We are sorry to let you know that there will be a change of speaker at our meeting on Friday June 26th at 7.30pm (for this meeting only at St Andrews Church Hall). The speaker on Thatching has unfortunately cancelled his booking, but we have been able to bring forward the July speaker to this month.

Our June speaker is now Jacob Everitt (the warden at Warnham Nature Reserve) who will give an illustrated talk on Coastal and Estuarine Birds – very appropriate for our location and to help you identify all those wading birds. He has a lot of knowledge and is an excellent photographer, so it should be an entertaining evening.

The July meeting will now hear from Chris Tomlinson from E.ON who will give us an update on the latest plans for the Rampion Wind Farm, and there will be an opportunity to ask him questions. This meeting will be back at Ferring Village Hall – 7.30pm Friday July 31st.

We’re sorry to announce that our speaker for this week’s meeting – Paul Millward (the Goring fisherman) –  is no longer able to join us for personal reasons again. We are not able to find a replacement speaker at short notice but will be showing an interesting film about the local area instead. We will also be holding a very short AGM, plus hearing April’s Nature Notes and a full update on planning matters from Ed Miller. We hope to see as many members there as possible, even though our advertised speaker will not be present.

We have 2 events planned for the first two weeks in May. They are as follows:

1. Tuesday 5 May (note change of date as this was going to be Sat 2/5) – a Spring Birdsong walk around Goring Gap. Meet at the bottom of Sea Lane, Ferring at the earlier time of 9am (to ensure that we hear as many birds as possible). Meet up with bird expert Clive Hope at the Blockhouse on Pattersons Walk from 8.30am onwards for a bird sea watch before we set off.  A guided walk then across the Gap to the Plantation, north up through the trees and back towards Ferring along the Ilex Way, stopping on the way to hopefully hear and see as many Spring birds as possible. At the end of the walk at Little Twitten, we can then finish off with a cup of coffee at a village centre café. This walk is weather dependent (the forecast is currently not good) so check this website from Monday evening to see if walk is going ahead. If cancelled, an E mail will also be sent out to the FCG membership list.

2. Saturday 9 May – the first Beach Clean of 2015. Meet at the east end of the Bluebird Café car park at 11am. Equipment is provided. Wear suitable clothing for the day. Do please help us to keep our beach as clean as possible, and make it one of which to be proud.

We hope to see you at both events. Everybody is welcome.

See the latest update on the future of Goring Gap on our Planning News page on this website – it is very informative.

Some events during March and April to note down in your diary as follows:

Sat 21st March – we have 2 separate events on the Rife and the Beach at Ferring. At 11am, we will be holding our annual clean up of the banks of the Rife. Meet in the Bluebird Cafe car park. Pickers, gloves and bags will be provided, and we will hopefully finish up at the Country Centre cafe for a hot drink etc. Then at 4.30pm, we have a guided walk by Tricia Hall out to the Black Rocks off Kingston at low tide to look at the flora and fauna. Wear wellies and bring a small bucket to put any samples in. It is quite a walk, so be prepared!

Tuesday 28th April – visit to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Arundel. Meet at the centre at 10am. Cost will be £10.30 for adults and £8.10 for concessions- this will include a guided tour by the Grounds Manager, Paul Stevens. You can spend as long as you like there, but you will need to book your place in advance – contact David Bettiss on 01903 246304 or d.bettiss@btinternet.com There is much to do there, including a Wetland Discovery Boat Safari, see the wildfowl collection, feed the ducks and geese, visit the hides to watch wild birds etc. Good food is available in the cafe.  It will be good day out.

The next Group guided visit  – this time to the Shoreham and Lancing area – will take place on Thursday 5th February, and will be led by member and experienced birdwatcher, John Dixon who will help us to identify a variety of coastal and river birds.

We’ll meet at 10.30am at the Harbour Way free car park on Shoreham Beach which looks across towards the Lifeboat Station (not the Fort car park, where you have to pay). There will be four separate parts to this visit – 1. Shoreham Harbour entrance ( as above)  2. Widewater lagoon, Lancing  3. Shoreham Airport and the River Adur  4. Cuckoo Corner (north of the A27 on the Botolphs road)

We’ll be moving between the 4 locations by car, so you’ll need to arrange a lift if you don’t have a car. Bring binoculars, and be sure to wear suitable clothing for the day, as the locations can be exposed to the weather.

The Ferring Neighbourhood Plan Referendum which took place on 10 December returned an overwhelming 82.66% YES vote in favour of the plan, and the 3 Community Right to Build Orders (CRTBOs) were also passed with well over 70% in favour of these. We understand that the CRTBOs were the first in the country to be approved. There was a strong turn out by residents of Ferring.

The YES vote for the 3 CRTBOs was as follows:

new Community Centre/ Village Hall site – 78.8%

allotment site behind Henty Arms – 75.8%

Village Hall site – 71.1%

This was an excellent result for the village of Ferring and its residents, and we should all be very grateful to Ferring Parish Council for all their hard work, ably led by Chairman Carole Robertson, as well as others who have worked on the plan. We should also thank all those Ferring people who voted for it.

Since 2001, Ferring Conservation Group has opposed every planning application for additional houses in Ferring. So why are we supporting a Neighbourhood Plan that promises more house building?

It’s because Arun District Council’s new Local Plan calls for 50 additional dwellings in Ferring over the next 15 years and there is simply no way the village can escape that requirement. What matters now is what sort of dwellings and where they will be built. If there is no Neighbourhood Plan to set out what our residents want, the decision will be left to the developers, Arun’s Development Control Committee and the Planning Inspectors.

This Neighbourhood Plan keeps the development within the existing built-up area. Half the housing will be developed by the community and for the community on sites in the village centre, catering for residents who want to ‘downsize’ but stay in the village. The other half will come from planning applications in the normal way (and the Plan points to the builders’ merchants and vehicle workshop off Ferringham Lane as one site that could be redeveloped to accommodate them all). The Plan rules out any development behind Green Park or on the Goring Gap in south Ferring.

The really good thing about the Plan is that it also provides the basis for a new Village Hall and Community Centre, and a bigger and better allotment site. The new Hall would come about by rebuilding the Glebelands Centre on a larger scale and negotiations are under way for a new allotment area. Once these new facilities are up and running, the existing Village Hall and allotments sites will be the sites for the ‘downsize’ housing and the money that comes from this housing will fund the two new projects.

We all like the old Village Hall of course, but it is an old building with many problems. When it was built in 1924 it was never expected to last 100 years. It needs replacing. At the same time, we have to cope with a demand for more housing sites, and we know there is a need for smaller houses for people who want to stay in the village. This Plan deals with both issues.

So the threat of unsuitable development has been turned into an opportunity and it is an opportunity that we should grab – by voting ‘Yes’ in the Referendum on 10 December; ‘Yes’ to the Neighbourhood Plan and ‘Yes’ to the three ‘Community Right to Build Orders’ for the new Community Centre at Glebelands and the two small housing sites in the village centre.

David Bettiss

Chairman

Ferring Conservation Group