Goring News Feb Mar 2002

 
Rubbish Collection
Remember the rubbish in the Worthing area is collected two days later than before, to account for the two days of Bank Holiday.
Worthing Rubbish Collection

Boy dies on Goring railway line
Patrick Cummins died on Sunday night after stepping on the live rail when he tried to cross the railway after a party in East Preston. Patrick was a pupil at Chatsworth High School.
(Worthing Herald 28 March)

Spring is Sprung
The daffodils have been marvelous this year. The first grass cutting is under weigh. Ice cream vans are parked along Marine Drive. Mushy peas have been sown in the Goring Gap. And the toilets at the seafront at the Plantation are open for business. It must be Spring at last.

 
Paramotor in the Gap
Friday 22 March was a calm, warm day. This paramotor flyer was doing very skilful circuits and bumps round the Goring Gap. A little noisy perhaps but a lot of fun.

Goring avoids worst of Floods
Findon and Angmering had considerable damage from floods of muddy water during the storms on Monday 18 March. Gale force winds and heavy rain swept the whole area.

Four things to worry about
Goring has four major protests going on at the moment. The proposed radio mast at the Yacht Club has the nearby residents up in arms - (this Scheme was subsequently withdrawn).
POW - Protect Our Woods has excited all who worry about the West Durrington development and its effect on trees and the Goring Gap.
The ASDA proposals at Worthing College will have an impact on traffic on Shaftesbury Avenue.
And the mess left by the travellers around the Alinora carpark still has many people concerned, even though they did clear up some of the litter. We live in exciting times in Goring.

We note that the students of the College are in favour of accepting £20million to improve their facilities. Not too surprising!

New Ditch in the Plantation
They are clearing the ditch that carries surface water down the Plantation, and also making sure that the culvert that carries the flood under Marine Drive and into pipes out to sea is running smoothly. It is a major undertaking and the amount of water in the ditch even in dry weather shows that it is already earning its keep.
The water comes out of a pipe just north of Amberley Drive, but where the pipe comes from is a mystery. It was causing flooding in the gardens of Aldsworth Avenue.

Help Stamp out Vandalism
Many residents are justly concerned by vandalism, graffiti and car dumping in the area most of which is attributed to young people. But now a pile of tree branches and twigs, obviously the result of someone's pruning were left just below high water mark. They would have had to be carried from either a local garden or from the road and they would have been distributed all along the beach when the tide reached them. We have already referred to the damage to the Tamarisk bushes in the same area and it is most unlikely that these two incidents are the acts of youngsters. If these are examples of behaviour of older generations we really do have cause for concern.

WSCC wins website acclaim
West Sussex County Council was in the top 20 out of 467 council sites in the Better Connected 2002 survey. It is certainly a very useful website for a wide range of county concerns.
www.westsussex.gov.uk

ASDA at Durrington storm grows
The exhibition at the Sixth Form College on Friday and Saturday attracted a lot of interest. Many questions arise: If new buildings are so urgently needed why cannot the school system provide them? Why do we have to lose valuable sports areas? Who recompenses the residents on Bolsover Road for the drastic reduction in property values? How will the already crowded roads cope with the extra traffic? Why do we need another supermarket anyway when Tesco is due to expand?
This really is not a good plan.

Graffiti problem not yet solved
Worthing Borough Council has admitted it is failing residents plagued by graffiti. The lowest tender they received for a team was £72,000 which was more than the council had budgeted for. But even if the council sets up a team, it may not be allowed to remove graffiti from private property unless it is offensive or racist. Cliff Harrison, the council's head of technical services, said: "The arrangements for the removal of graffiti are not keeping pace with the problem."

Rolls to dig huge lake near Goodwood plant
BMW aim to be producing their first Rolls Royce at Goodwood very soon after Jan 1st 2003 when they formally move from Crewe. They plan a large lake to handle any potential flooding. And will plant 400,000 trees.

Filming at Sea Lane
A film crew was at work just near the Sea Lane Cafe on Monday 11 March. It was apparently for an advert for the Ministry of Work and Pensions.

Whats in a Name
You will soon be paying water rates to First Aqua instead of Southern Water, which was actually Scottish Power, and First Aqua are likely to sell on to Vivendi Environnement who are a French company. Don't bother about it. Fresh water will still come out of your taps.

No patience with Patient's Parking
Part of the green in Drake Avenue will be lost if a planning proposal made by The Strand Practice is agreed. As part of the plans to increase patient access to doctors, the surgery hopes to expand its practice and include additional parking for 16 cars. Local residents are not pleased.
This Scheme was subsequently withdrawn.

Charles Kirk makes Hogwarts uniforms
Charles Kirk make uniforms for over 2000 schools at their Goring factory. So it was natural that they should be chosen to make the uniforms for Harry Potter and the rest of the wizards at Hogwarts. They are now working on uniforms for the students in the sequel.
(BBC TV Southampton 4 March)

Watchdog praises top class schools
Palatine Special School in Goring is one of five schools praised for their achievements in the annual report of the Government's Chief Inspector of Schools. The report also named West Sussex County Council as having the best local education authority in England and Wales. The report also names the West Sussex youth service as the best in England and Wales for provision of services for teenagers and value for money.
(Argus 4 Mar 02)

Travellers leave the Seafront
15 traveller's caravans arrived overnight on Tuesday 26 Feb in the Alinora Carpark on the sea front. They left on Monday 4th March by 5pm. Last seen heading towards Brighton. Unusually they tidied up the litter after themselves which was good news.

Fire at Berkley Hotel
Guests fled from the Berkley Hotel on Marine Parade in their pyjamas when a fire took hold of the basement. About 35 guests walked 200 yards along the seafront, some with bare feet, to the Beach Hotel while firefighters doused the flames. The basement was smoke damaged but nobody was injured and the guests were able to return after about an hour.
(Argus 4 Mar 02)

Titnore Woods Protest grows
POW - Protect Our Woodlands is a group protesting against any development that could impact the Titnore Lane woods. They have a meeting at Downview public house, opposite West Worthing Station, 7.45 Tuesday 5th March.

Residents protest against ASDA
Local residents and shopkeepers do not like the plans for the new ASDA store at Durrington Station one bit. This is brewing up into a major row. These monster stores are normally on the outskirts of town, not in the middle of the houses.

There is an opportunity to see the plans and have your say to representitives of the Schhol and ASDA on Friday 8 Mar from 11am to 7pm, and Saturday 9 Mar from 10am to 4pm.

Pets hate fireworks
Grove Lodge Veterinary Group is launching a drug-free training course to cure pets of their fear of fireworks. The sight and sound of pyrotechnics going off can drive them barking mad. Dogs have been known to shoot under the furniture, tremble with fear or even resort to destroying the house. While most of us find fireworks fun, man's best friend often finds the whole gunpowder experience so traumatic their owners sometimes resort to drugging them.

Cycle Track along the sea wall
Long term plans for a hardened cycle track along the shingle of the sea wall to Ferring have been approved. It could take 15 years though before we see this in place. We see quite a lot of cycles along the path already. It is against the bylaws, but they do no harm, and always give way to pedestrians.

Mobile phone mast at Yacht Club
Notification has been received that a mobile phone mast 15 metres high, "looking similar to a boat's mast" is planned in the area of the boat compound at the Yacht Club. At least this is better than at St Laurence Church.

Free haircuts for world record
Tony Papouis at Anthony Michael in Goring Road, West Worthing, is trying to beat the world record of 23 haircuts in one hour. Trial run Feb 3 and the attempt Feb 10 both had to be called off because in the whole of Goring we could not find 50 people with a proper head of hair - either we are skin-heads or baldies. But he was on the radio, on TV and in the local papers so when he tries again later in the year perhaps some men will have grown their hair a bit longer.

Newhaven - Dieppe ferry update
A new cross-Channel ferry named Dieppe is about to start operating the Newhaven-Dieppe route. It will undertake a trial run between the two ports shortly and should start regular crossings in March. At that time, the existing Transmanche ferry, the Sardinia Vera, will undergo its annual refit. Both ferries will run from mid March, with extra daily sailings. Hoverspeed's fast ferry will also start operating again for the summer season from late March.

An outbreak of petty crime
A boat on a trailer was stolen from the front garden of a house in Goring Road despite the wheelclamps which were supposed to stop it being moved. Three bikes marked for the names of the young owners were stolen from a garage. A car battery was stolen. Some cars have had their windscreens broken in the Limbrick area.
And there have been a number of callers offering damp-course treatment which is then found to be expensive and not effective.
Any information about these or other nuisances, please ring 0845-60-70-999

A Plague of Flies on the Beach
Swarms of seaweed flies plagued walkers on Goring seafront yesterday, thanks to the mild winter weather. The cause is the mild weather, 10C (50F) or more every day since January 20, about six to eight degrees Farenheit above normal for February. The flies only live for a few days.

Moodymobile seen in Goring
Moody was in the Goring Gap on Valentine's Day with goodies for romantic girls. Moody works with Danny and Nicky in the morning on SouthernFM. He reports as follows: "If I can use an unavoidable cliche it was a bit like waiting for a bus...15 or so minutes after my first on-air bit from Goring Gap (and after turning away numerous blokes) they all turned up at once. I gave away the flowers, chocolates and champagne to the first girl who turned up in spite of the fact that she was in a long standing relationship... One girl who just missed out had come running down from the Sea Lane Cafe after sussing out where I was."

Cycle Track extended in Goring Road
Cyclists coming from Worthing through Goring have had to brave the traffic as soon as they reach the Alinora Avenue because of the parked cars. The cycle track has now been extended about 100 yards between Alinora Avenue and Homesearle House. Less parking for shopping, additional facility for cyclists - and then they have to brave the traffic until they get to the shops. We think it only a question of time before the rest of the parking on Goring Road disappears.

Ask a policeman, if you can find one.
The local police now have seven priorities. To reduce the level of recorded crime, the number of burglaries, the number of violent crimes, the number of people killed or seriously injured in road crashes, the number of vehicle crimes, the number of people who become repeat victims of crime, and to improve the service for people who telephone Sussex Police.
Apparently other crimes go onto the back burner.

Cyclist hurt in hit-and-run
A cyclist was knocked from his bike on the roundabout near the bridge in Goring Way at 5.10pm on Sunday 3 Feb. The car drove over the bike, stopped a short distance away, then carried on. A police spokesman said: "The Nissan Micra will have slight damage to its front offside wing and light cluster area. The number plate starts with the letter L and includes the numbers 3 and 5." Police want to hear from anyone with information about the accident 0800-555111

Sparrowhawk twitched in Goring
Following last weeks sighting of a Kestrel in the Goring Gap, a Sparrowhawk was feeding in a garden In Maybridge this week. It must be spring.

Real Goring Men raise £6000 for Chestnut
The not-very raunchy calendar was a hit and raised £6,000 for the Chestnut Tree Appeal, which aims to build a cancer-care hospice. 1000 copies were printed and they have nearly all sold. The cheque will be handed over at the Shaftesbury Room at the Leisure Centre on Friday 1st Feb.

More Details

Worthing Jubilee Plans taking shape
May 31-June 5 1950s-themed seafront fayre and a marquee for 400 people on Steyne Gardens for the various community events. Flower beds around the town will be planted with a red, white and blue blooms.
June 1 Sat 10am-Noon children's parade along the seafront from 10am to noon, including the ice cream party. Signed certificates for all who take part
June 1 Sat 2.30pm to 4pm Golden Jubilee tea party for pensioners
June 1 Sat 7pm-1am Evening Function at the Assembly Hall.
June 1 Sat 10.30pm, seafront fireworks display, set to lasers and music, from the end of the pier.
June 2 Sun 10.30am-noon open air jubilee service involving Worthing Churches Together