Angmering Village Life
News Archive
February 2014
Palmer Road Development - A letter had been sent to Arun District Council pointing out that The Palmer Road development scheme had not been considered by the Parish Council and was therefore not to be considered as being an accepted policy.
County Councillor's Report - [County Councillor Deborah Urquahart] was concerned that the JEAAC appeared to have the impression that the two Angmering items on the Infrastructure Priorities list, set about three years ago, were now considered to be unwanted. It was confirmed that the Water Lane/A280 Junction improvement and the A259 Cycleway and Crossing in Station Road were still required, as agreed by the Highways Committee at that time.
Community Centre Car Park - On a proposal from Councillor Turner it was unanimously RESOLVED to go ahead with the planning application, on the basis of Option 1 following the survey conducted by the ACCA. Councillor Mariner had carried out some analysis on the layout proposed and believed that it would only work satisfactorily if the traffic was circulated around the site in a clockwise direction. It was AGREED that this would be stated in the planning application.
Saturday Opening to the public - Councillor Mariner had attended the latest Saturday Opening of the office and had only one visitor. He believed that consideration be given to whether the time/date/venue of these councillor led openings would be better being changed. Although sympathetic to the problem there was no agreement on whether any other arrangements would be better. The Clerk would consider other venue options and report back to a future Council meeting on his suggestions.
To read the full minutes of the meeting, click here
West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service crews fro Littlehampton and Worthing were called to two incidents in Angmering yesterday (Wednesday). In the first, they attended a large bonfire in Dappers Lane that caused smoke to blow across road. They extinguished the bonfire which was encroaching on surrounding buildings.
The second incident was in Beech Way, off Dappers Lane. A fire alarm sounded after a wheatbag ignited inside a microwave resulting in the house becoming smoke logged. Fortunately, due to the early warning given by the smoke alarms previously fitted by WSF&RS under the Home Fire Safety Check scheme, the occupier was able to leave the house safely. Fire fighters removed the wheatbag from the microwave and used a PPV fan to ventilate the house. The WSF&RS ward that wheat bags have become an increasingly popular alternative to hot water bottles but they can be dangerous if manufacturers' instructions aren't followed carefully. All wheat bags bought in shops should have manufacturer's instructions with recommended maximum heating times - it's really important that people read and follow those instructions and don't overheat them especially when you consider it is often vulnerable and elderly people who use them.
A/15/14/CLE - Application for a certificate of lawful development for existing use - siting & occupation of a residential mobile home at Alleycats Nursery, Dappers Lane. Applicant: Mrs G Perella.
A/17/14 - Single storey front & side extension at 2 Arlington Crescent, East Preston. Applicant: Mrs D Cowdray.
A/18/14 - Garage extension & rear conservatory at 39 Mill Road. Applicant: Mr K Simmons.
Observations on this/these Application(s) must be received by The Head of Planning Services, Arun District Council, The Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 5LF by 20 March 2014.
To see applications, plans, design statements, etc, type the Application Reference Number (such as those above) into Arun District Council's "Application Search Facility ", click on the Search button, and click on the hyperlink reference when selected application is returned - then select "Documents".
The next film to be shown at Angmering Community Centre is "CAPTAIN PHILLIPS" (2013)[12a] at 7.45pm on Saturday 8 March - doors open at 7.30pm.
Starring: Tom Hanksand Catherine Keener. The true story
of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the
US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in
two hundred years. Nominated for 6 Oscars with another 15 wins & 63
nominations. poster
Tickets priced at £5 are available in advance from the Community Centre Office, Woodies News, and Angmering Framing & Stitches, or at the door (subject to availability).
This is a reminder that the Angmering In Bloom Association will be holding their next fund-raising "Blooming Quiz Night!" on next Saturday (1 March) in Angmering Village Hall from 7.30pm to 10pm.
You can go as a team (max 6) or as an individual and join another team on the night. There will be prizes for the winners. There will also be a raffle with prizes donated by a number of local businesses.
Tickets cost £5.00 per person which includes nibbles (bring your own drinks), and are available from the Parish Council Office, Woodies Newsagents, or Angmering Framing & Stitches. For further information phone (01903) 778661.
A/10/14 - Install a temporary single storey Portakabin modular building to be used as nursery (childcare) accommodation for a period of 3 years at Worthing Rugby Club, Roundstone Lane. Applicant: Ms H Harmer.
Observations on this/these Application(s) must be received by The Head of Planning Services, Arun District Council, The Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 5LF by 13 March 2014.
To see applications, plans, design statements, etc, type the Application Reference Number (such as those above) into Arun District Council's "Application Search Facility ", click on the Search button, and click on the hyperlink reference when selected application is returned - then select "Documents".
Parts of Angmering were flooding today (Friday) as the rain continued. In Station Road, renowned for flooding, the road was only only passable in one direction as can be seen from the photos below taken just after 4.00pm this afternoon
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Patching Pond had risen to road level and the proposed areas for balancing ponds at top of Water Lane were substantailly flooded (see photo below - right - by Sylvia Verrinder). Worryingly, there was much water flowing down beside Dappers Lane (see photo below - left - by Sylvia Verrinder). The Village Hall has been put on alert and Angmeirng Parish Council's Emergency Committee will be monitoring the village situation this evening as more heavy rain and strong winds are forecast for the early hours of tomorrow morning.
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Working in conjunction with the Environment Agency, Angmerng Parish Council's Emergency Committee has arranged for the installation of a webcam at the Black Ditch culvert entrance at the bottom of Weaver's Hill to allow easier monitoring of water levels in the culvert.
Following a period of testing, the webcam is now live and can be accessed by clicking on the link: www.telemetry-data.com/open?profile=Angopen. The still image feed is from a GPRS camera located at the culvert entrance - this image is sent every hour. To scroll through historic images use the arrow buttons located on the upper toolbar on the webcam page.
Please note that the system is designed for a maximum of ten concurrent users, so if you receive an error message when trying to access the webcam, please try again after a few minutes. The webcam is monitored daily by both the Environment Agency and the Parish Office. If the water level in the culvert rises to 6 or above on the scale visible on the rear wall (100mm divisions), the Environment Agency and the Parish Council will take action accordingly. Debris caught by the grille over the culvert entrance is cleared regularly by the Environment Agency.
At 9.33am today, there was only a little water flowing through the culvert, but after continuous rain throughout the morning and early afternoon, at 3.34pm this afternoon, the water was at a dangerously high level with a log blocking the culvert entrance (see photos below).
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Alerted as a result of monitoring of the webcam, the Environment Agency rushed to the culvert and had removed the large log by 3.55pm (see photo below) and, within 5 minutes, the water level at the culvert entrance had fallen by about 200mm.
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There is a permanent link to the Black Ditch webcam at the top of this News page.
A/3/14/L - Application for Listed Building Consent for the construction of building comprising of 5 no additional hotel bedrooms (resubmission following A/100/13/L). at Angmering Manor, High Street. Applicant: Chapman Group Ltd.
Observations on this/these Application(s) must be received by The Head of Planning Services, Arun District Council, The Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 5LF by 6 March 2014.
To see applications, plans, design statements, etc, type the Application Reference Number (such as those above) into Arun District Council's "Application Search Facility ", click on the Search button, and click on the hyperlink reference when selected application is returned - then select "Documents".
My comments about flooding both west and east of Roundstone Lane and Cow Lane (see News article dated 8 Feb) have brought forth photos taken today (see below) by Derek Dainton. These illustrate the point I made suggesting that Cow Lane can become an impassable stream. However, will Arun District Council listen?
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Arun District Council planners will not admit that there are many water issues in Angmering as they try to bulldoze through their plans to substantially develop land east of Roundstone Lane. But do they forget the water/flooding issues encountered when the land west of Roundstone Lane was developed (now Bramley Green)? As development of that area commenced, it was soon found that much of the land was effectively floating on water beneath. As drainage toward the sea was too expensive, a Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) was built at the south of Bramley Green - effectively a massive covered hole where the water could drain and be disguised in part by what was supposed to be a pleasant fenced pond with bullrushes, etc. This is a play area for ball games etc. in drier times. But at times when there is significant rainfall, the massive hole overflows, and the whole area floods forming a spectacular lake as can be seen in the photos (below) taken yesterday.
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At times of heavy rain, water also pours off the proposed development land east of Roundstone Lane into the sunken Cow Lane, turning it into an impassable stream!
Roundstone Lane "Masterplan" presentation - (The parish councillors' questions to developers and Arun District Council and the responses are most interesting but are far too lengthy to be included on this News page. For those interested, it is suggested they click on the link provided at the foot of this news item .... Ed)
Pagetts Crossing - Following a request for a recorded vote by Councillor Bicknell and a proposal by him, seconded by Councillor Francis, it was RESOLVED to support the closure of the crossing with Councillors Bicknell, Francis, Mariner, Verrinder, Spooner, Bos and Mountain voting for and Councillor Trott and Turner abstaining.
Community Centre Car Park - On a proposal by Councillor Mountain, seconded by Councillor Bos, it was RESOLVED unanimously to support the project. The next step would be a public consultation and a working party would need to be set up to consider matters such as the lease the planning application and possible cost-sharing.
St Nicholas Garden Archaeological Project - Councillor Mountain questioned who would be carrying out the proposed dig on the gardens and was told it would be Worthing Archaeological Society. Councillor Francis explained that she believed that there was still permission to be forthcoming from the District Council as landlord. The Clerk undertook to find out what the arrangements were and would report back accordingly.
Budget & Precept 2014/2015 - On a proposal by Councillor Turner, seconded by Councillor Francis it was unanimously RESOLVED to set the precept at an unchanged £243,854 for 2014/2015. This would reduce the Band D tax charge from £80.91 to £79.95 and would result in a deficit budget of more than £10,000. The Clerk undertook to report on the budgetary implications of this at a future meeting.
ASRA joint Working Party - Councillor Mountain announced his resignation from the Joint Working Party and requested a volunteer to replace him, which was taken by Councillor Mariner.
To read the full minutes of the meeting, click here
The full and frank draft minutes of the at times heated subject meeting, culminating in a vote of no confidence in the Chairman, consist of 8 pages and it would be unfair to produce extracts of these which could be taken out of context.
Notwithstanding that, the draft minutes can be read in full by clicking here.
The proposed Masterplan to develop housing on land east of Roundstone Lane will be presented at a Public Exhibition on Thursday 13 February between 1pm and 7pm at the King Suite, Angmering Village Hall, Station Road.
Presumably this is the same draft Masterplan that Angmering Parish Council has strongly criticised in their 8-page letter to Arun District Council of 30 January (see News item dated 4 February below) and the one which Barton Wilmore and other parties presented to Angmering Parish Council at Worthing Rugby Club on 13 January attended by some 100 residents. Such exhibitions are a mechanism used by developers to demonstrate that they have consulted the public even though there may be overwhelming opposition to a housing scheme.
Notwithstanding that, we would urge Angmering residents to attend the Public Exhibition and make their feelings known about the Roundstone Lane developments, preferably in writing if the opportunity exists.
Roundstone Farm Shop and Tea Rooms on the A259 announced yesterday (Wednesday) that they will cease trading at 4.00pm this coming Sunday (9 January). Their statement adds "We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal customers over the years. It is a sad day for us and all our fantastic staff who I thank personally for all their hard work in trying to keep us going".
In their closing down sale, all non fruit and veg items are half price. They state that there are many bargains to be had before they close their doors on Sunday and that they still have lots of potatoes in stock.
A/2/14 - Construction of building comprising of 5 no additional hotel bedrooms (resubmission following A/99/13/) at Angmering Manor, High Street. This application affects the appearance and character of the Angmering Conservation Area. Applicant: Chapman Group Ltd. (wrongly says ' Clapham Group Ltd '...Ed)
A/7/14 - Front extension and alterations at 70 Mill Road Avenue. Applicant: Mr MJ Pesterfield.
Observations on this/these Application(s) must be received by The Head of Planning Services, Arun District Council, The Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 5LF by 27 February 2014.
To see applications, plans, design statements, etc, type the Application Reference Number (such as those above) into Arun District Council's "Application Search Facility ", click on the Search button, and click on the hyperlink reference when selected application is returned - then select "Documents".
Some households in Angmering have recently received a leaflet through their letter boxes, entitled ‘Better information means better care ‘. Other households in the village have either not received a copy or disposed of it as it may have arrived with other junk mail. It may not be clear from the leaflet that a significant change in what is done with your medical records is about to happen.
But what is it all about and how important is it? Well, GP practices across England will soon be required to supply patients’ personal and confidential medical information, on a regular and continuous basis, to the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) unless patients make a decision to opt out.
If you do not opt out, details from your medical record will be extracted from the practice in a form that can identify you, and will include your NHS number, date of birth, postcode, gender and ethnicity, together with your medical diagnoses (including cancer and mental health), their complications, referrals to specialists, your prescriptions, your family history, details of your vaccinations and screening tests, your blood test results, your body mass index, and your smoking/alcohol habits. Medical staff treating you in GP surgeries, hospitals, A&E and out-of-hours centres will not use, or be able to use, this database. However, the uploaded data is likely to be made available to organisations outside of the NHS, such as universities and commercial organisations.
Although GP practices cannot object to this information leaving the practice, individual patients and their families can instruct their practice to prohibit the transfer of their data, i.e. you have the right to opt-out. If you do nothing, i.e. you do not opt out, then your medical information will be extracted and uploaded to the HSCIC. Once uploaded, you will not be able to get this data deleted by the HSCIC. So if you want to opt out, you need to act now - it's your choice.
NHS England has made it more difficult for those wishing to opt out by not including an opt-out form with their leaflet. However, these are available from GP's surgeries on request. Alternatively, you can download a form by clicking here. If you do decide to opt out you must act swiftly - if you have not provided a completed and signed form by 28 February 2014, you will automatically be opted-in and your medical details will be forwarded to the HSCIC.
On the 3rd and 4th February, Police have been called to two addresses in Rustington where an unknown male has attended and gained entry to the properties in order to steal from the occupant. On the 3rd February, at approx 3pm, the offender claimed he knew a neighbour and requested money from the occupant at the address. He further asked for a glass of water and when left on his own has allegedly stolen £100 from the victim's purse. On the 4th February, just after midday, a carer for the occupant attended an address and an unknown male was inside the property. The suspect male ran off on foot. Nothing was stolen. Both occupants have been elderly and on their own.
Please be extra vigilant as this is occuring during the day and Angmering may be the next target area. The only description the Police currently have is of a male approximately 5 feet 4 inches wearing a dark hat. Where appropriate, please advise your elderly neighbours, friends and / or relatives in the area. If you think you're witnessing something suspicious then dial 101 at the time. If you suspect an offence is occurring then it's 999 immediately. Descriptions, direction of travel and any vehicle details will be extremely useful to the Police if you can provide them.
Angmering Parish Council has acted robustly in rejecting the draft Masterplan prepared by consultants Barton Willmore which the latter prepared on behalf of Humber Growers, David Wilson Homes, in liaison with the landowners and other potential developers, working in partnership with Arun District Council. The intention of the Masterplan was to provide a coherent framework to coordinate the development of the proposed sites east of Roundstone Lane by demonstrating how they could fit together but be delivered separately.
However, in a strongly worded 8-page letter sent to Arun District Council on 30 January, the Parish Council argues that the Masterplan does nothing to satisfy any concerns in respect of the lack of infrastructure and the impact on quality of life caused by more substantial development in Angmering, which the Parish Council believes to be unsustainable. For the developments to be sustainable, the Council states that the following minimum requirements would be needed, none of which are provided for in the Masterplan:
- One-Form entry primary school
- Dualing A259
- Roundstone Lane - A280 link road
- Other traffic management in village
- Contribution to flood defences
- Sports and recreation facilities
You can read the the Parish Council's full 8-page letter to Arun District Council by clicking here (PDF file).
Mayflower Pond Refurbishment - The Committee Clerk reported that the position regarding responsibility for the maintenance of the pond had been investigated, and in fact lies with the Parish Council and not Southern Water. The Committee instructed the Committee Clerk to seek appropriate guidance with regard to necessary maintenance procedures and risk assessments for staff.
Bramley Green Road Adoption - The Committee Clerk reported that West Sussex County Council had sent through licence documentation in respect of planting of the verges and maintenance of the obelisk in Bramley Way, and that the objection period in respect of the adoption had expired in mid- November. The Committee noted the position.
Lucksfield Way – Inconsiderate Parking - The Vice-Chairman reported that he and Councillor Bos had visited the site in response to complaints from residents and whilst the road design in the vicinity left something to be desired, the parking complained of was not illegal and did not impede normal access to the properties affected. There is therefore little more that could be done.
Darlington Close – Damage to Verges - The Committee noted complaints received from residents concerning damage to grass verges in Darlington Close, occasioned by vehicles being driven over the verges, and the request from a resident that dragons’ teeth or bollards be installed. The Committee instructed the Committee Clerk to refer the matter to West Sussex County Council’s Highways Department.
To read the full minutes of the meeting, click here