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  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  Last weekend Donna and I were in Poole, and walked through Lifeboat Quay next to the national headquarters of the RNLI. We saw several boats, their training college and their Lifeboat Centre which was unfortunately closed. You may not realise that the HQ was founded on 4th March, 1824, to save lives at sea and that, as the heart of the charity, Poole has a deep history and featured  in wartime rescues like Dunkirk  On Monday Donna had a Chichester Harbour Conservancy meeting at County Hall because she is one of the West Sussex appointed representatives and I had some errands to run relating to my charitable involvements. Wednesday was a busy day because Donna had Chichester District Council’s Grants and Concessions Panel on Wednesday morning while Val, Mick, Ian and Andrew had Selsey Town Council's Planning Committee in the evening after we all had a short Extraordinary Full STC to confirm a Person...

  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  Last week we mentioned the government’s new national pothole map so this week it seemed appropriate to share something that might interest pedestrians. Have you ever thought streetlights should give out a different colour light to white? The idea had never occurred to me until I read about red street lighting in Denmark and the very laudable reason for it: -  https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/01/denmark-red-streetlights-urban-lighting-revolution/   On Monday morning, Donna successfully debated the merits, or otherwise, of development with the Leader of Chichester District Council, Adrian Moss, at The Academy in Selsey to Year 7, while I caught up with staff in Selsey Town Hall. In the afternoon I had CDC’s Corporate Governance and Audit Committee which included a significant focus on internal and external auditing and associated practices. On Tuesday Val, Donna and I had Full CDC. Amongst other things...

  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  This is our first blog of 2026 so Happy New Year to you all. We ended last year sharing the news that having built up Selsey Town Council's reserves so we have something to draw upon now, when things like Selsey’s Christmas lights and play equipment need replacing, we hope residents will be pleased with what we have agreed in terms of STC’s part of April’s council tax increase. The exact percentage won’t be clear until Chichester District Council finalises things in March once they know how much more West Sussex County Council and the police are seeking, but we believe the size of the increase will compare very favourably with them and other councils. We’d like to remind you, as you may still be discarding the odd thing after Christmas, that batteries and small electrical items, such as mobile phones, vapes, and hairdryers should not be thrown away in your household waste or recycling bins, as they often con...

  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  Over the festive fortnight: -  Chichester District Council’s emergency number is 01243 785339 West Sussex County Council’s emergency number is 01243 777100.  As we pointed out last week, in the UK we create an extra 3 million tonnes of waste and recycling during the festive season, from wrapping paper and cards to food and packaging:  Write a list of meaningful gifts before you shop. Think about the gifts you give – give experiences, shop second hand or opt for secret Santa. Recycle everything you can - Christmas cards, wrapping paper (that passes the scrunch test), paper bags, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles (plastic milk bottle lids are collected by Selsey Town Council to donate to a charity ), plastic pots, tubs (including sweet/chocolate tubs), trays (including black plastic), toothpaste tubes, tins, cans, foil, and even Pringles tubes. Food waste increases significantly over the ...