15th December

Despite the mild weather of late councillor Parkes has been doing a lot of work organising a winter maintenance plan.  The grit bins are full and additional boxes of salt have been left with numerous residents, but we have been aware that WSCC do not extend gritting to the small B and C roads about the parish, so in previous years we have relied on the good will of local farmers even during their busy times,and will continue to do so when we have significant snowfall.  However, the Parish Council has been for sometime looking at how we can afford and undertake gritting the roads when we have very cold nights within our limited budget.  Cllr Parkes has done much research and after much investigation the Parish Council are going to try a company called Sussex Manures, who are based in Slindon, to grit our roads on our instruction when the temperature drops below -3 degrees.  They were first called out when we had that sharp spell a couple off weeks ago.  We do have a limited budget so we will see how this goes and monitor and review its progress after the winter has passed.

Rosemary Elliott contacted me last week to discuss amongst other things the over turned boundary stone on Lords Piece.  I have been walking there many times and was not aware of any boundary stones existence, or should I say their existence, as one seems to be missing.  I illustrate Rosemary’s image of the up turned boundary stone.    The boundary stone is distinctive as it has a ‘B’ on one side and a ‘S’ on the other, it is thought the other stone is identical and would have marked the boundary between Bignor and Sutton.  The stone that is on its side is marked on ordinance survey maps and is roughly on the ‘Southern end of the boundary bank that traverses Lords Piece near the quarry.’  If anyone knows of the missing stones whereabouts, or has any information about the history of either of them, or where we should be looking to find the missing or buried stone the Parish would be delighted to hear.  If we can locate them and identify their correct position we can pass this onto the SDNP ranger to restore them.  Thank you Rosemary for bringing this to our attention. 

Just to remind everyone about rubbish collection over the New Year is as follows; 23rd December recycling, 31st December general waste, 6th January recycling.  Thereafter we go back to normal unless we hear otherwise. 

It just remains for me to say on behalf of the Parish Council happy new year.

John Cross