Sompting Community in the Countryside (SCIC)
Sompting Parish Council (SPC) and Sompting Estate (SE) began working together from 2013, aiming to help more Sompting residents get to know, enjoy and enhance the Parish’s countryside.
The first project they decided to work on was the Beggars Bush flowermeadow and picnic area up on the Sompting downs, to which Sompting Big Local have contributed and the National Park Authority has become a ,main partner in the site's restoration. Some joint work has been begun on that, but the main Parish Council led project to date has been closer to home, on Malthouse Meadows.
Activities under the SCIC initiative have included walks-and-talks, conservation actions, wildlife courses, green spaces management. The walks-and-talks have generally been organized by the Parish Council's conservation officer, Leighton Clay, and led in tandem with Mike or Alex Tristram from Sompting Estate, with the Sustainable Sussex team also regularly helping.
These jointly organized activities continue alongside each organization's own environmental work.. The Parish Council and Estate work in partnership with other organizations which are interested and engaged in the wellbeing of Sompting’s community and countryside, also having their own projects in the area.
The SCIC Round Table
In 2020, Sompting Parish Council and Sompting Estate decided to invite their partner organizations to join them in a six-monthly Round Table meeting under the Sompting Community in the Countryside umbrella.
The aim of the SCIC Round Table group is:
To mutually inform one another’s action programs in Sompting’s countryside
To mutually support action programs in Sompting’s countryside which increase the community’s health wellbeing and education, including by experience and enhancement of the parish’s natural and heritage resources.
Activity is by group meetings, and other communications between members, as needed.
The Round Table organizations at present are:
SCIC Round Table member organizations Attendee / Contact Where in Sompting / Projects Sompting Parish Council Cathy Glynn-Davies, Caroline Baxter Malthouse Meadows, Beggars Bush Friends of Malthouse Meadows Steve Willeter, Christy Toms Sompting Estate Mike Tristram, Alex Tristram, Ruth Kenward Multi-site Sustainable Sussex Keith Colin, Liane Webb Marepond Lane, Test Road
Community Farm & OrchardSustainable Mind Liane Webb Sustainable Sussex sites, elsewhere EPIC Project - Ouse & Adur Rivers Trust Pete King, Linda Kerrison Mainly on Church Farm Sompting Sompting Big Local Emma Crowter, Pat Locke Multi-site South Downs National Park Rangers Craig Daters National Park ie rural north of A27 Adur District Council Craig Ifield Malthouse Meadows, others Worthing Archaeological Society Connie Shirley Malthouse Field, Church Farm (EPIC) Breathing Spaces Claire Hunt, Lisa Leach Dankton Barnyard/Farm Flowers Community Works Jess Allerton Advisory/support Notes of Round Table meetings
The next meeting is planned for September 2021.