rye Medical Centre, and Sedlescombe and Westfield Surgeries

Patients from those GP practices who are over the age of 80 will be the first to receive the vaccination from this service over the course of this week.

People are asked not to contact your GP practice but to wait until you are contacted. You will be contacted as soon as an appointment is available for you.

We are also asking people not to turn up early for their appointments. Arriving on time will help us manage the number of people at the venue and help keep our patients and staff safe.

The above is an edited extract from the full announcement on the Sussex Health and Care Partnership website.

The parish council is aware that the fingerpost at the Mount triangle has fallen over.

It seems to be a case of decay rather than accidental damage.

The parish council is in the process of organizing its repair and reinstatement.

If it disappears completely, this will be because we have taken it into protective custody to pre-empt souvenir-hunters.

Message from Inspector Christopher Varrall of Sussex Police

I hope that you are all well and had a lovely Christmas period. I know it has been testing time for everyone within the local communities.

I will be taking over as your new Sussex Police Rother (Inc Ninfield) district Inspector on the 4^th January 2021. I will require a few weeks to find my feet, ensure the current engagement strategy aligns with the public and partnership priorities and built relationships within the local communities.

I wanted to introduce myself to you before I started my new role. My team cover 32 Council areas and an estimated population of 96,000 people (ONS data from mid-2020). A quick overview of my experience: I have experience across multiple departments within Sussex Police including Critical Incident Inspector, Detective qualifications, Advanced cognitive witness interviewer, Neighbourhood policing Team, Designed developed and implemented ‘Discovery’ Partnership Modern Slavery and Human team (https://issuu.com/platinumbusiness/docs/aces_chambers_magazine_-_issue_7/11) and more recently designed, developed and implemented Sussex response to the early indicators of youth Serious violence through the ‘REBOOT’ programme (https://www.sussex-pcc.gov.uk/media/5007/reboot-impact-report-19-20-final-v2.pdf).

I can’t wait to get started and I look forward to engaging with you all as the voices within your communities. Once I have settled in I will reach out to you in order to discuss how we link closely over the coming year, ensuring that the approach within the communities are proportionate, justifiable and achievable. With a limited number of PC’s, volunteers, PCSO’s and police staff employed and assigned to the local area, we will continue to ensure that we manage the local concerns effectively, ensuring our approach is proportionate to the risk identified, whilst ensuring that all members of the community receive an outstanding service.

I hope that you have a lovely New Year,

Kind Regards,

Inspector Christopher Varrall CV251
Rother District Inspector
Battle Police Station | North Trade Road | Battle | East Sussex
E-mail: Christopher.varrall@sussex.pnn.police.uk

A message from our local Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs)

Good afternoon all

Overnight we have had two reports come in of catalytic converters. We are aware that this is something that has been occurring around the country but we had not seen any in this area for a while. Today we have posted the following piece on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Stay vigilant after two catalytic converter thefts.

Overnight we have received two reports of catalytic converter thefts, one overnight 11 January in Whatlington and a further one in Iden reported today, 12 January.

Honda and Volvo vehicles have been targeted.

We encourage you to continue reporting any thefts to us, so we can build a picture of the crimes and respond effectively.

Having spoken to the victims, these thefts don’t just impact the financial loss but weigh heavy on the need of transport and inconvenience at such a difficult time.

Steps to protect your vehicle include parking in a garage overnight or in a secure compound. If this is not possible, people are urged to park in an area that’s well-lit and overlooked.

We encourage you to park so that the convertor can’t be easily reached by potential thieves. Vehicles that sit high above the road are particularly vulnerable.

More information can be found on the Secured by Design website. Further measures on how to protect your car from thieves can also be found on the Sussex Police website.

Anyone who has been a victim of a catalytic converter theft, or who may have any other information including relevant CCTV, doorbell or dash cam footage, is asked to contact police. This can be done either online or by calling 101. Always dial 999 in an emergency.

#PCSO Holter17324 #PCSOPhillips20250

Kind regards

Emma Phillips

Police Community Support Officer
Rother Neighbourhood Policing Team

This is an extract from the recent newsletter of Huw Merriman, our MP (the full article is here)

The Prime Minister has pledged that residents should not need to travel greater than 10 miles to receive a vaccine. There are sites in Eastbourne, Lewes, Bexhill and Uckfield vaccinating local East Sussex residents. During this week, a GP-led vaccination service went live at The Hastings Centre, Kings Church, located on The Ridge in Hastings.

I am afraid that the weak spots in the constituency have been Rural Rother (which includes Battle) and Heathfield (including its surrounds). One notable town also needing another solution, albeit just outside the constituency, is Hailsham. I’ve been working with the Sussex Community NHS Foundation to provide a solution for Rural Rother, for Heathfield and surrounding villages.

Rural Rother (including Battle)

For numerous reasons, we have not had a working Primary Care Network solution in these parts hence work has been taking place with the Sussex Community NHS Foundation and the local GP surgeries. I raised the lack of a solution for Rural Rother with the Prime Minister in the House of Commons at the beginning of January.

As a solution, rural Rother GP practices will be served by a vaccination hub at Etchingham village hall which is expected to go live this Friday 15 January. The Etchingham vaccine centre will be run by those within the Sussex Community NHS Foundation who have stepped up to help and our local GP teams. If your GP is within this area, you will expect to receive your vaccine at Etchingham. I have had a number of constituents contact me from Rother Levels asking why they need to travel to Etchingham. The reason is because Etchingham has been set up to handle the Pfizer vaccine logistics and because surgeries within the area have not been able to sign up to deliver the Pfizer vaccine. The aim is to ensure that stocks of Astra Zeneca get delivered so residents can receive this vaccination at a more local level.

If supplies of the Astra Zeneca vaccine are supplied, these could be taken from Etchingham to your local GP for you to be vaccinated at the surgery. For this to happen, your GP must have signed up to the Enhanced Service Contract. Given the time to sign has closed, I have asked the Vaccines Minister to urgently allow GPs further time to sign up now that the Astra Zeneca option gives more GPs the scope to vaccinate locally.

If it is clear that Pfizer vaccines continue to be the chief supply, I will be keen for the Sussex Community NHS Foundation to assist in the opening of another centre within easier reach. This will require local action as well.

Anne Holman, who will be known to many in Brightling, died on Sunday (10 January 2021).  Her death was not COVID-related.

Funeral details, and an obiturary, will be posted here in due course.

Advice from this week’s Countryside Watch.

Suspects appear to be targeting farm machinery, quad bikes and All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and anything of value such as power tools.

This is not something that is unique to Sussex, it is also happening across county borders in Hampshire, Surrey, Kent and across the UK.

As a bare minimum, all farmers/owners should ensure that the keys are removed and overnight your quad bike/ATV is kept in a locked shed. Where possible all the available options should be explored around marking and securing your vehicles.

We are also warning people not to confront suspects. Call the police on 999 immediately if a crime is in progress.

We appear to be inundated this week with dog attacks on sheep. May I remind dog walkers that their dogs must be on a lead and under control when walking near livestock. Where a dog chases livestock the owner has the legally allowed to shoot the dog. Please keep all dogs on leads when near livestock.

fReaders who have been following news about proposed changes to the current planning system will recall that members of Brightling Parish Council recently joined forces with councillors from Burwash, Etchingham, Robertsbridge and Ticehurst to express concerns about how the proposed changes might affect our area. Back in November the group had a meeting with Huw Merriman MP, along with District Councillor Eleanor Kirby-Green and County Councillor John Barnes, to discuss the likely adverse effects of the proposals in the key areas of:

• · Increased housing burden on Rother when more than 80% of the area is protected by AONB status
• · Loss of local planning control
• · Affordable home allocation in new developments particularly in rural areas

Mr Merriman reported that a full postbag from locals along with the disquiet of a number of fellow MPs had already led him to join up with neighbouring Hastings and Rye MP, Sally-Ann Hart, to voice concerns in a meeting with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and to write to the Housing Minister.

Following our meeting, Mr Merriman raised with advisors at No. 10 the need to bring pressure to bear on developers who, despite having planning permission to build on land allocated for development, fail to complete on projects. This is leaving Rother District Council hard-pressed to meet even the current housing quota target. He also lobbied to prevent further development on the outskirts of communities until the build-out on allocated land is complete.

Mr Merriman hopes for a further meeting to examine and, we hope, reduce the outcome of the new housing algorithm which, for Rother, would mean an estimated increase from 736 to 1,173 new homes. The Parish Council will keep readers updated on any further news in these pages.

Links:

The full report on the Working Group’s meeting with Huw Merriman MP

Huw Merriman’s account of his meeting with the Secretary of State Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP and his letter to the Housing Minister Rt Hon Chris Pincher MP.

Judy Petty
Brightling Parish Council

Residents in Rother can now recycle their old and broken small electricals from home.

Old, unwanted small electrical items are one of the fastest growing waste streams in the UK. In a concerted effort to tackle this growing challenge, the East Sussex Joint Waste Collection Partnership joined forces with Material Focus to set up the small electrical item recycling scheme as part of the Recycle Your Electricals campaign.

The scheme allows residents in Rother, Wealden and Hastings to recycle everything with a plug, battery or cable from home. Items should be placed into a standard-size carrier bag, and placed on top of either the waste or recycling bin on collection day.

We are urging that batteries are removed where possible and placed into a separate bag. This is due to the serious fire risk that they pose.

Rother’s website has more information about the recycling collections.

Contact

Deborah Kenneally

Neighbourhood Services Manager, Rother District Council

01424 787537

Examples of things that can be left out for recycling:

• phones
• remote controls
• electronic toys
• hair dryers
• kettles
• irons
• radios

.. and worth noting that you can put them out on either black bin or green bin day.

Follow the  links below to see details of the applications and optionally submit a comment to Rother District Council.  All four applications relate to work which has already been carried out prior to the planning applications being made.