Home - East Dean and Friston Parish Council

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 Play area are closed for the forseeable future. The open area of the Rec. remains accessible for exercise and the tennis court will reopen after 1st June, but you are urged to comply with Government restrictions regarding keeping a safe distance from others.

Coronavirus: UK Government Information

Community Services within the Village

Charity of the year 2019/20

Churches
Cuckmere Community Bus route 41 (Service currently suspended)
Community Watch / Neighbourhood Watch
Emergency Plan
Residents' Association
Tree Warden

Village Diary (March - May 2020)
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

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 an 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 but we are trying to keep up to date. Details will be posted on this website (see below), sent to those on the Council email alert list and posted on noticeboards and leaflets around the village. The leaflet, distributed with April's Parish Magazine, can be found here. 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 - 30th May 2020

The next meeting of the Parish Council will take place remotely on Thursday 4th June from 6:30 pm. The agenda has now been published and can be found on the "Council Meetings" page or by clicking here. The agenda contains details of how members of the public may observe the meeting and also how to submit items for the Public Session to be held at the start.

The June edition of the Parish Magazine has been published. As with the May edition, it is only available online as the printers have not been working, but you can view it by clicking here. If you are able to print a copy for a neighbour who does not have internet access, that would be much appreciated. It is hoped to resumed printed editions from July.

Good news for tennis players! Following the relaxation of Government guidelines from 1st June, the Parish Council have decided to re-open the tennis/basketball court on the recreation ground as soon as possible after that date. The court is, as always, unsupervised but users are expected to observe the social distancing and maximum numbers in the guidelines. If these are not adhered to, the council reserves the right to close the court.

The Planning Committee held a remote meeting using the Zoom platform on Tuesday 19th May, The minutes have been published and can be found on our "Council Meetings" page or by clicking here.

The minutes of the most recent Parish Council meeting, held on the 7th May, have been published and can be accessed from the "Council Meetings" page or by clicking here.

East Sussex County Council have announced that county waste and recycling centres have now re-opened for use with restrictions. The council expects the sites to be very busy to begin with and urges residents to delay taking waste to the sites if possible. Further details can be found here.

Wealden District Council have now resumed the household bulky waste collection service. Bookings and payments can be made for this service online using https://my.wealden.gov.uk/ If you cannot book and pay on line please phone 01323 443322. Please note this service has limited availability and is likely to be in high demand.

Wealden Council have advised us of a special Covid-19 information website that they have established giving up to date information for residents and businesses in the area. For more information go to https://www.wealden.gov.uk/news-and-events/coronavirus-covid-19-latest/

Wealden District Council have now resumed garden waste collections. To ensure residents are not disadvantaged in any way by the period the service was suspended, they will be extending the next Garden Waste Service year starting 1 July 2020 by an extra month, making it 13 months for the price of 12 months. For more information see the Useful Info/News Page or click here.

Fly Tipping: If anyone sees possible fly-tipping activity anywhere in the village, please report it to Wealden Council, using the website or by email. If possible, take photos of the activity but do not approach the individuals or put yourself in harms way.

Barn Stores: We have been informed that the Barn Stores will now endeavour to provide a home delivery service within the village on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Phone 422456 for more information.

Urgent Appeal - We have received an appeal from a local NHS worker for all East Dean and Friston residents to remain isolated from groups outside their home. You can read the appeal in full here.

· Wealden Citizens Advice continues to be there to help in this time of national crisis. Whilst all face to face contact has been suspended, clients can continue to access the service through Adviceline on 0300 330 9022 and the Text facility.

Libraries – these are currently closed until further notice. However, the return date on all current loans is being extended until at least 30 June, and the county library service has scrapped fines for any items that were due to be returned after 9 March 2020. The online library will operate as normal and can be accessed via www.eastsussex.gov.uk/libraries/online/

Wealden District Council is still fully operational but if you need to contact them please use the website and/or email. Posted communication is now strongly discouraged as most officers are working from home and post will not be opened for a period of time.

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.