Still time to sign up to Switched on Hastings

The registration deadline for 'Swithced on Hastings', the Council's new scheme for residents who are interested in finding a lower price for their energy, has been extended to 18 November, in line with Ofgem Retail Market Review (RMR) which has been underway for some time.

The RMR is now in its final stage and through the new guidelines there will be four core tariffs and a 'fifth tariff'. It's this fifth tariff that is directly related to collective switching as it allows suppliers to create a bespoke tariff for participants of a collective auction.
Energy suppliers will compete to make the lowest offer in an auction which will now take place on 19 November when they will determine their offer based on the number of people taking part in the collective auction.

Mayor, Cllr Alan Roberts, who has registered for the scheme commented: "I hope people will follow my lead and sign up to this great new scheme, it really could save residents money on energy bills. The more people who sign up the greater our purchasing power and you can sign up if you live in Hastings, St Leonards or the surrounding area! As the deadline has been extended, I strongly urge people who haven't yet registered to do so!"

To find out how much you could save by becoming part of this scheme, all you need to do is register. You will need a copy of your current energy bills to hand. The process of switching from your current supplier/s will be seamless and simple.

Registration is easiest online and needs to be made by 18 November. People who don't have internet access can register at the Community Contact Centre between 4.30pm - 6.pm Monday to Friday. For those that have registered there is no obligation to accept the final offer, which will be sent out on 27 November, it's completely up to each resident to decide if they want to or not. 

Peasmarsh Memorial Hall re-opened October 2013

Peasmarsh was able to celebrate the opening of its newly refurbished village hall on 12th October 2013. Enormous thanks were expressed to both Rother Voluntary Action (RVA) and the External Funding Team at East Sussex County Council who had helped steer the local volunteers through the Reaching Communities process, Rother District Council’s community grants scheme; Sussex Community Foundation grants and source additional funding too.

The first lottery application failed when, as Parish Chairman Jennifer Als said to Gina Sanderson of RVA: “Surely we don’t need to do all that – we know what the village wants and needs.” Luckily, the volunteers remained determined and came back to RVA to ensure that the consultation, partnership agreements and business plans were all completed in a way which would be acceptable to funding organisations.

A local architect, Dominic Manning, took on the brief to design the hall and project managed the building work.  He also managed to incorporate a number of green initiatives which make the building much more sustainable to run.

The determination of a small group of volunteers in the village has seen this develop into a truly village wide project with the villagers themselves being the third largest funders of the project.  Throughout the process the social fabric of the village has been restored – the fundraising campaign saw a village newsletter established; a revamped and renewed website; a village archive created and new events established.  Jempsons, the local supermarket helped through its charitable foundation, enabling consultation events and providing the venue for fundraising boot fairs.  Now the new hall is open, a range of new activities and facilities are available including a public wi-fi connection; an outreach surgery from the doctors; a new weekly lunch club; fitness classes such as Zumba and Boxercise; a homework club and youth activities.

Sidley Big Local
Young People’s Consultation film October 2013

Big Local is an opportunity, managed by the Local Trust, for residents in Sidley to use at least £1m to make a massive and lasting positive difference to their community.

The first step in accessing the funding has been to develop a community profile which describes what the area is like now, including some history, highlighting what’s good about it already and the challenges that it faces. The profile presents a ‘starting point’ to plan from and a guide to look back in order to assess change.  Local residents have also received support from Rother Voluntary Action as the local trusted organisation; the district and county councils; neighbourhood police team and local housing associations.

In Sidley, the past year has seen discussions, questionnaires, events and focus groups arranged by volunteers on the Heart of Sidley core group to gain in depth understanding about the needs of local people.  In addition, Heart of Sidley commissioned local charity Entertainment Workshops to work with young people in the area to create a film about how they see the area and what it needs.   That film is now available to view here. 

To learn more, visit the Heart of Sidley website or Facebook.
 

Wave Leisure Celebrates Gymnastics Competition

Wave Leisure held its annual internal gymnastics competition at the Downs Leisure Centre in Seaford on Sunday 20th October.
Featuring gymnasts from Lewes and Peacehaven Leisure Centres as well as from the Downs in Seaford, there were 4 categories the participants were competing in; solos and pairs floor competition, plus beam and vault.

Age groups were school years 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8 in each category, and the Club Coach from each centre was a competition judge.
There were a host of individual winners from all centres, and the overall team competition was won by Peacehaven!

Centre Manager Fred Furner said: “Lots of fantastic personal achievements were made on that weekend and really appreciate the support given to the gymnasts by both the coaches and the participants families and friends.”

East Sussex Joint Waste Strategy

East Sussex County Council and the Borough and District Councils have launched a consultation on a new joint Waste Strategy for East Sussex.

The County Council, Hastings and Eastbourne Borough Councils and Wealden, Rother and Lewes District Councils wrote the former Waste Strategy in 2006. Since then we’ve almost doubled the amount we reuse, recycle and compost and reduced the amount we send to landfill by over 90%.

We now turn most of our waste into valuable reusable and recyclable materials or use it as a fuel for renewable energy and we’ve exceeded the 2006 targets set for dealing with the County’s waste. The new joint Waste Strategy looks at how the waste the Councils collect will be dealt with between 2014 and 2025 and sets new targets, including:

• Limiting household waste generated to 995kg per household, per year
• Recycling and composting 50% of household waste by 2020 (rising to 60% by 2025)
• Recovering energy from at least 95% of rubbish that is not reused, recycled or composted and;
• Diverting at least 95% of waste from landfill.

With better kerbside recycling collections available, the County Council has identified savings and proposes to close household waste sites in Forest Row, Wadhurst and Seaford – all within a 10 to 20 minute drive of another facility.

The Councils want residents, businesses, community organisations and partners to tell them what they think of the draft strategy and if they agree with the targets. The strategy is available for comment until December 11^th 2013.

View the draft joint Waste Strategy: East Sussex Joint Waste Strategy

Take part in the consultation survey online: East Sussex County Council’s Consultation Hub

For more information, contact Sarah Watson (Project Officer - Waste) on 01273 336364 or sarah.watson@eastsussex.gov.uk
 

                         
Invitation to Eastbourne Youth Radio Hospitality Tea                                 

Thursday 21 November 2013, 5:00pm
Ground Floor, Tyler Building, Sussex Downs College, Cross Levels Way, Eastbourne, BN21 2UF

We would be delighted if you could join us for our Eastbourne Youth Radio (EYR) Hospitality Tea on Thursday 21 November 2013 at Sussex Downs College Eastbourne, commencing at 5:00pm.

The event will celebrate 13 years of EYR, which will take place this year from Wednesday 20 - Friday 22 November.

EYR will be transmitted on 87.7fm and streamed online via www.eyr.org.uk from studios at Sussex Downs College in Eastbourne. As part of the three-day broadcast extravaganza, young people aged 5-19 from schools and colleges in the area will present more than 50 hours of programmes, with support from broadcast professionals.

Programmes will feature a mix of interviews, live performance work and recorded music. The schedule also includes Meet the Media and the popular current affairs show Answer Back, with Stephen Lloyd MP. 

We do hope that you are able to celebrate our 13^th annual broadcast with us.
Please RSVP directly to Chandra Fifield, PR & Media Officer at Sussex Downs College, by 5pm on Friday 8 November.

Email: chandra.fifield@sussexdowns.ac.uk  
Telephone: 030 300 39103 (direct line)
EYR is organised by the Eastbourne Education Business Partnership in partnership with Sussex Downs College and is funded from local sponsorship and the Eastbourne EBP.

East Sussex County Council Trading Standards Commnunity Engagement Event

East Sussex County Council Trading Standards will be hosting a community engagement event on Wednesday 27th November 2013. This event will be an opportunity to come and meet the Trading Standards Team and find out what our successes have been this year and what we see our priorities are for next year.  We will also be launching the new Super Sticker. The initiative is being adopted to help East Sussex residents deal with the activities of unwanted cold calling doorstep traders. This initiative is a new warning sticker that exploits the wording of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. This means those residents who live outside our current No Cold Calling Zones will feel empowered to say “no” to door step traders. The super sticker is being launched in partnership with Sussex Police, West Sussex and Brighton & Hove Trading Standards so we have a common message to all residents across the Sussex area.

Date: Wednesday 27^th November

Time: 9:00am – 1pm Venue: EastbourneTown Hall (Assembly Hall)
Please can you RSVP to trading.standards@eastsussex.gov.uk by Friday 15^th November 2013.
 

3VA and Volunteer Centre East Sussex Training

Please follow the links to book onto any of the courses below: 

Volunteer Centre Masterclasses are bite sized courses that can be attended as a series or as a stand-alone course. All of the masterclasses are delivered by experienced advisers working within the Volunteer Centre and only £35 for 3VA/HVA/RVA members:

3VA Masterclasses are bite sized courses that can be attended as a series or as a stand-alone course. All of the 3VA masterclasses are delivered by experienced advisors and are only £20 for 3VA members:

FREE 1 Day Business Start-Up

Introduction Workshop

Date: Monday 11^th November 2013

Registration at 9am, Start time 9.15 am - 4.30 pm

Starting your own business or going self-employed?

This highly interactive workshop is for those who are thinking

about starting up their own business and want to know more.

Course content

• Are you ready? What skills and knowledge do you have?
• What research have you done? Opinion or fact?
• Why do businesses fail? Common reasons of failure explored.
• Must-know marketing. How to win customers.
• Talking about money. What’s involved?
• Bringing it all together. What’s included in a business plan?
  
  We provide Tea and Coffee. Please bring your own lunch.  There will be a 45 minute lunch break.

Venue:
Meeting Room 1, Eastbourne Town Hall
Grove Road, Eastbourne
East Sussex, BN21 4UG
How to Book: Please phone Jay on 0844 4152272 to reserve a space or for further information.

                                                           

East Sussex Strategic Partnership Board Meetings

To view papers and minutes of previous ESSP Board mettings, see the meetings page of the ESSP website. 

The presentations from this year's East Sussex Assembly, that took place on 17 October 2013, are now available here.

East Sussex in Figures (ESiF) is the local information system (LIS) for the county. It’s a website that provides access to essential data, information and analysis.

Latest publications

JSA claimant count - The number of people in East Sussex who are unemployed and claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) fell in September 2013, in line with regional and national trends.

New datasets

There are 18,230 children living in poverty according to HM Revenue and Customs.

The average vehicle speed in East Sussex in June 2013 is 29.2 miles per hour.

13 percent of adults who are 16 and over participate regularly in cycle rides of a 30 minute duration or more.

Newhaven port passenger and freight movement has increased in 2012 over 2011.

Please contact the Research and Information team if you have any specific data or information enquiries.