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October 13, 2026

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Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  Donna has been recovering this week from what we think was Covid. We did grab a night in Bournemouth a week last Sunday to help her convalesce. Wherever possible she has been doing meetings via Microsoft Tteams or Zoom. On Wednesday Val kindly took her to Chichester District Council’s Planning Committee which included applications from Chichester and East Lavington. On Friday Donna attended the Lord Lieutenant’s Annual Justice Service at Chichester Cathedral. This week we put out another Tim’s Travels . We filmed this at an interesting National Trust property near Bath, Dyrham Park. We did not go in the house itself because we wanted to get some steps in on our way to a hotel nearby we were given a night in for Christmas. You won’t be surprised to see the next Travels will be in Bath, which we will put out in a couple of weeks after the second 60 from Selsey next week: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bfwVJCQLJWB...
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October 6, 2026

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  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  You may have noticed that Donna was less active on social media last week. She was hit quite hard by something and had to cancel several things. Just Val was, therefore, at Chichester District Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee which looked at the terms of reference for the Annual Budget Scrutiny Group, considered who should be in the Corporate Plan Review Task and Finish Group and had a presentation from the Cabinet Member for Housing, Revenues and Benefits. Meanwhile, Ali, Ian, Andrew and I had Selsey Town Council's Finance and Administration Group which looked at the year to date financial position and some community grant applications. Donna was particularly saddened to miss supporting a very worthwhile charity, FABIS (Friends of Acquired Brain Injury Survivors) who help survivors and their families. I went and took her place as  a ‘Call My Bluffer’. Apparently I did quite well but I think I ...
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September 29, 2026

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  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  Last week saw several meetings and my school’s Open Evening. Donna’s highlight was a tour of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance base at Redhill Aerodrome. I must confess that it had not occurred to me that the Air Ambulance is a charity, probably because the vehicular ambulance service is part of the NHS. The Air Ambulance charity derives 91% of its income from donations and needs as good as £21 million pounds each year to keep going. Learn more about their work here: https://aakss.org.uk/   Donna got the train back to Chichester when she finished where I joined her, Steve and Val for the latest Full Chichester District Council. We agreed to delegate authority to purchase a property under the Local Authority Housing Fund for £280,000. We also considered reports on changes to the National Scheme of Delegation for planning applications and the Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025 ...
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September 22, 2026

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Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  This week Val suggested I write about ice cream because when we joined them for The Ged Party in Stratford-upon-Avon, the weekend before last, we found a vendor selling whipped Kelly’s Cornish. Val and Mick have known singer/songwriter Ged Roberts for 35 years, so Donna and I took the opportunity to attend ‘Ged's Party’. Donna caught several trains to join me after school and we came back quickly on Monday in time for meetings. We were last in Stratford, in 2024, when the national finals of the young trader were held.. Everywhere we went that day was rammed: we also went to Clarkson’s Farm and his pub. This time in Stratford, Donna and I went on a river cruise and visited the butterfly farm and Shakespeare’s grave. The whipped Kelly’s Cornish evoked childhood memories of family holidays on the Isle of Wight. My father recalled an ice cream vendor dispensing the same amount of whipped ice cream into every size of c...
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September 15, 2026

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  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  Over the Summer we did a fair bit of filming,  which will be shared with you soon. When civic invitations started rolling in (for Donna as Chair of West Sussex County Council and me as her Consort) I had the idea of Tim’s Travels . We have now filmed eighteen episodes, as well as several episodes of our new project. In the last week we have shared Episode 7, which is the iconic Needles on the Isle of Wight. Unsurprisingly, as it's so scenic, it was well received: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YVcHcdCHz9tfgguSX0iXBKct4AY0WpYH/view?usp=drivesdk The meetings, public and private, are in full swing. On Wednesday, Donna and Val had a long Chichester District Council Planning Committee Meeting which included applications from the City, Loxwood, North Mundham, Westhampnett and Woodmancote. In the evening we all had the scheduled monthly Full Selsey Town Council Meeting which included reviewing Council docume...
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September 8, 2026

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  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  The six weeks of Summer are becoming an increasingly distant memory now schools are back. We hope you enjoyed them, and have some lasting memories. We had some odd nights away, between civic and our other commitments. We began with Kensington in late July and were shocked at how parched Hyde Park was. We also stayed in Nottingham to revisit some of Donna's family roots. The other places we managed will feature in the remaining episodes of Tim’s Travels . If you missed it, this is Episode 6, Staunton: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LMLgDkx9ljPu4gm7j5mf43ANq55e7p-W/view?usp=drivesdk   Unfortunately, as you may have seen from Donna's posts, I contracted an Upper Respiratory Tract Infection which left me dehydrated and caused problems with my low blood pressure during a visit. I am grateful to St Wilfrid's Hospice and to A & E at St Richard's, who dealt with things in an exemplary way.  We'd als...
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August 3rd, 2026

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Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. I also want to thank a newer reader who kindly pondered, on Next Door, about the cost of thickening sea ice with seaweed after reading last week’s blog. Thanks also to the RNLl for the ever popular and warmly received Selsey Lifeboat Week.  You may have noticed we have not put out a sixth episode of Tim’s Travels this week.  We have an increasing number banked, including some Isle of Wight specials, ready to share in the Autumn. Ali is kindly being a second pair of eyes, and particularly enjoyed two of the forthcoming episodes because they brought back happy memories of places she enjoyed visiting. Like all parish councillors, Ali is a volunteer. We all give our time and other things in kind like our electricity to run computing devices to check and respond to emails, etc. Intriguingly, there may come a time when we are paid to use it: - https://theconversation.com/soon-there-will-be-so-much-electricity-you-mi...
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