Next Parish Council Meetings
FOLLOWING THE CLOSURE OF THE VILLAGE HALL DUE TO CORONAVIRUS, ALL PHYSICAL COUNCIL MEETINGS ARE CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. MEETINGS WILL INSTEAD BE HELD REMOTELY.
Recreation Ground
Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the Pavilion and tennis court are closed for the forseeable future The open area of the Rec. remains accessible for exercise and the play area wil remain open, but you are urged to comply with Government restrictions regarding keeping a safe distance from others.
Community Services within the Village
Charity of the year 2020/21
Churches
Cuckmere Community Bus route 41
Community Watch / Neighbourhood Watch
Emergency Plan
Residents' Association
Tree Warden
Village Directory (at Feb 2020)
Village Hall
Village website
Who Looks after What?
Quick Links
Your Councillors
Finance Meetings
Full Council
Planning
Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group
Contact Us
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?
Coronavirus: The Parish Council and volunteer
groups are currently carrying out plans to deal with any outbreak in the
village. They are also planning to support
individuals and families having to self-isolate because of the virus. Government policy is changing daily and details are broadcast on TV and Radio so the council is not repeating this information to avoid confusion. However, matters specific to our village will be posted on this website (see below), and sent to those on the Council
email alert list. Any residents not on the Council email list are strongly recommended to join by contacting the Parish Clerk on clerk@edfparishcouncil.org.uk If you want more medical information, you can find it on the NHS
website: www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ or by clicking here.
Latest Update - 18th January 2021
Wealden Council have advised us of a campaign to make people aware of scam emails that offer Covid-19 vaccinations for cash or request personal details to "register". These are things the NHS will never do. For more information go to the Wealden website or click here.
The next meeting of the Planning Committee will take place remotely on 19th January, beginning at 6:30pm. The agenda and reports for this meeting can be found on our "Council Meetings" page or by clicking here. The agenda contains details on how members of the public may observe the meeting and how to make submissions to the public session held at the start.
An Extraordinary General meeting of the council has been called for 19th January. This meeting will take place remotely and will follow on directly from the Planning Committee meeting on the same day. The agenda for the meeting can be found on our "Council Meetings" page or by clicking here. The agenda contains details on how members of the public may observe the
meeting and how to make submissions to the public session held at the
start.
The Government have revised the Coronavirus "tier" levels that
will apply in England from 5th January. Severe restrictions will be in
place with schools partially closed and residents requested to remain at home
except for local exercise or essential needs. For full information from
the official government website click here.
The most recent meeting of the Parish Council took place remotely on Thursday 7th January. The agenda can be found, together with meeting reports, on our "Council Meetings" page or by clicking here. Minutes of the meeting will be published shortly.
National Census 2021: This will take place on Sunday 21st March throughout England and Wales. The census, which takes place every ten years, is used to plan public services for the decade ahead and completion is required by law. The census co-ordinator for Wealden district gave a public presentation at the January Parish Council meeting and the slides from that presentation can be viewed here.
The most recent meeting of the Planning Committee took place
remotely on Tuesday 15th December, The minutes have now been published
and can be found on our "Council Meetings" page or by clicking here.
Bus Shelter Rebuild: Following the successful rebuild of the Friston north side bus shelter in 2019, work has now been completed on replacing the bus shelter on the south side of the A259 at East Dean. The old wooden shelter has been replaced by a brick built one which should last for many years. For pictures of the new shelter, go to our "Useful Info/News" page or click here.
Dog walkers please take care! Terry and Pam Wigmore (formerly of the sheep centre) are currently grazing their flock of rare-breed sheep on Hobbs Eares, by arrangement with the National Trust. They urge all dog walkers using this open space to please keep their dogs on a lead to protect the sheep.
New Councillor: At the Parish Council meeting on 3rd December, councillors voted to co-opt Simon Thorogood to fill the recent vacancy. Simon is an experienced Parish Councillor who was at one time chair of Brasted (Kent) Parish Council before moving to East Dean. For more information see our Councillors page or click here.
Tree Felling Work: Forestry
England have informed us that timber harvesting work in Friston Forest is
planned to start from 4th January and continue until the end of
February 2021. The area affected will mostly be to the north of the A259
between the waterworks at Friston Bottom and The Gallops and will involve the
closure of some forest footpaths. Signs will be erected in the forest car parks
explaining about the work ahead of time and at the individual sites once
operations commence. A map of the areas affected can be found here.
Community Speedwatch: The East Dean and Friston Community Speedwatch group has now been registered and volunteers will be receiving training in the use of equipment once the current lockdown restrictions are over. Community Speedwatch is a national initiative where, in
partnership with the police, members of communities use detection devices to
monitor local vehicle speeds. If the data
proves a driver is ignoring repeated warnings police can prosecute them. If you
would consider volunteering to join our local Speedwatch team, please contact the
Parish Council at admin@edfparishcouncil.org.uk
Council Vacancies: The Parish Council currently have three
vacancies for councillors. We have been informed by Wealden District Council that a
request has been received from ten residents for these vacancies to be
filled by a by-election. The official notice for this can be seen here.
Under the Government Coronavirus restrictions, no
elections can take place before May 6th 2021, and the council are now
unable
co-opt new members for these vacancies before then, despite having
willing volunteers. The
election, when it happens, will be organised by Wealden but the Parish
Council Tax payers will be charged for the cost of mounting this and,
for a contested election, this could be up to £3000. For
further information, please contact
the parish clerk (details here).
An annual report listing some of the main activities of the Parish Council in the period from May 2019 to April 2020 can be found in our on-line library page or by clicking here. This report would normally have been presented at the Annual Village Meeting, which was cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.