First Virtual CDC

Yesterday, Donna and I had our first virtual Full District Council Meeting. Our worries that the ruling Conservative group would use the fact that they won a by election to ensure the Committee appointments were what they proposed sadly proved to be correct. The two Committees which exercise a scrutiny function have been changed in their favour: -

• Corporate Governance & Audit, 8 Members, now has a Conservative Chair exercising the casting vote;

• Overview & Scrutiny, 11 Members, now has a sixth Conservative to give them a majority, but that left two seats between the three smallest parties. With three years of this Council left, I have stepped aside for a year first. Last year, all Parties were represented.

You can read about it in more detail in the Chichester Observer here.

As Council was beginning, we had an email about the Car Parks we had managed to keep closed for now - sadly they are being reopened tomorrow. We had suggested a meeting between ourselves, Selsey's other two District Councillors and Officers because of the differing opinions. Unfortunately, because of the "stand-off" it was referred, by Officers, to the Cabinet member with responsibility in this area, who agreed with his colleagues despite the overwhelming response we have had from you all in support of our objection to doing this.

Next week, Donna has the resumption of the Development Planning and Infrastructure Panel which is still considering options for the next Local Plan, whilst I have a busy school week (even though it's technically Half Term) in terms of logging into an online portal for one student at a time to enter final grades for three of the courses I lead.

Stay Safe

Tim