Five year Plan

% Received

% Received

I was born in the Parish

I love living in the Parish and belong here

Moved into the Parish by choice, work,retirement

I like living here but may not stay

Was found housing in the Parish

I feel no attachment to this Parish at all

I am unhappy here and am looking to move

I am happy living here, but feel it is unlikely I will be able to stay (e.g. lack of suitable housing)

FIVE YEAR PLAN SUMMARY JANUARY

DESCRIPTION

1. INTRODUCTION

2. METHODOLOGY

3. VISION STATEMENT

4. OBJECTIVES

4.1 – Voice of the Community

4.2 – Engagement

4.3 – Health and Wellbeing

4.4 – Planning, information and notification

4.5 – Environment

4.6 – Public Spaces

4.7 – Governance

4.8 – Partnerships

5. SURVEY RESPONSES

6. MEET THE PARISH COUNCIL

7. FINANCIAL STATEMENT

8. PARISH COUNCIL BUDGET

INTRODUCTION

Fairlight Parish Council’s (FPC) last Parish Plan was published in 2006 and was intended as a four-year plan. With that in mind, the Parish Council sanctioned a survey to find out from the residents of Fairlight, the key issues, highlighted by residents, that would drive the work of FPC for the period of the plan. It covered roads, transport and traffic, housing, recreation, social and community, environment and commercial development.

This Five-Year Plan has been produced as a statement of Fairlight Village Parish Council’s vision, values, objectives and key priorities for Fairlight. The aim is to provide Fairlight residents with a clear insight of what the Parish Council is trying to achieve and its delivery. The Plan will identify what the Parish Council plans to focus on for the next five years and will be used as a guide each year to set the budget for the next financial year.

METHODOLOGY

New Councillors joined the Parish Council in May 2019 and felt that a five-year plan steering group should be formed to agree the content of a survey to drive the next Five-Year Plan. Questions on how people felt about living in the Parish, as well as about housing, services, dogs, crime prevention, cars and speed limits, road hazards, businesses in the parish, transport, parish information, parish facilities, leisure activities, tourism, young people’s involvement, activities and clubs that people would like to see for both young and the not so young were asked.

The questions were generally multiple choice with the opportunity for free text comments.

This survey was delivered to all the properties in Fairlight in hard copy, as there was not one individual type of media that we could ensure would cover sufficient properties.

The survey was advertised through the Village Store, the Fairlight Resident’s Association email system, Facebook and banners were placed at the entrance to the village and at the Village Hall. There were also two drop-in afternoons in October for residents who would like help with filling in the survey.

VISION STATEMENT

Our vision is for Fairlight Parish Council and the local Community to work together to protect and improve the social, recreational and environmental well-being of Fairlight. Also, the lives of all who live, visit and work here.

This Plan will be a live, ongoing and updated document that sets out what the Parish Council believes they can achieve by directly involving the residents.

OBJECTIVES

4.1 To be a strong voice of the community and represent their views.

How do we do it now?

Communicate – via the current website of the Fairlight Residents Association (FRA), FRA mail system, noticeboards, bus stops, word of mouth, Fairlight magazine, Hastings & Rye Observer, the Post Office, telegraph poles and private notice boards.

Action

– To listen

– To launch a new Parish Council website

– To provide Councillors and the Clerk with new Parish Council emails addresses

– To launch a Facebook page

– To continue using all the above means to communicate

– To provide a newsletter

– To convey the communities views, needs and aspirations to the appropriate

statutory body or non-governing bodies.

4.2 To engage with the Community and support the work of the village, voluntary

organisations, clubs and groups.

How?

– Questionnaire/Survey

– Open days to assist the community in filling in the questionnaire and other issues.

Who?

– Young and not so young residents

– Clubs, groups, societies, organisations, agencies and individuals.

Action

– To publish the Actions of the survey on FRA email system, notice boards, bus stops, word of mouth, Fairlight magazine, Hastings & Rye Observer, the Post Office, telegraph poles and private noticeboards

– To encourage the Community to come to the PC meetings and HAVE THEIR SAY

– To provide a public forum at every council meeting.

4.3 To maintain the health and well-being of all residents in Fairlight.

Action

– To explore the provision of a monthly drop-in cafe

– To publicise and support sports activities

– To publicise and support exercise/fitness organisations

– To explore transportation facilities and requirements.

4.4 To provide planning information and notification.

Action

– To continue to provide a Planning Committee to review and comment on applications

– To advise on current development sites – Wakehams Farm, The Cove Public House, Market Garden Site and other future applications

– To monitor Tree Preservation Orders.

4.5 To highlight environmental issues and local concerns.

– Proposed solar panel array in Hastings Country Park

– Wood Field Recreation Ground usage

– Wood Field Children’s Play Area

– Knowle Wood woodland management and usage

– Use of Parish Council assets including bus shelters, notice boards

– Road traffic management

– Parking in the village

– Speed limits and other highway issues.

Action

– To aim to increase a Police presence in the village

– To ensure Councillors are aware of issues within the community using working groups and volunteers

– To provide information on current FRA website, FRA email systems, noticeboards, bus stops, word of mouth, Fairlight magazine, Hastings & Rye Observer, the Post Office, telegraph poles, private notice boards, new Parish Council website and Facebook page.

4.6 To maintaining existing public recreation spaces, buildings and equipment including litter bins and dog bins.

Action

– To continue to provide a Land Management Group to oversee day-to-day maintenance

– To regularly check condition of all facilities and carry-out risk assessments annually.

4.7 To be well managed, providing sound governance and financial management.

Action

– To ensure Councillors and Clerk/RFO have the opportunity to attend high

level training with annual reviews to provide the best possible service to the

community as agreed by PC/Chair

– To carry out annual risk assessments and act on findings

– To review all policies and procedures on an annual basis

– To adhere to the Standing Orders and Financial Regulations and continue to provide accurate financial records and audited accounts.

4.8 To work in partnership with external statutory and non-statutory bodies.

– East Sussex County Council and Rother District Council

– Other Parish Council

– Charities and voluntary organisations

– Agencies and contractors employed by the Parish Council.

5. SURVEY RESPONSES

Of the 965 surveys sent out here were 358 responses. This equates to a 37% response of residents in the Parish. The following is a summary of answers question by question.

5.1 Length of time in village 5.2 Age of respondents

About You		% Received	Under 11 years		% Received
Less than 1 year	12	3	11 – 18 years	0	0
Between 1 & 4 years	52	15	19 – 25 years	1	0
Between 5 & 9 years	70	20	26 – 35 years	3	1
More than 10 years	220	61	36 – 65 years	112	31
			66 – 79 years	182	51
			Over 80	67	19

5.3 Length of time in village 5.4 Overall

5.5 What is it about the Parish that makes you proud to live here?

Top Responses in Priority Order: lovely neighbours – community spirit – peace and quiet – countryside – the surroundings.

5.6 If there was one thing you could change?

Top Responses in Priority Order:

Do Not WantWant

Do not want	Want
No more Housing	Improve road surface in and out of the Village
No parking on the pavement	Pub
Discourage parking on the verges	20mph in the Vilklage
Street Parking	More frequent bus service

5.7 Do you belong to any clubs in the village? List all related comments or other activities currently not going on or new clubs that you would like to see.

Pilates,
chess,
computer,
yoga,
difficult to break into existing clubs,
scouts,
football,
netball,
more field events,
friendly people in the clubs,
craft club,
fitness club,
wish that the flower club could start again,
lots of clubs to join in the village.

Top Responses in Priority Order:

– Pilates

– Yoga

– Chess

5.8 Housing

Types of house to be built if new building takes place	Yes	No	No Opinion
Homes for local people	225	25	34
Properties with small business potential (workshop, offices)	77	126	48
Starter home with 1-2 bedrooms	140	90	36
Family homes with 3 or more bedrooms	108	104	46
Executive homes with 4 more bedrooms	44	160	38
Flats or apartments	74	130	40
Retirement properties with ease of access	227	39	31
Adapted housing (e.g. for disabilities)	181	44	47

5.9 Infrastructure

What is your view on the following services	Adequate	Inadequate	No Opinion
Hedge management	144	118	69
Drainage and gully clearance	137	140	61
Paved footways	180	105	49
Non-paved footways	141	96	82
Refuse collection/recycling	312	31	4
Community recycling facilities (bottle bank)	106	141	77
Road maintenance	56	281	9
Road sweeping and litter management	212	93	34
Grass verge cutting	187	120	31
Freezing weather mgt (gritting, snow clearing etc)	158	135	51
Sign posting (footpaths, villages, road names, amenities)	261	49	29
Public footpaths (stiles, gates)	238	60	41

Top Responses in Priority Order: roads in a deplorable state – hedges over pavements and main road – pot holes – signs need cleaning and repairing – some footpaths need clearing of vegetation.

5.10 What is your view on the following services in the village?

	Adequate	Inadequate	No Opinion
Mains electricity supply	328	14	5
Mains gas supply	322	5	18
Mains water supply	314	28	5
Foul drainage	197	101	41
Telephone services	291	38	14
Mobile phone reception	150	186	12
Broadband/fibre optic	166	154	26
Television reception	218	118	13
Access to the internet	211	98	30
Village website	228	20	92

Top Responses in Priority Order:

Bad	Good
Low broadband	Village web site
Mobile phone service
TV reception
Elec & Water services out of date and need replacing
Foul Drainage

5.11 Dogs 5.12 Crime Prevention

	Yes	No	No Opinion		Yes	No	No Opinion
Do you consider dog fouling to be a problem where you live	103	229	16	Have you been affected by crime within the last five years	60	284	5
Are there enough dog bins where dogs are frequently walked	148	125	74	Is the response to reported crime adequate	63	72	196
Do you have any dog related concerns (strays, livestock etc)	29	243	68	Do you feel that more could be done to enhance crime prev.	164	35	122

Crime Prevention

Top Responses in Priority Order:

Would Like	Don’t Like
Our own PCSO	Youths racing around the country park at night
More CCTV coverage
Internet and phone scams more freely communicated
More police visibility would deter would be offenders

5.13 Car Parking and Speed Limits

Number of cars in your household – include all vehicles	Yes	No	No opinion
No vehicles	28	0	0
1 vehicle	155	0	0
2 vehicles	120	0	0
3 or more vehicles	47	0	1
Do you have an issue with parking near your home?	73	267	2
Is there sufficient parking to access community facilities -village hall, shop, playground recreation ground?	168	141	35
Are designated community car parks adequate?	133	117	75
Are the needs of the pedestrians adequate given the nature of a rural community?	212	99	31
Are the needs of cyclists adequate given the nature of the roads within the Parish?	140	100	93
Are the speed limits set to high where you live?*	144	183	16
Are speed limits to low where you live?	13	290	24
I live near a serious road hazard **	162	108	24

* In Priority Order: Battery Hill, Waites Lane, Fairlight Road, LWL, LWL and spur roads.

**Top Responses in Priority Order:

– Outside hairdressers and Meadow Way

– Coastguards Lane and main road

– Village Hall corner to Broadway and Waites Lane

– Cars opposite each other in Waites Lane

– LWL and Broadway corner.

5.14 Business, Trade and Employment

For Business Owners/Employees Only	Yes	No	No Opinion
Did you acquire an existing building within the Parish	1	33	0
Did you establish a new business within the Parish	22	12	0
Is your business home based	22	11	0
Were you attracted to the Parish specifically to establish a business	1	32	0
Number of employees in your business	1	0	0
Sole worker	21	0	0
From 2- 4	10	1	0
From 5 – 7	2	0	0
From 8 – 10	0	0	0
From 11+	3	2	0
Are there benefits to running your business within the Parish*	9	18	7
Are there issues running your business from within the Parish**	4	21	3

*Close to home, all work is in the village **Poor Broadband.

5.15 Transport

	Yes	No	No Opinion
Do you use any bus services to travel within the Parish?	139	198	3
Do you use any bus services to travel beyond the Parish e.g. Hastings, Rye or further afield	186	160	2
Do you use the Tesco bus	7	318	3
Are the bus services adequate given the rural nature of the Parish	177	96	73

Top Responses in Priority Order:

Not Good	Good
No evening service after 6pm	Normally good bus service
More frequent service
Should use smaller buses
No timetable
Buses half empty

Types of transport used by you	Nos.	% Received
Private car	322	90
Motorbike/Moped	13	4
Bicycle	25	7
Bus	119	33
School bus	4	1
Taxi	101	28
Car share arrangement	12	3

5.16 Parish Information

Indicate how you get info about the Parish	Yes	% Received
Church/Parish Magazine	91	25
Notice Boards	210	59
Local newspaper	119	33
Fairlight News quarterly mag.	289	81
Fairlight Residents Ass. website	202	56
Shop noticeboard	147	41
Word of mouth	239	67
Flyers and leaflets	108	30
Email	178	50
Facebook groups relating to Fairlight	89	25

Top Responses in Priority Order:

Poor	Good
Media communication needs to be better monitored	FRA email system is good
Email system slow and mixed emails	Good community in the Village
FRE email system is not a professional system but random
Email system needs to be factual

5.17 Which Parish facilities do you use?

	Frequent	Occasional	No Opinion
Children’s play area	21	94	185
Recreation ground	78	160	83
Public footpaths (stiles, gates)	198	113	19
Parish Churches	29	116	163
Village Hall	128	180	32
Community library	18	37	246
Wildlife and country areas	225	87	23
Knowle Wood	96	162	68
Other places	17	3	9

Top Responses in Priority Order:

Don’t Like	Would Like
Knowle Wood has been over cleared	Outside gym facilities
Used to walk a lot in Knowle Wood before it’s destruction	RHNR
	Application for a new Village Hall

5.18 Other Leisure Activities

	Yes	No	No Opinion
Are there enough organised leisure activities in the Parish	264	14	69
Are you aware of the new Community Hub (building) being planned on Wood Field	240	106	4
Are there enough leisure activities to attract people outside the Parish	167	47	129

Top Responses in Priority Order:

Don’t want	Want
Village Hall is enough – more cars parked at the hub will cause a problem	More activities
A new village Hub is not needed Village Hall is enough	Pentanque court
	The number of clubs is amazing

5.19 Tourism

	Yes	No	No Opinion
Are there enough leisure activities/tourist? attractions to bring people into the Parish	133	91	115
Do you support the encouragement of tourism into the area	149	105	87

Top Responses in Priority Order:

Don’t want	Need
The village has enough tourism	Pub
Apart from walkers , nothing should attract visitors	Amenities, Cafe, Toilets
Support tourism but NOT off roaders, Quad bikes etc	A leaflet of walks
Why would we want more tourists	More signs, NO beach access

5.20 Volunteering Activities

	Yes	No	% Yes	% No
Are you involved in any volunteering activities*	103	238	29	66	*Rye Harbour, UA3, reading in schools, care for the elderly, housebound library service.
Would you like to be involved in? volunteering	38	211	11	59

5.21 Children and Young People Responses

How many children’ responses are included in this survey
1	10
2	3
3	2
4	1
Child 1 Male/Female
Under 8	5
Between 9-12	6
Between 13-15	5
What do you like about living here
My friends are here	6
Playing on outside spaces	8
Access to the countryside	11
Close to school	6
Social activities/clubs	6
What don’t you like about living here
Not enough to do	7
Not enough sport	4
No transport	5
Too dark	3
Dangerous Roads	2

Child 2 Male/Female
Under 8	4
Between 9-12	3
Between 13-15	0
What do you like about living here
My friends are here	3
Playing on outside spaces	6
Access to the countryside	7
Close to school	4
Social activities/clubs	3
What don’t you like about living here
Not enough to do	2
Not enough sport	1
No transport	3
Too dark	3
Dangerous Roads	1

Child 3 Male/Female
Under 8	1
Between 9-12	2
Between 13-15	0
What do you like about living here
My friends are here	2
Playing on outside spaces	2
Access to the countryside	2
Close to school	1
Social activities/clubs	1
What don’t you like about living here
Not enough to do	1
Not enough sport	1
No transport	1
Too dark	2
Dangerous Roads	1

The survey asked ‘What could be done to make life better for young people’?

Don’t Like	Would Like
Dealing with cars blocking the pavements	More support for groups and clubs fr youngsters
	More sports clubs
	Good football posts

The survey asked ‘What activities or clubs would you like to see for young people’?

Top Responses in Priority Order:

Would Like	Don’t Like
Football	Play area is a bit boring
Tennis for the young
Rounders at night for families
Scouts
Swimming
More things to do on the playground
Large plastic buckets for children with disabilities

5.22 Questions for the not so young

	Yes	No	% of Yes Received
Do you live alone	74	228	21
Do you have regular contact with neighbours	274	31	77
If NO would you like more contact with others	14	53	4
What do you like about living here
My friends are here	152		42
Access to countryside	264		74
Social activities/clubs	141		39
I have my own transport	251		70
What don’t you like about living here?	Yes
Not enough to do	9	0
Not enough sport	4	0
No transport	16	0
Too dark	14	0
Dangerous roads	64	2

Top Responses in Priority Order:

Don’t Like	Do Like
large scale redevelopment drives out local residents	pleasant environment
some villagers are too cliquey	seeing starts at night
mechanical devices and speeding cars at weekend	seeing foxes and badgers
	need more housing
	voluntary helping organisation helping the elderly in the village

5.23 Fairlight Parish Council

	Yes	No	Possibly
I am interested in PC matters and in becoming involved in the working parted	261	250	85

6. MEET THE PARISH COUNCIL

David Shortman – Chair

– Planning Committee
– Fairlight Preservation Trust Liaison

Issy Horsley – Vice Chair
– Planning Committee
– Chair of Faircomm
– Lower Waites Lane Drainage Incident Coordinator

Pauline Collins – Parish Clerk

– Clerk to the Council and Responsible Financial Officer

Derek Greenup
– Grants Officer
– Police Liaison
– Speedwatch Liaison
– Planning Committee

Stephen Leadbetter
– Chair of Planning Committee

Steve Stewart
– Planning Committee
– Faircomm Committee
– Emergency Plan

Collette Slack
– Land Management (Knowle Wood)
– Website
– Grants Officer
– Emergency Plan

Geoff Smith
– Land Management (Woodfield)
– Highways

Councillor Vacancy

– TBC

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