Lancing ParishLancing Council NEWSLETTER Working in partnership with our community to make Lancing a better place to live, work, visit and enjoy. Winter December 2020 Issue #1 New Features Have your Say • Competitions • Have you used our new outdoor gym • Councillor updates equipment yet? • Local events • What are your thoughts on the new • School news Beach Green promenade lighting? • Newsletter email address • Have you seen our new Widewater Footbridge? • Local organisations • Photography • Wellbeing • Gardening tips Please email our Editor about content you would like to see in our next newsletter; [email protected] A word from the Editor Welcome to our new look, newsletter. My name is Danny Jackson, Editor and Lancing Parish Councillor for Churchill Ward. I am grateful to take on the opportunity to be editor of the Lancing Parish Council (LPC) newsletter. LPC has recently voted to refresh the newsletter with new content and activities to engage our residents. This newsletter is full of useful information, articles and creativity for all ages. As a council, we are committed to giving you our best. We want to encourage our community spirit to help make our beautiful village even better. We have a vision, and our residents are vital to it. We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to attend our meetings, engage with our social media platforms (Facebook and LinkedIn) and share your ideas. Your input is vital to us evolving. This year has been like no other, we have all had to make changes and adapt to different working, social and educational environments. I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all of our local keyworkers. We have pulled together to ensure the lonely, vulnerable and elderly are all safe. These community values have been seen more throughout 2020. I would like to throw a curve ball into the mix, over recent years it has become unfashionable and potentially uneconomical to send Christmas cards, but this year I urge you to reach out to distant family or friends or maybe an old colleague or neighbour. Show someone distant an act of kindness. We have a small community here in Lancing, if we each make that extra effort during these unknowing times, it would make our beautiful village on the South Coast even more special. If you have any articles or content you feel our residents would enjoy, and you would like to share for our next issue, we would be glad to discuss them with you. Despite this year’s challenges we should take note of our achievements as a community. I wish you happiness, love and good health for the year ahead. A special thanks to the newsletter working group and officers for helping put together this issue. Best wishes Cllr D Jackson Lancing Traders Association It was Autumn of 2019 when a group of local businesses owners from Lancing got together to see how they could help each other so that there could be a local thriving high street and business community. Today with steady growth, the LTA currently has 30 members, of which half are based in and around the high street. Run by a committee of volunteers, all of whom run their own local businesses. The LTA had a number of successes in 2019 such as the Summer Fair and obtaining free parking for Saturdays in December. Like many in 2020, LTA members have been affected by the pandemic. Whilst some businesses have traded throughout and become high street hero’s, others have had to cease trading or been severely affected by the trading restrictions. During 2020 the LTA has adapted its activities with the focus being on the promotion of its members through social media, sharing information and knowledge and ensuring latest news and business advice is readily available. We are looking optimistically towards 2021, when they can turn their attention back to: 1. Increasing footfall across the High Street, South Street and Crabtree Lane shopping areas; 2. Making these areas interesting and attractive to visit so that new visitors will want to return; and 3. Spreading the word that Lancing has truly become an independent shopping area that serves its residents and visitors with a different shopping experience. If your business would like to join the LTA, please get in touch. Contact details [email protected] Facebook: lancingtradersassociation Lancing Parish Council – Cllr Lydia Pope, Chairman As Christmas draws closer, we all start thinking about how we can celebrate this holiday with our families. For many, a full-blown, traditional celebration may not be possible this year and many may be looking at a 'back to basics' Christmas. The giving, receiving and sharing of food is one of the most fundamental Christmas traditions, predating by far the Christmas trees, turkey'n'trimmings and tinsel that can so easily overshadow the celebration. Giving and sharing food with those we love and with those we don't even know is often a source of great joy and pleasure. 'We wish you a merry Christmas' makes quite a big deal of a figgy pudding, so I decided to make one a few weeks ago. The singers in the carol are very clear about how much they want their figgy pudding, which I discovered is basically a dense ball of carbs and fat with some figs, sugar and nutmeg thrown in. Think of one of those bird-feeding fat-balls, but for Victorian carol singers and you're there! The process also made me wonder if their bold statement in the next verse of 'and we won't go until we've got some' was meant as a threat or a commitment, as this particularly calorific masterpiece takes four hours to boil. I imagine that, after four hours of unsolicited doorstep carol singing, the pleasure of giving them some pudding would be immeasurable. It also tasted really quite good! Going Local - Tom Viscont Going Local is the social prescribing service operating throughout Adur & Worthing since 2016. Social prescribing enables GPs, nurses and other professionals to refer people to a social prescriber - who can help connect you to a range of local groups and services to improve your health and wellbeing. We started work alongside each GP surgery in Lancing & Sompting back in 2018 - Ball Tree, New Pond Row and The Orchard. Since April 2020 we have supported over 200 people in the Lancing area. We were able to deliver this service in your area thanks to the contribution Lancing Parish Council made to the project. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic we mainly supported the Lancing community with accessing food and essential prescriptions - while also helping the most isolated people to have social contact over the phone with our team of volunteers. More recent trends have shown financial and housing needs arise in the community - and an increase in people struggling with their mental health. We have been working with community groups to connect people to the most appropriate local support. If you would like to find out more, please have a look at our website: www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/community- wellbeing/going-local 3rd/5th Lancing Sea Scouts. RN No 23 -Alan Luke, Group Scout Leader What a changeling time we have been dealt this year, with COVID-19 and the loss of some of our Kayak and equipment, life must move on and thanks to our dedicated group of Leaders we stayed in contact with our young people throughout Lockdown 1 with the use of the internet, setting weekly challenges to keep the young people involved. Once lockdown was lifted, we could meet in secure bubbles at the Scout Hut or at our camp site, Streamside, for open air activities. With no summer or weekend camps permitted we felt it important that the young people knew that we were still there for them. We could still Kayak on the Adur in line with Government advice. Instead of our Summer If you would like to get involved in Camp in August, we ran a 6-day camp at Streamside youth activities, please look up (without the actual camping bit) which was very successful and enjoyed by all. what’s available in our Village. A special thanks to all the parents/carers who support us in all our ventures and not to forget the There are also some great time given up by our Leaders. Without them none of the above could have been achieved. volunteering opportunities. Why Roll on the day when we can all meet freely again not muck in, get your hands dirty! without restrictions. Councillor feature - Cllr Geoff Patmore In 2013/14 a friend and resident Sean McShane approached me about the viability of converting the inaccessible steps at the A259 entrance to the bridge across Widewater Lagoon to a slope, to enable access. Sean had to use a mobility scooter because of poor health to travel around. He said he missed his walk to the Lagoon where he would relax and read his newspaper enjoying the tranquillity. Sean, his wife and I embarked upon the project for accessibility. Sadly, Sean passed away in 2015 but myself and Lynda continued lobbying, now assisted by Lancing Parish Council, West Beach Residents Association and World of Widewater. A major breakthrough occurred in 2016 when West Sussex County Council agreed disabled access was viable, and that the bund was not the main flood defence. West Sussex County Council agreed a new bridge was necessary as the original wooden structure was becoming unsafe. We faced delay after delay and finally in 2019 West Sussex County Council were all set to start in the September, however the project was put back another year.