Archive for category: News

Earlier this month, we advised that Cabinet Councillors at Lewes District Council would be convening on the 11^th December 2025 to approve the fourth public consultation regarding the draft Lewes Local Plan. The Plan was approved and is now open for public consultation.

The Plan represents a significant advancement in establishing the future development strategy for the district.

Local plans are based on evidence, with data collected to determine where new developments—such as housing, employment spaces, and community facilities—are suitable and where they are not.

According to the government’s formula for assessing housing needs, the district must plan for approximately 15,000 homes throughout the plan period, which concludes in 2042, for its designated area.

Nevertheless, the Council’s spatial strategy can only identify a housing need of around 8,570 new homes during this timeframe. This estimate is grounded in evidence and takes into account the limitations affecting the local plan area, including its borders with the South Downs National Park and the coastline.

It is vital that as many residents as possible take part in the consultation. A strong response is important because when the Plan is examined by the Planning Inspector, the level of community engagement and public support will be a key consideration.

The consultation period is  active up to the  28^th February 2026. To find out more about the Local Plan, please visit https://planningpolicyconsult.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk/LP_SpatialStrategyandSites

As we get ready for our final Repair Café of 2025 at St Peter’s Church on 13^th December, we are looking forward to our 8^th year of repairing your broken stuff. Incredibly, we attempted over 800 repairs this year and over 7000 items since we first opened our doors in 2018. We were delighted to receive an award this year from Lewes District Council in recognition of our service to the community

We always get a lot of Christmas tree lights coming in at this time of year – if you have the old-style lights with push in bulbs, we may be able to help with spares, but there are many different types, so at worst we can tell you what to look for and where to find them… And of course, our sharpening team will be busy, as always, at Christmas.  We now have two  state-of-the-art sharpening machines to sort out those knives ready for  the turkey!

Our new posters and flyers with all our 2026 dates are now available at the Café; pick some up and spread the word wherever you live!

The success of Chailey Repair Café has been due in great measure to the support we have received from all of you in the local community – if you didn’t have broken stuff, we’d have nothing to do! We have saved  a lot of things  from finding their  way into landfill and provided an opportunity for folks to understand more about what makes their household  items  work!

PLEASE NOTE! St Peter’s Church is having some well-deserved refurbishment from January onwards.  Chailey Repair Café will be moving back to Chailey Village Hall, (next to the Five Bells just 500 yards down the road from the Church) from 10^th January until the work in the  church  is completed.

You’ll find us there  on the second Saturday   of each month (i.e. 10^th Jan, 14^th Feb, 14 March  and so on) between 1000hrs and 1300hrs where we’ll have a full Café service including our legendary cakes.

If you’d like to contact us, please email us   at chaileyrc@gmail.com  and  we’ll see what we can do to help.

We look forward to seeing you and your broken stuff very soon and wish you all a happy and successful New Year!

Bryan McAlley and the Chailey Repair Café team

The government has today launched its consultation on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in East Sussex.

The consultation is open to all residents, businesses, voluntary groups, and local organisations. This is the only opportunity for the public to comment on these proposals directly to government and every response counts.

The government will be consulting on two options for East Sussex:

• The proposal by Lewes District Council, Eastbourne Borough Council, East Sussex County Council, Hastings Borough Council, and Rother District Council submitted a proposal for one unitary council for the current East Sussex County footprint.
• Brighton and Hove City Council’s proposal for five unitary councils on a pan-Sussex basis.

Lewes District Council  believe a single council for East Sussex is the best option for residents because it would be simpler and more efficient than other models, large enough to be resilient and would naturally build on the public service partnerships which already work well across the county.

It would also meet the government’s requirement that new councils should serve a population of not less than 500,000. The population of East Sussex is about 550,000.

Take part in the official government consultation:

• The consultation is available at: Proposals for local government reorganisation in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove, and West Sussex – GOV.UK and will be open for 7 weeks until 11 January 2026
• Responses can also be made by email to LGRconsultationresponse@communities.gov.uk

We have issued a press release about the consultation, which can be found here: Council leader encourages residents to support One East Sussex Unitary Authority

The following message comes from Andy Mitchell, Countryside Officer:

Cattle have now moved OFF all the commons for the winter. The Exmoor ponies at Red House Common have been moved into adjacent fields temporarily, and we hope to return them onto the common again soon.

Please report any issues with gates, fences or missing signs to me and do reply to me if you no longer wish to receive these update emails.  For the latest information, please see the Chailey Common webpage here : Chailey Common | East Sussex County Council

And a reminder that fly-tipping is dealt with by Lewes District Council along with litter, dog nuisance, car parks or bins – please contact them directly here: https://www.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk/report-a-problem/

If you see a dead animal on the commons or roads, such as a deer please report it here Report a dead animal in the Lewes district – Lewes and Eastbourne Councils (lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk)

Please always keep dogs under control.  Dog fouling remains an issue – and Neospora is a parasite that causes cattle to abort calves.  Please clean up after dogs and don’t allow them into the cattle troughs, this water is for drinking only.

Fiona St Denis recently brought this very unusual tablecloth to us at Chailey Repair Café  as  the hem needing attention.  She told us that the tablecloth had belonged to Fiona’s late mother-in-law, Beryl Melville,  who was part of an acrobatic act and toured the world appearing at music hall venues including the London Palladium.  As she travelled, she collected signatures from famous people of the day who she came across in the course of her work.

The tablecloth dates from around the late 1940s to the early 1950s.  There is a date and motif in the middle saying “South Africa ’51 – ‘52”.  Some of the celebrities who signed the cloth are still well-known today – Frankie Howerd, Jack Warner, Michael Bentine, Josef Locke, Sophie Tucker to name but a few.  Others would have been fellow novelty acts Beryl met on her travels

When the tablecloth arrived at Chailey Repair Café, it was in very  poor  condition.  There were about 10 motifs which had been expertly pencilled in by Beryl in readiness for embroidery.  If the cloth had been washed all this prepared artwork would have been lost.  Fiona asked our expert fabrics team how she should go about washing it and they gave her the name of an excellent soap-free cleanser that the team use  on antique teddy bears when they arrive in a grubby condition.   She also asked if there was anyone at the Repair Café who might be able to complete the embroidery.  As it happened Marilyn, one of the team, was about to go into hospital for a replacement knee operation and would be out of action for a few months. She very kindly volunteered to finish the work started by Beryl Melville so many years  ago.

Marilyn really enjoyed embroidering the remaining motifs and kept in touch with Fiona as to what some of the sketches meant and how to tackle them.  She also volunteered to clean the tablecloth as soon as it was finished.  As a surprise, she embroidered “CREATED BY BERYL MELVILLE” along one of the hems so that future generations might like to know who came up with the fun idea of a Memory Tablecloth. Fiona is planning to frame the work so it can be displayed in her home, where it will become something of a family heirloom and provide a lasting memory of a remarkable lady and the famous folks she encountered don her travels around   the world.

Do you have a family heirloom which needs the Repair Café treatment?  Contact us at chaileyrc@gmail.com and we will see what we can do!