Sussex Snippets

Charity & Community news from across the counties

Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) needs your support! Having just announced that 2022 was the busiest year in its 33-year history – the life-saving charity responded to 3,224 incidents last year, with 947 call outs in SussexKSS is urgently seeking to recruit more volunteers in order to help with events and activities in the coming year. Visit: www.aakss.org.uk

The Sussex Showcase is a week-long series of collaboration dinners in some of the most exciting restaurants in the counties and features the best chefs from Sussex and around the world. Each ticket includes a donation to organising charity Table Talk Foundation, raising funds to provide food education to children in Sussex and support the hospitality industry. There is also an online charity auction linked to the event. Details and bookings at: www.tabletalk-foundation.com. You can now access digital copies of the Sussex poll books and electoral registers for free at The Keep, following their launch on the Ancestry website. The registers include more than eight million East Sussex records from 1705-1963. The Keep, in Brighton, is open to anyone who has an interest in family or building history, academic study or a particular historic topic. More details at www.thekeep.info.

The Worthing Twinning Association (WTA) would like to invite residents outside their area who are interested in learning more about French and German culture but which do not have their own twinning group. WTA has links to towns in both France and Germany and hold visits, talks and other activities. There is a visit to Elztal in Germany (pictured) planned for July. More details from Pam Bennett 01903 232196 or send an email to: pambennett8@btinternet.com

Explore a different side to the Lewes district, delving into history, folklore and landscape with Walk This Way - a programme of walks led by local experts in March. Walks will be charged at £5 and free for under 12s, with limited spaces. Details and bookings at www.visitlewes.co.uk.

The recent extreme weather has caused delays in the completion of the A259 improvements scheme in Angmering and Littlehampton. The scheme, is now estimated to finish in April rather than early this year as previously estimated.

March is Wellbeing

Month in West Sussex

Libraries when everyone can celebrate the many ways that libraries support wellbeing, You can borrow a title from their Unwind, Recharge and Relax book displays, or maybe join the Reading Challenge and read a book from March’s theme of “A book that celebrates the great outdoors.” Libraries also have Reading Well booklists on mental health for adults, young people and children, long-term conditions and dementia. All the books on these lists are available from libraries and are free to reserve and borrow. They can also come to you if you are unable to visit.

If you're a young adult, wanting to make a genuine difference, The Wildlife For All Trust is a registered charity looking to expand its team of volunteers. Amongst other projects, they have beautiful nature reserves in West Sussex and in South Africa (pictured). No previous conservation experience is required as they provide all necessary training. Interviews are on 20th March. www.wildlifeforall.org for details.

West Sussex County Council, working with South Gloucestershire Council and partners, has been given the green light to move forward with a new three year joint project ‘Greenprint’, which aims to explore how plant material mowed from our roadsides can be used for bio fuels and road materials.

During this year’s National Bat Monitoring Programme in January, members of Sussex Bat Group (SBG) were astonished to find a second greater mouse -eared bat hibernating in disused railway tunnels. This is in addition to the single existing known male, who has been hibernating in the area for the past 20 years and known as “Britain’s rarest mammal”. SBG is now working to restore the “Greater Horseshoe Bat”, (pictured) which was identified in a stable block in West Sussex in 2019. The Group is now trying to raise funds to purchase and restore the building. www.sussexbatgroup.org.uk