Goring News
Archive 2000

Beach Bathing Water good
Worthing beaches reached the Guideline Standard in water quality this year. Not quite as the top Blue Flag quality, but up on last year.
Shingle is being trucked at low tide, from Goring near the boat ramps where we have too much, down to the beach near the pier where it was eroded.

Sight Systems innovative order
Sight Systems, makers of industrial computers in the Martlets, Goring have won an order for a Terabyte storage system for InTechnology of Harrogate. Companies can now backup their data offsite, sending it overnight to the centre, and being able to restore it painlessly online if required. 01903-242001 info@sightsystems.co.uk

Quality Assured Binmen
Worthing Direct Services have received the Quality Assurance Accreditation Certificate this year, presented by Mayor Ann Lynn. Apart from the fiendishly early start clanking bins in our area, they are really doing a pretty good job!
(Worthing Herald 7 Dec 00)

Millennium Walk Success
The last walk on December 10 will be the climax of a most successful venture. More than 250 people have taken part, some with their dogs, and 35 people completed every walk.
(West Sussex Gazette 23 Nov 00)

Local schools in top 2000

Harry Goring for National Trust
Harry Goring who owns the Goring Estate at Wiston just to the North of Chanctonbury Ring has been appointed Chairman of the National Trust Southern Region committee. Not only is the name important but we have close association with the National Trust because they own Highdown.
(Argus 14 Nov 00)

Local Postperson wins half a million
Kate Heusser won £500,000 on 'Who wants to be a millionaire' on Thursday evening 2 October. She was due to start work as a postman at Rustington but has now decided not to bother. Well done Kate. An excellent win.

Jefferies Lane Path now sorted
For two years Mr Wicks of Sea Lane, Goring has tried to get the council to do something about the footpath behind Malthouse Cottages in Jefferies Lane. Purely by chance he met a lady who said she had used the path for 67 years - apparently the council will take ownership if no one claims it for 50 years so that was fine. So now it will be trimmed and swept, and Caffyn's have been asked to prevent the oily water draining onto the path.
The lady says that in the old days before main drainage the dung cart used to use the path to service the privies of the cottages; a rather smelly but necessary service, now thankfully no longer required.

Bike Lane still controversial
The comments still rumble on. Though the immediate work is now complete, cyclists are still worried about cars parking in the cycle lane along Goring Road, and cars drive apparently uncaring into the lane when having to pass cars which are waiting to to turn right. Is the road wide enough for a cycle lane anyway? As your webmaster here is a new cyclist, yes I use the lane and ride along the pretty red colour. But I don't think we have the full answer yet.
(Worthing Herald 5 Oct 00)

Mine on the beach at Goring boat ramp
A one-foot diameter anti-tank mine was found at the high water line on the beach near the Alinora boat ramp in Goring on Saturday. Police closed Marine Crescent at lunchtime, while coastguards assisted the navy in blowing it up with a bang heard several roads from the seafront. Yachts, windsurfers, and jetskis had to move well away from the area.
(Southern FM Radio 1 Oct 00)

New Ferring website
http://www.FerringVillage.co.uk is the link to the new Ferring website. It highlights the Ferring History week with a series of events in the Village Hall, and shows each one of the 200 panels in the Ferring Millennium Tapestry. The website is maintained by my associate Jennifer Muller who lives in Ferring.
The Ferring Millennium Map is on sale at the Ferring Village Hall from Friday 25 August.

An even more expensive beach hut
Beach hut 112 at Mudeford is for sale, a two mile hike over the dunes, no water, no sanitation, no gas, no electricity, only to be used March to November, annual fee £1000. Price £60,000. This has got to be a record even if they are twice the size of the Goring huts.
A garden shed costs about£550, perhaps a bit more if it is the WBC standard 8ft x 6ft x 8ft high and fully lined. They are selling on Goring sea front for about £1500. Plus £160 per year site fee to WBC, and annual painting in the standard white marine paint, plus optional but desirable £40 insurance. So we are getting good value here - and there are some sites empty at the moment.
On a historical note, during the wartime invasion threat, rows of beach huts were filled with shingle as a primitive and first line tank obstacle. This could happen anyway during a gale if you leave the doors open!

Storms bring in the seaweed
As soon as the holiday season ended, the rains came, and wind blew, and the seaweed was pretty bad. North winds and high tide have taken most of it away again now but it was not nice while it lasted. We haven't had bad seaweed for some time now and it was a bit of a shock.
The seaweed is said to grow on the Kingsmere Rocks on the bottom of the sea five miles off Goring, torn loose by rough seas, and if the wind is from the south, dumped on the beach.
Back in the early days of the last century, the farmers used to collect it and use it as fertilizer. Now the farmers use chemicals which can be spread with government subsidy and with less labour.
In April 1952 they used a crop-spraying helicopter to spray the beach with DDT to kill the sandflies. They would not do this again as they now know that DDT is bad for humans as well as for flies.
In 1973 they sprayed the seaweed with perfumed deoderant in a bid to mask the smell. They have not repeated this exercise so it was probably not very effective.
(Argus in Worthing 18 Sept 00)

 
Missing dog saved by her chip
Jess, a cute black and white collie/whippet cross went missing Thursday evening near the Sea Lane Cafe, apparently taken home by a day visitor to Kingston-on-Thames, thence to the local police, and transfered to Battersea Dogs Home. Luckily the dog had a micro-chip on her shoulder, as all good dogs should, and she was speedily reunited with her owners on Saturday. A happy ending for the owners after a very fraught couple of days.

The Travellers move on
This time the travellers stayed just seven days 25 Aug to 1 Sept 00. And only a moderate amount of litter.
We suspect that Farmer Langmede left the security gate open when he finished harvesting the linseed on the Goring Gap, and in a flash the travellers were back. 10 caravans arrived overnight on Friday 25 August, and another 10 over the weekend. It may be that these are the people recently expelled from the Reading area. We expected them to stay here for the statutory 10 days the law seems to allow. The neighbours were not pleased.
By chance this local invasion happens at the same time that a new Conservative document Common Sense on Travellers is launched.

>> more on this

Rare Snail thriving on Highdown Hill
The National Trust each year clears part of the open space near to the eastern boundary of Highdown which is a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation as an area of unimporoved chalk grassland which, besides the snail, supports several uncommon animals and plants, including the purse-web spider, the only tarantula-type spider in Britain. (Worthing Herald 10 August 00)

Flights to France from Shoreham to Le Touquet suspended
Flights were planned each day this summer from Shoreham to Le Touquet making this attractive French resort just an hour away. Unfortunately, though the passengers were willing, the maintenance man failed them. No maintenance, no flights. Ring 01903-452304 or click http://www.shorehamairport.co.uk/manager/scheds.htm

Homeless Housing at George V Avenue available at Christmas
Two run-down blocks of flats in George V Avenue up at Goring Road roundabout are being renovated and will be in use by Christxmas with a change of purpose. The scheme is funded by The Housing Corporation via WBC and will provide accommodation for the homeless.
(Worthing Guardian 4 Aug 00)

Chunk of Chopper hits Goring
On Monday afternoon, an access panel three feet wide dissintigrated and fell off a Navy EH-101 Merlin helicopter flying over Goring on its way back from an air show in Belgium to its base at Coldrose. The bits fell on the grass at Marine Crescent, missing a man by only a dozen feet. First warning came by radio from the safety boat offshore, and the crew landed to check for injuries. There has been a good deal of jumping up and down about this and the Navy would like the bits back please.
(Daily Mail 30 Aug 00)

Helicopter Joyrides
The helicopter is again operating from the Plantation during the Worthing Festival. A ten minute trip for £20.00, reductions for parties and under 16's. An excellent treat.

New Search Tool on this Website
We now have a new AtomZ search tool on this website. All 137 pages will be searched and each page with a reference will be listed with the searchword highlighted in the context.
In the 137 pages they tell us there are 81916 words, with 432 pictures this adds up to 13MB of webspace.
Both domain names will work correctly www.Goring-by-Sea.uk.com and www.Goring-by-Sea.com.
While we are talking statistics, last week we had 747 distinct visitors (about 3200 per month); asking for 1439 pages; for a total of 59MB of data. Most popular pages were weather, Click the Map, pictures, seafront, news, diary.
Most of the big Search Engines were used to find us, Google being the leader, and Yahoo, Mirago, and Infoseek close behind.
82% of visitors use Internet Explorer, 18% use Netscape.

Sussex Buildings on Risk Register
Five Sussex buildings are on the English Heritage At-Risk Register. These include The Dome Cinema in Worthing, Goring Castle which is actually not in Goring, nor is it a castle but is still Grade II listed, and also further away, Old Fort in Shoreham Beach, The Grade II old bridge over the Adur at Shoreham, Littlehampton Fort on the other side of the Arun on West Beach, Tortington Priory in Arundel, and the Amberley Limeworks at Houghton Bridge. Grants are available, but local money must be put in too. The Dome is working towards this. The others are a major problem.
(The Worthing Guardian 16 June 00)

How many Houses in West Sussex
West Sussex CC is inviting comment on the future building of houses in the county. An excellent summary of all the facts and a questinnaire, are in 'Connections' distributed with local papers, and are on http://www.westsussex.gov.uk/splan   In brief:

More on the Titmore Lane/West Durrington development of 800 houses: the public enquiry into the WBC Local Plan will start on 24 October.

Sea Lane tree controversy brews
The Holm Oak trees in Sea Lane Goring have been inspected by the Sussex Forester Wally Jones in conjunction with WSCC and the Ilex Conservation Group. Remedial work will start within the next two months. As part of this, the lower branches on all the trees will be pruned. This will improve the sight lines for traffic, improve visibility to aid the Neighbourhood Watch, and encourage the trees to grow tall and beautiful. Wally Jones said "There will be controversy; you cannot do anything to trees without someone getting upset. But the long term health of the trees requires attention now."
As a part of the problem here, one of the Holm Oaks that requires attention is occupied by a Tawney Owl and this tree therefore cannot be interfered with.

Goring Vicar Hits Headlines
In a jokey vein, The Rev Michael Hore, vicar of St Mary's Church Goring has come up with a list of changes which a typical trendy management consultant would produce:

• hymns sponsored by local companies
• special luxury pews for corporate worshippers
• performance related pay for vicars
• cash prizes for the 1000th worshipper to pass through the door, with a rollover if the number fails to reach this number each month
• sell redundant churches brick by brick to the Americans
• letting the church out on weekdays as a sports hall

New Leadership at WBC and WSCC
Arrival of new members at Worthing Borough Council gives a chance for a change round of Deputy Leader. Andrew Garrett, council member for Castle has passed the role to LibDem David Chapman, a former mayor. The Conservative party leader remains Tim Dice. The Mayor is Brian McLusky until 28 May, then Anne Lynn.
At WSCC, the new seven-man cabinet will be led by Graham Forshaw, WSCC council member for Goring. (Worthing Herald 11 May 00)

Conservatives re-gain Worthing
The previous WBC council was hung with no clear majority rule. Now Conservatives have 20 seats, and LibDems 16. Labour came no-where.
Results - Goring: Steven Waight (C) 1755, Nick Rogers (LD) 542 (no change - turnout 34.4%).
Castle: Nick John (C) 816, Mark O'Keefe (C) 793, Graeme Cornell (LD) 533, Robert Smytherman (LD) 500, Antony Bignell (L) 453, James Deen (L) 431. (C hold 1, gain 1 from LD - turnout 30%)
We note that there has not been a Labour member of WBC since 1976.

1000 runners in 20 mile road race

Sunday 26 March and a cool but sunny day saw the Worthing Harriers 20 mile road race attracting nearly 1000 entrants. Four laps of Goring led them back to the start and finish point in the Goring Gap. There must have been a thousand cars parked along Marine Drive and roads nearby, but some were even more energetic and jogged from home in order to warm up.

Burglars? What Burglars
Dear Sir
We have a large house and no special burglar protection and we are very surprised that other people round here have been burgled. So are our two Alsations.
(Letter in the Telegraph 17 Mar 00)

Sea Lane Cafe to expand
There is a planning application for Sea Lane Cafe to add some more restaurant space, more paved area, and disabled access. We trust this will go ahead soon.
Latest News on this: The scheme has now been put on hold. Perhaps, next year.

Sussex for Growth
For the seventh year running, Sussex businesses have grown faster and out-performed their national counterparts.
(Worthing Herald 2 Mar 00)

Ferring Frogs on Road
Driving the quick way along the front,from Goring into South Ferring along Alderney Road, please slow down for frogs crossing to the pond. Christopher Niall has put up signs to remind you.
(Worthing Herald 2 Mar 00)

 
Daily Dipper shrugs off Winter Winds
Every day, winter or summer about 9am, Henry Shroder, aged 64, braves the sea near the Marine Gardens in West Worthing. Why don't you join him?
(West Sussex Gazette 2 Mar 00)

Business or Burgers?
West Sussex coastal strip planning departments are trying to resolve a conflict in the role and purpose of the seaside towns. The residents want it to remain a residential area, the hotels want to encourage tourism, and business wants to encourage Economic Regeneration, with more business and industry, and better communications. WBC have reduced the Tourism Department budget from £100K to £50K. Central Government want more housing. Can all these things live together?

First lamb of the new millennium
Photographed in the Worthing Advertiser, the first Jacob lamb was born just three days into the new millennium. This is at David Vick's Annington Farm near Lancing College.

Red Sky at Night even in mid-winter