Home - East Dean and Friston Parish Council

Next Parish Council Meetings

Full Council 3rd October (No regular Council Meeting in September)

Extraordinary Council meeting 20th August
Planning 20th August

Recreation Ground

We are now taking bookings for hire of the Pavilion (subject to availability) - For more information see here.

Community Services within the Village

Charity of the year 2019/20

Churches
Cuckmere Community Bus route 41
Community Watch / Neighbourhood Watch
East Dean Responders
Emergency Plan
Residents' Association
Royal British Legion

Tree Warden

Village Diary (June-Aug 2019)
Village Directory (at July 2019)
Village Hall

Village website

Who Looks after What?

Quick Links

Your Councillors

Finance Meetings

Full Council
Planning
Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group

Welcome

Welcome to the East Dean and Friston Parish Council website. We hope that you enjoy browsing it and finding out more about our village and its council. We always welcome feedback from our site visitors, so if you have any comments or suggestions for improvements then please let us know via the "Contact Us" link.

What's new?

The agendas for two forthcoming meetings, being held on 20th August, have now been published. Both meetings are being held in the village small hall. The first is at 6:15 pm and is an extraordinary council meeting, called to approve the release of funds for the Friston build-out project. The agenda for this meeting can be found here. The second meeting is at 6:30 pm and is the regular monthly meeting of the Planning Committee. The agenda for this meeting can be found here. As with all council meetings, members of the public are welcome to attend and may speak in the public sessions at the start.

The minutes for the Parish Council meeting, held on 1st August, can be viewed by clicking here. If you're in a hurry then you can view a summary of the minutes from the last three months by clicking here.

The Parish Council are pleased to welcome Nicki Osborne as our new Administrative Assistant. Nicki will be working with our Parish Clerk, Katrina Larkin, and will have responsibility for the work of the Planning Committee and the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group. You can find out more about Nicki here, and you can find out how to contact her here.

More vandalism hits the village - We regret to report that, at some time late on Friday 2nd August or early on Saturday 3rd, the north side bus shelter at the top of Friston Hill was vandalised. The window was pushed out, panels broken and the whole wooden structure appears to have been moved towards the road by about 12 inches. If anyone saw anything suspicious please contact the Parish Clerk (clerk@edfparishcouncil.org.uk) or Sussex police, telephone 101.This incident is one more example of the wave of vandalism that seems to have enveloped the village this summer. Other incidents have included wild camping on the field above The Link and post-party debris and litter left by the pavillion in the recreation ground. We would ask all residents to be vigilent and report any suspicious activity to the police and the Parish Council.

Neighbourhood Plan Flyer - If anyone would like a larger print copy of the Neighbourhood Plan flyer that was recently delivered around the Parish please contact Cllr Lesley Durso. She will see to it that you receive a suitable copy and ensure future written correspondence is produced in larger print for you. Conversely you can view or download the flyer here. If you know of anyone who would benefit from larger print copies who is unlikely to see this notice please make Cllr Durso aware – she can be contacted at cllr.durso@edfparishcouncil.org.uk

Flower displays - Hopefully many of our residents are enjoying the flower displays that now grace the Downlands Way shopping area. To read more about this project please click here.

BT intend to remove the Phone Box at the junction of the A259 and Gilberts Drive. More details here.

The Parish Council now has a selection of litter picking equipment that is available for use by arrangement. Please contact Cllr Durso for details. Please see here for list.

The Parish and its Council

The Parish of East Dean and Friston is located between the south coast towns of Seaford and Eastbourne, situated on the southern edge of Wealden District in the County of East Sussex and within the South Downs National Park. It is a relatively large rural area, comprising the village of East Dean and Friston, together with the smaller hamlets of Birling Gap and Crowlink. The A259 main coast road passes through the Parish with the old village to the south and the newer parts of the village (known as the "Downlands Estate") to the north. The Parish is primarily residential, covers an area of 3.3sq miles and consists of some 760 households with a population of around 2,200.

East Dean Village is centred around the Village Green with its war memorial, medieval church and long-established inn, “The Tiger”. To the North-West of the village, as the A259 ascends Friston Hill, is the area known as Friston, which was originally a separate village with its own church at the top of the hill.

Birling Gap is a coastal hamlet with a long shingle beach, backed by the famous Seven Sisters cliffs and not far from Beachy Head. The Birling Gap visitor centre and cafe, and some of the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.

Crowlink is a small hamlet grouped around a manor house; in the 18th century it was a haven for smugglers of Gin that became known as "Genuine Crowlink". It was also once the home of the Edwardian author, Edith Nesbit, whose best-known work is “The Railway Children”.

Parish Councils were formed in England under the Local Government Act 1894 to take over local oversight of civic duties in rural towns and villages. Before this date a variety of groups based around ecclesiastical (church) parishes had responsibility for these matters, in a system of local government that originated in the feudal system of the 8th century. The establishment of Parish Councils effectively separated church from state and today's councils are totally secular in nature and independent from the Parochial Church Councils that deal with the administration of the local Church of England places of worship.

Following the 1894 Act, both East Dean and Friston began Parish Meetings (not council meetings) and East Dean then formed a Parish Council in 1924. The Friston Parish Meeting merged with East Dean to form the East Dean and Friston Parish Council in 1948.

Parish Councils are the first tier of local government and have limited variable tax raising powers. The component part of the Council Tax, which comes to the Parish Council, is known as the Precept.
Parish Councils are responsible for areas known as civil parishes, and there are approximately 9,000 Parish Councils in England. East Dean and Friston is one of those civil Parishes. Although there is nothing to prevent Parish Councils being political in nature, the current East Dean and Friston PC members are all independent of any party political sponsorship. The current Parish Council was elected in 2019 and is due for re-election in May 2023.