As 2026 arrives, we asked various members of our community what their hopes are for the new year:
Mark Pearson, Chief Executive, The Conservators of Ashdown Forest
A century on from the first publication of one of the world’s most famous children’s books, 2026 presents a significant milestone for the landscape that inspired the Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
For the Forest, we see this as an opportunity to celebrate the past hundred years and critically, to look forward, ensuring that the Forest is safeguarded for a hundred more.
In support of this, we will be talking a lot this year about the future of the Forest. We would very much like the community to be involved in this and look forward to sharing more on our plans for this soon.
As a large, protected site within a broader landscape, it is essential to ensure that the Forest adapts to climate change and to safeguard important species and habitats. The Forest represents just under 3% of the world’s resource of lowland heathland – a habitat that is rarer than rainforest.
And so, there is a bigger picture at play. Ashdown Forest provides vital refuges for wildlife, but on its own, it becomes an ecological island. The Forest and an increasing number of landowners are creating a landscape where wildlife habitats are bigger, better managed, and more joined up.
By restoring the Forest and making our wildlife habitats more resilient, we can also connect them with the wider landscape, so that the species living within them can move through the landscape more easily and continue to survive and thrive long into the future. Fundamentally, this involves reconnecting local communities with their wild areas and supporting the local economy where we can, so that everyone can benefit.
The second aspect is to upgrade a range of visitor facilities. Following on from improvements at the Forest Centre in 2025 including a café with a new panoramic window and deck area, additional work will focus on continued car park improvements, refreshed and enhanced visitor information, trails, and leaflets, and more – all to ensure those who visit really enjoy their visit.
One of our critical hopes is that we continue to attract volunteers who give their time to manage the Forest. If you would like to learn new skills, join a social and enthusiastic group that makes a difference to the wildlife of the Forest, please do speak to us.
Susanna Way, Green Transition Crowborough
Green Transition Crowborough has now entered its fifth year of operating and has grown beyond our original expectations. However, of course we would love to increase our presence in Crowborough in 2026. As a Transition Town, we are part of a world wide movement that recognises that we are at our most powerful when we bring communities together to help, in small ways, to tackle the Climate crisis.
Crowborough has seen good progress with businesses and homes increasingly replacing carbon-based energy systems with solar panels, heat pumps and electric vehicles. We would hope to see this progress continue, in the coming year, with more of our local businesses, schools and homes making the change.
Artytime Scrapstore’s biggest hope is that their new extension will be under construction. This will mean that they will be able to save more items from landfill whilst inspiring all ages to get involved in arts and crafts. This will also mean that the Crowborough youth club run by ESCC youth services will be able to be restarted.
Our Wildlife team’s wish for 2026 is to see nature recovery gain real traction throughout the town, with landowners with sites included within the East Sussex Local Nature Recovery Strategy making genuine efforts to employ land management changes that are sympathetic to wildlife and the priority habitats identified.
Meanwhile our Community Orchard leaders would like our national and local leaders to start taking the climate emergency seriously and to start legislating to mitigate the disastrous changes that are coming down the track. And, of course, they hope for another good harvest at Crowborough Community Orchard.
We also look forward to seeing the Community Hub becoming a reality, providing a new permanent home for our Community Pantry.
These are just a few of our aspirations for 2026, but perhaps it gives you a taste of our hopes for the future. Would you like to join us in delivering them? https://greentransitioncrowborough.org.uk/
Kay Moss, Friends of Crowborough Hospital
One of the main hopes for 2026 is for the Crowborough Birthing Unit to be up and running again and with a secure future. The Friends have been researching different models of birthing units across the country and believe we have found a model that could be replicated in Crowborough. We are in talks with various groups to see if this is a way forward.
Crowborough Hospital is in a fairly unique position in that services are provided by both Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust and Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. These trusts are funded by the Kent Integrated Care Board and the Sussex Integrated Care Board. We are hoping to work with all these organisations to ensure services at the hospital are protected and new services provided to make Crowborough a “Neighbourhood Hub” for health fit for the growing population of our town.
We will continue our fundraising efforts through the shop (manned by volunteers) and our annual fete on August bank Holiday Monday. Let’s hope the weather will again be kind to us.
We are a small body of trustees and are looking for people who are interested in our hospital and its services who would be interested in joining the board of trustees. Please email chair@foch.org.uk for further information.
Rev Steve Rees, Vicar of All Saints Church
A new year always brings a great sense of a new start — fresh energy, fresh resolve. We think, a little less chocolate and a little more veg, fewer hours in front of the TV and a few more out walking. For me, one of the great joys of January is simply watching the light return. Each day grows a little longer and brighter. The first green shoots push through the soil. After months of retreating daylight, this turning of the season never fails to lift my heart.
These rhythms of winter and spring, darkness and light, decay and renewal, remind me of the story at the centre of the Christian faith. The planet’s cycle of dying back and rising again mirrors, in its own way, what I believe is the greatest story ever told: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His life literally split history in two — BC and AD. His light broke into human darkness. His death for us was cruel and undeserved. And his resurrection still proclaims a hope that refuses to fade.
As a local vicar, this message continues to put fire in my belly every year. It steadies me through joy and sorrow, through celebration and loss alike. I see its power not only in my own life, but in the lives of many here in Crowborough. Time and again, I’ve watched people find courage in hardship, comfort in grief, and new beginnings they never imagined possible — all rooted in the hope the resurrection offers.
I don’t know what 2026 will bring for my family or our town. But I step into this year hopeful, trusting in the God who can bring light to every season.
Cllr James Partridge, Leader of Wealden District Council
As Leader of Wealden District Council, my heartfelt wish for 2026 is that the government leaves us alone so that we can focus on our core business of delivering good, value for money, services and investing for the future. We seem to spend more time responding to poorly thought-out government initiatives – and the inevitable U-turns – than we do to getting local things done.
This probably won’t happen and so it is good to note that we have got several things done and more are on their way.
Our new Farningham Road business units in will be operational in January, when the first tenant will move in.
We are working with Beacon Academy to build a 3G pitch on their site, to be available for public use, and we are supporting Artytime to expand their offering in Crowborough.
We are working on a new long term leisure contract to ensure long term investment in Goldsmiths and investigating the feasibility of installing solar car ports in our car parks in Crowborough.
We have launched the £2m Community Led Infrastructure Fund (CLIF) to help local groups invest in community assets. Two applications from Crowborough are being progressed.
We have allocated £10,000 to each councillor for them to make small grants to new projects or initiatives set up by not-for-profit organizations in their ward.
District wide projects which will benefit Crowborough include: the launch of Wilder Wealden, investing over £1m in rewilding the District, working with volunteers and Sussex Wildlife Trus; a new Climate Strategy and Action Plan, helping to meet our net zero ambitions; progressing the construction of a new waste depot, future proofing our waste collection service for years to come.
This shows our determination to get things done in2026 and so improve everyone’s quality of life.
Nusrat Ghani MP, MP for Sussex Weald
Happy New Year! I hope that you had the chance to relax and reflect over the festive period, and that you are ready to embrace 2026.
Since last October, Crowborough has been the centre of all local focus. Firstly, with the announcement of a temporary closure of our best-in-class Birthing Unit, before the news of the Home Office’s plans to house asylum seekers at Crowborough Training Camp broke.
I continue working with the Friends of Crowborough Hospital in collecting data and making representations to the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, who are due to make a decision in January. We will fight the Trust until the end and do everything we can to ensure that local mums are given the choice to access midwifery-led care in Crowborough.
Regarding Crowborough Training Camp, I made my objections to the use of the site clear to the Home Office and Wealden District Council on the day the news broke, and I have since held many meetings with ministers and officials at the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence to try and delay or prevent the site from being used. I recognise that this campaign will dominate our news for months to come and I continue to do everything I can in my power as your MP to hold the Home Office and the Council to account.
Despite these major challenges, we must not forget about the good news that 2025 brought for our communities. To name just a few, a new multi-purpose Community Hub is underway at the railway station; the unique charity Family2Family was recognised by the King’s Award for Volunteer Services; and having already secured over £3m, I continue working with Beacon Academy on delivering more funding for the school.
The winter months can be especially difficult, and many residents feel isolated, lonely and vulnerable. I am incredibly grateful for the network of Crowborough churches and charities that work tirelessly to prevent people from feeling anxious. I want people to feel supported, secure, and feel that their families can thrive in Crowborough. Having joined both the Crowborough Business Expo and the BasePoint Business Faire, I continue to work with the Crowborough Chamber of Commerce to ensure our local businesses, High Street, and job market is thriving.
Please be assured that I always stand ready to provide assistance to local residents, and I will continue campaigning hard for Crowborough in 2026. My surgeries take place weekly, so if you need my assistance, please email me at nusrat.ghani.mp@parliament.uk, or visit my website www.nusghani.org.uk for more information.