Goring News Oct-Dec 2002

Fred the Fisherman will be back
For the last two years we have not seen much of Fred the fisherman under the Canadian flag just west of the Sea Lane Cafe. But as soon as the weather is better, and the calimare season over, he will be back with new weather-proof tackle boxes selling all sorts of locally-caught fish.

Worthing rethinks rubbish recycling
The new ways of collecting paper and plastics are not proving at all popular. WBC are going to ask for more money in the next financial year starting April and hope to have a revised scheme working by June. But surely by June we shall be used to the alternate weeks, on different days to the main rubbish collection. It really is a shame that it costs more to recycle things than to just shove it all in the landfill.

New International Airport at Redhill?
Government ministers are considering £8 million plans for a new international airport at Redhill. The idea is to develop the existing private airfield to provide a new 2,000-metre international runway capable of handling large passenger jets. London Redhill, as it is being called, would be an immediate alternative to building a second runway at Gatwick. This idea has been broached before and attracted strong protest from a prestige residential area.
(Argus 16 Dec 02)

Post Person's bike stolen
The post person for Ilex Way had her bike stolen, with post bag. The bike was later recovered but the bag with its mail is missing. Similar incidents have occurred in East Worthing and in Ferring. This is really a bit serious. But it is the perfect excuse now for me. Oh didn't you get the card I sent you? It must have been stolen.

Flood in Sea Place
At 12 noon on Sunday, water was gently cascading through the road surface at the bottom of Sea Place, just south of its junction with Eirene Road. A flood was starting to develop in the road and on the green by Baloos and the Yacht Club compound. Southern Water say it was a burst water main. As if they have not had enough grief in this area.
Trant, the contractor that carried out the Wallace Avenue/Gerald Road drainage project has been complimented by neighbours for their tidy work, consideration for residents, and for leaving the contractors compound at the yacht club so neat. It is now available for parking boats.

Christmas lights gleam all over
This house is in Cotswold Road Durrington. It's the winner so far. Please nominate your favourite house.
(Worthing Herald 12 Dec 02)

FULL DETAILS

Petition of protest presented
A petition with 350 names protesting against the proposed cycle track along the shingle bank, was presented to the WBC Executive on Monday. Together with a copy of the original manuscript deeds for the Goring Hall estate transfer to WBC showing the councillors, apparently for the first time, that the shingle bank is indeed protected against all nuisance (including cyclists). We now await detailed plans for the cycle track so we can oppose these in detail. We believe that the existing South Coast Cycle Route along roads of Marine Drive and Marine Crescent are fine and we do not want them changed.

Amberley Castle gets Six-Star rating
Reported in the Sunday Times, top class meals and accommodation can now get six stars instead of only five. One of a short list of top rated hotels is Amberley Castle. http://www.amberleycastle.co.uk

Girl assaulted on Goring seafront
A 15-year-old girl hailed what she thought was a taxi to take her home from Worthing. Instead, the driver brought her to Goring greensward and assaulted her. Then he took her home. A sad story, but with some odd aspects we think.
(Worthing Herald 5 Dec 02)

Sight Systems MD India 2003 Challenge
Phil Walters, MD of Sight Systems in Goring Business Park has accepted the Enduro India 2003 Challenge. He and 125 others will ride Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles 2500km across southern India. All money raised goes to worthy charities. Phil's contribution will be £3000 and would welcome any donations, however small or large to help this. 01903-242001 or sales@sightsystems.co.uk

Too good to be true
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. A circular pushed through letterboxes in Goring from Cheque Awards Registry says they have £1100 waiting for you if you just send them £15 for admin and postage. The trouble is, quite a lot of people believe this nonsense. Just bin it! Same as the Emails from Nigeria wanting you to send them money, and they will then deposit millions into your bank account. Ho, ho, hum. Just delete them unread. Or if you feel public spirited forward the Email to fraud.alert@met.police.uk These Email scam messages are known as 419's because that is the number of the Nigerian Penal Code that refers.

Dumped cars cost £26,000
Last year WBC spent £17,275 getting rid of 1,209 abandoned vehicles, and the cost is likely to rise to £26,000 this year. We get our share of dumped cars in Goring. But we think they should be a lot more ruthless and crush any cars without road fund licences of which we have far too many.

French skills internet project
Goring company Ascot Systems has launched the NetTutor virtual classroom. This versatile teaching tool is now being used by an organisation in the Ile-de-France region to help people who are out of work and workers who want to improve their career prospects. The system, set-up more than a year ago, has helped to re-skill people in the region who have been made redundant. The project has been sponsored by the French Ministry of Education with initial funding from the European Union. It delivers classes through the internet at a number of French training centres.    www.ascot-systems.co.uk    www.nettutor.co.uk
(Argus 29 Nov 02)

Goring Hairdressers scoop top Award SOTAS (State of the Art Styling) was named Sussex Retailer of the Year at Friday's glittering Sussex Business Awards Gala Dinner at Gatwick. This Goring business has been trading for seven years and owner Karen Clark (bottom left in photo) said 'I wanted to create an atmosphere that would intrigue and encourage passing trade as well as provide a feeling of warmth and comfort on a cold winter's day. It is the quality and overall experience that sustain the business'. Congratulations to Karen and all the SOTAS team (Argus 29 Nov 02)

West Sussex Primary Schools do well
Our schools performed 4% better than the national average in the curriculum tests this year. In the 3Rs (reading, writing, arithmatic) they were stars. And the 11-year-olds did well too, particularly in English and Science.
(Gazette 27 Nov 02)

No less than four WBC Councillors attended the Goring Resident's Association meeting on Thursday 21 November. Sheila Player, Maurice Tucker, David Marchant, and Stephen Waight were all present to hear the views of the residents.
There are major problems to resolve all along the route. But in Goring the residents have a personal interest. We would agree with a cycle track from George V Avenue to Sea Place where the sea wall is wider. That is, if they decide to go along with the promenade based routing. But we think perhaps it could be two separate tracks, one for pedestrians, one for cycles, separated by a shingle strip. The cycles would then go down Sea Place past Baloos, and then carry on down the existing road route to Ferring.
From Sea Place to Ferring along the shingle bank/sea wall, we see all sorts of problems which have not been solved at all so far, and suggest that this part of the scheme should be dropped.

Full Story

Faster Surfing on the Internet
Goring is wired for NTL which used to be Cable and Wireless Cable. The new deal from NTL is for a telephone line with cheaper calls, 80 channels of Cable TV, and Broadband surfing of the Internet, all for £27/Month and at the moment free installation. The improvement in TV picture quality are worth having anyway, and the broadband Internet access is excellent.

MORE DETAILS

Cycle Lane Decision Called In
Letters of objection have been sent to WBC from five local amenity Groups:

Fisherman lost at sea
A fisherman was washed overboard at the entrance to Shoreham Harbour. The body was found on the beach at Hove the next day.
One of the huge barges bringing stone from Norway for the sea defences at Shoreham broke loose and was aground.

Lack of consultation on sea wall cycle track
We now understand that there will not be any consultation on the Worthing Council's proposals for a cycle track along the Goring sea wall. Apparently the decision to go ahead was made at the Council meeting on 28 October last year (2001). At that time apparently there was consultation with two cycle organisations, but not at all with anyone in Goring. The decision by the executive just recently, to carry on with detailed planning, has now been 'called in' and will now be discussed by the Scrutiny Committee at a public hearing at the Town Hall, 6pm Monday 25 Nov 2002. The public can attend, and there is time for public contributions.
We hope that sense will prevail. The proposed cycle track along the Goring sea wall is just not on.
As an added protest, our MP Peter Bottomly has written to the WBC Chief Executive to complain strongly at this lack of local consultation.

Full Story

Foxes still a problem in some gardens
Foxes remain a problem for many people, and just recently a fox has killed a much loved pet rabbit in a local garden. Please do make sure pets are well protected.

A Four-week Fireworks Day?
Without wishing to be anti fireworks we do feel that there should be some restriction on their sale and use. Every year the intensity of the noise increases and the irresponsible use of the bangers can sometimes make one feel that we are living in a war zone. This must be very distressing for the elderly and those with animals. Unfortunately the irresponsible spoil the enjoyment for others by letting off their fireworks late into the night, and the period over which this extends seems to get longer each year. Do we need greater control over the sale of fireworks and a shorter period when they are on sale?

New speed camera at Hammerpot
Everyone speeds on the A27 down the hill going towards Arundel at Hammerpot. There have been four serious accidents. Now there will be a speed camera there, so watch it! This is the first of 18 new cameras in West Sussex in this financial year, and 24 next year.

Councillor Andrew Garrett retiring
Andrew Garrett, who has served on Worthing Borough Council for six years as representitive from Maybridge, will be standing down at next May's election. He says changes to the way local government is run has made council meetings pointless. Local government changes mean the majority of council decisions are made by seven executive councillors - the Cabinet - rather than being voted on by a committee of councillors from both parties.

Goring escapes major gale damage
A couple of branches down in Ilex Avenue. About eight beach huts with loose roofing felt now have no roofing felt. Anything that would blow over in your garden was blown over. Otherwise we seem to have done OK. The actual windspeed overnight was 41mph and a gust of 64mph. For the record, the Great Storm of 1987 reached 115mph. A number of people went down to see the waves at hightide, but they were not spectacular here. Brighton seems to have been worse off. And a tree blocked the A24 for several hours.

Southern Water start work in Sea Place
Southern Water will be starting work at Sea Place on the Surface water outfall on the 11th November. A major blockage of this outfall was, apparently, the reason for the major sewage flooding which happened in the winter of 2000/2001 affecting large numbers of properties in the vicinity of Marine Crescent and Alinora Crescent. The proposed works will, they hope, alleviate the recurrence of this problem. The work should take approximately two weeks.

Buy a cake for the Children's Centre
Goring Calendar Man, Keith Richardson, after baring all, well almost all, for Charity, has turned his fund raising talents to the sale of Christmas cakes. As a member of Worthing Lions Club Keith is visiting companies, offices and factories with posters advertising the Lions Cake Project which, last Christmas, raised over £2000 from the sale of cakes which was given to the Children's Centre at Worthing Hospital. Keith is hoping to sell even more cakes this Christmas and if you would like to taste his wares contact any Worthing Lion you know or telephone Keith on Worthing 244379 (evenings only) to obtain an order form. They offer a wide variety and certainly look good!

Frank Dean wins Pie Championship
Frank Dean, the butcher in the Mulberry has won Pie Champion for his Steak and Kidney, and Supreme Pie Champion for the Lamb Italiana. There were over 500 contenders at the British Meat South of England Awards at the Leatherhead Leisure Centre this week. Frank Dean also won awards back in 1999.

WBC says no more houses at Beeches Avenue
Worthing Borough Council has defied the Government and refused an application to build 90 houses at Beeches Avenue, Broadwater, despite a Government inspector urging it to develop the site. The southern slope of the downs, by Worthing United Football Club's ground, is a popular beauty spot. Good news for them. Not so good for West Durrington because there will be more pressure here.
(Argus 26 Jan 02)