Albourne Sign

WELCOME TO THE ALBOURNE PARISH COUNCIL WEBSITE
 
 Please visit the pages using the links on the left.

(For the Parish Council's Privacy Notice and Data Protection Policy, please see HERE) 
 
     LATEST NEWS:

CHANGE OF DATE - Please note that the December Parish Council meeting will now be on Wednesday, 4th December 2024, not Tuesday, 3rd December.

AUDIT -  ALBOURNE PARISH COUNCIL - Please now find the Notice of the Conclusion of the 2023/24 Audit HERE

ALLOTMENT PLOT VACANCY. Please see HERE

AUDIT - ALBOURNE PARISH COUNCIL has now completed the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) for the financial year 2023/24. The Certificate of Exemption section has been completed and submitted to the external auditor - see the Notice of Public Rights HERE. Please also see the Transparency Code page for all the relevant documents (Annual Governance and Accountability Return) and related information for the 2023/24 audit year, and for previous years.

MSDC DISTRICT PLAN REVIEW

With particular thanks to Councillor John Spencer, the Parish Council has submitted to Mid Sussex District Council on 23rd February 2024 its response to the Regulation 19 consultation. Please find the document HERE

FORWARD ACTION PLAN

The Parish Council has prepared and agreed a forward Action Plan for the period 2023-2028. Please find a copy HERE

NEW PARISH COUNCILLOR Further to the item below, the Parish Council is pleased to announce that John Spencer was co-opted onto the Parish Council at its meeting on the 6th June 2023, taking the Council up to its full complement of seven members. The Parish Council very much welcomes John onto the Council, and he will be be leading for us on the considerable planning issues and pressures facing the Parish at the present time.

ELECTIONS. Albourne Parish Council had an uncontested election on the 4th May 2023, as there were only six nominations for the seven places on the Council. Councillors John Drew, Di Smith, Joy Parks, Suzanna Sawyer, Shane Axtell, and Imelda Spencer were all duly elected to serve as Parish Councillors for Albourne.

Geoff Zeidler has been elected to serve as the Mid Sussex Ward Councillor for the new Ward of Downland Villages (of which Albourne Parish is a part).

LEVELLING UP AND REGENERATION BILL

The Parish Council has responded to the consultation on the Government's Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill and proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework. Please see the responses HERE and HERE 

MSDC DISTRICT PLAN REVIEW 

With particular thanks to Councillor Geoff Zeidler, please see HERE the Parish Council's response to the Regulation 18 consultation. Please also see HERE for a letter, which the Parish Council has sent to MSDC regarding the next steps.  

HOUSING DEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS IN AND AROUND ALBOURNE. Please now see the dedicated page under "Planning Proposals".

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ASIAN HORNETS -"While the Asian hornet poses no greater risk to human health than other wasps or hornets, we recognise the damage they can cause to honey bee colonies and other beneficial insects. "Please continue to look out for any Asian hornets and if you think you’ve spotted one, report your sighting through the Asian hornet app or online. "It is important to take care not to approach or disturb a nest. Asian hornets are not generally aggressive towards people but an exception to this is when they perceive a threat to their nest." Suspect sightings of Asian hornet should be reported:

·       via the ‘Asian Hornet Watch’ app via smartphone or by using online report form.

·       e-mail alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk. Please include a photograph if you can safely obtain one

Identification guides and more information are available and if you keep bees you should keep up to date with the latest situation on the gov.uk sightings page and on BeeBase. There have been two confirmed sightings of Asian hornet in the UK during 2021. There have been a total of 21 confirmed sightings of Asian hornets since 2016. This figure includes a total of 12 nests, all of them were destroyed.

VILLAGE HALL - In line with the decision recently taken by the Villlage Hall Management Committee, CCTV has now been installed around the Village Hall in an effort to monitor and control anti-social activity in the area. The Parish Council has prepared a policy document relating to the use of the CCTV, and this can be found on the Governance documents page.


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ALBOURNE TRAFFIC ISSUES 

Most people who are lucky to live in and around Albourne village see it as an idyllic place with its lovely rural setting yet close proximity to all the facilities required for day to day living. This is not to say, however, that there isn’t room for improvement. One area which causes problems for residents is the volume of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) traffic on the Henfield Road (B2116) which has increased in recent times. Concerns have been expressed about the physical presence and speed of these vehicles as well as the noise disturbance, vibration and pollution they cause. There are also safety concerns for the children who use the road on their way to and from the school as well as for other pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders. Abourne Parish Council is committed to doing what it can to improve the situation and, with this end in mind, set up a working group to tackle the problem. To date this group has carried out traffic surveys, challenged WSCC over planning decisions, set up speed indication devices (SIDs) and held a series of meetings with Olus one of the major users of HGVs at the Firsland and Winterpick industrial sites. These meetings have resulted in voluntary speed restrictions through the village and some rerouting of HGVs to and from the sites. Most recently the group has prepared an application to WSCC for reduced speed limits and improved road signage. The Parish Council is also considering village gateways, which together with other changes, could have a traffic  calming impact. Your views on these and any other measures that could be taken to reduce the impact of HGVs in particular, and speeding traffic generally, would be welcome as would details of any road incidents or near misses involving vehicles. Please email the Parish Clerk at albournepc@gmail.com

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Albourne 

Albourne, a small village with a population of about 600, is situated in the low Weald and Mid Sussex, just north of the South Downs. It is an area of outstanding natural beauty. The scattered village is rich in old and historical buildings. The old rectory and the original village school are in an idylic setting adjacent to Cutlers Brook, an alder-lined stream from which the village gets its name: 'Al' from alder and "bourne" - a small stream.

In the heart of the village is Woodbine Cottage, childhood home of James Starley, a pioneer maker and inventor of the differential gear used on early bicyles, whose success brought prosperity to the City of Coventry. For further information, please see the article HERE, which is reproduced with the kind permission of Sussex Living magazine. Both 'Gallops' and 'The Pound' are c17th century. The former, a timber-framed building, is perhaps the old building in the village, and the latter used to impound straying animals. Albourne Place, in Truslers Hill Lane, is a large mid-17th century former manor house where William Juxon, later Archbishop of Canterbury, lived following his imprisonment by Cromwell, reputedly for refusing to tell the secret of the last words of Charles 1 on the scaffold.

Website

This website has been designed and constructed to provide what the Parish Council hope will be a valuable resource, especially to find out more about what is happening within the Council and the wider Albourne community.  As the site develops we hope it will become the local access point for information about the Parish Council and principal Local Authority Services and further advice on these services.  Our 'Useful Links' page contains a number of links to websites that will be of interest to a wide range of residents.
 We plan that it will be a further resource for community development and support through:

  • involving local people more in what is happening in the village;
  • improving communication;
  • engaging everyone in local issues, through providing you with more information.

All within the parish we hope will share views and create positive change in what might be a fast changing world for us in the coming years.

To find more information within the site, use the navigation buttons on the left hand side of each page.

We also intend through the website to help us increase our links with the community.  If you would like to advertise your event on the site, please contact us.

Parish Statistics

Population estimated 2012: 600
(information gathered from Mid Sussex District Council)