Cuckfield Parish Council News

Cuckfield Parish Council newsletter - Nov 2024

Staff changes at the Parish Council…

After over eight years as Cuckfield’s Parish Clerk, Sam Heynes is moving on to pastures new. “It has been one of the hardest decisions I’ve made to leave Cuckfield Parish Council, I have loved every moment of my time working here in the beautiful Queen’s Hall. From introducing the everpopular Silver Sunday events, developing the Angela Fox Nature Garden and co-ordinating the recent Operation Watershed improvements to stop the flooding of London Lane, Courtmead Road and Broad Street, to the installation of the new pathways in the cemetery, the King’s Coronation picnic at Whitemans Green and overseeing the installation of the feather bench in the cemetery, I will leave with so many great memories.
I am leaving a great team who will continue to support the Council with their vision for Cuckfield. I wish Noemi all the very best in her new role as Parish Clerk and will miss everyone greatly.” Sam is moving to become Town Clerk in East Grinstead from 1st November, we wish her the best of luck in her new role.
Noemi Ripert, who has been working at the Parish Council for the past 2 ½ years, has been promoted to Parish Clerk and has taken over from 1st November. “I am excited to have taken over as Clerk and am looking forward to the new challenges ahead.” We are also delighted to announce that Kate West has joined the team as the new Communications and Admin Officer. Kate started on 28th October and you will be able to meet her and the rest of the team in the office at the Queen’s Hall.
We are sure that Noemi and Kate will form a great new team and continue to deliver all the events and activities planned by the Parish Council, starting with the annual Christmas Street Festival on Friday 6th December and the return of the Advent windows from 1st December.
Finally, we would like to say thank you to Richard Gill for his efforts as Councillor over his time here. Richard left the Council earlier this year, and at October’s Full Council meeting Daniel Morgan was co-opted to replace him. We look forward to working with Daniel, who is particularly interested in looking at ways to introduce traffic calming measures at Whitemans Green.

In addition, if anyone would like to purchase the 2025 Cuckfield calendar please do pop into the office, they are being sold at £8 each and include an envelope in case you want to post them to friends and family who are not local. Also, we have the prints of the Queen’s Hall for sale from the office, these are a limited edition print priced at £10 each. Both items will also be for sale at the craft market on Friday 29th November at the Queen’s Hall, and at the Christmas Street Festival (if we haven’t already sold out!).

Cuckfield Parish Council's June 2024 newsletter

Helping Cuckfield’s Biodiversity

Would you like to help protect and enhance Cuckfield’s wildlife and to make the parish an even better place for nature to flourish?
The Parish Council has recently agreed to produce a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP), partly in response to the recent State of Nature report that showed that in the UK, of the species studied since 1970, there has been an average decline of 19% with 43% of birds, 31% of amphibians and reptiles, 28% of fungi and lichen and 26% of terrestrial mammals at risk of being lost.
A BAP can be wide ranging but the initial aim would be to establish some baseline data for the parish’s habitats and wildlife and then devise some practical actions to help. These could be at habitat level such as grass verges, gardens or hedges or at species level, for instance butterflies (White Admiral), birds (Swift), mammals (Hedgehog) or amphibians (Newts) but can all be determined at a later date.
Ongoing monitoring will be key but should provide opportunities for participation, with potential for citizen science projects that might be undertaken by schools or other groups while Greener Cuckfield will also be on hand to help with some of the implementation.
However, the most important part of any BAP is the interaction with the local community, so if you do have an interest or local knowledge of wildlife or particular species, it would be great to hear from you, especially if you are a landowner or have any involvement or connection with land in the parish. Please email adrian. podmore@cuckfield.gov.uk

To read the full newsletter, please click on the images to enlarge them or pick up a copy of June’s Cuckfield Life.

Cuckfield's speed limit survey and a Parish Council update 2024

Click to enlarge

20mph zones in Cuckfield survey

Back in the summer last year, the Parish Council ran a survey to ask for feedback regarding traffic calming measures within Cuckfield with a particular focus on 20mph zones as these are actively encouraged by West Sussex County Council’s Speed Limit Policy which was updated in 2022.

Due to the amazing response that showed considerable support for the idea, the Parish Council has reviewed the suggestions and created a new survey to establish whether there would be support for specific 20mph roads within the centre of Cuckfield, specifically London Lane, part of Broad Street, the High Street and South Street.

We would love to hear your thoughts on this. Please could you complete the new survey if you have not already done so: https://forms.office.com/e/hAfhcgQgDZ
The more responses we receive, the better the evidence base will be for presenting to WSCC – whether this is in favour of or against the proposal. This is your opportunity to have a voice regarding the traffic issues within the village.