Something to Savour

Please remember that you now need Photo ID to vote in person at your polling station. If you do not have an acceptable form of ID you can get a free Voter ID Certificate from CDC or register for a postal vote. 

On Monday, I have the last Corporate Governance and Audit Committee Meeting of this CDC. Tuesday was a busy day because Donna and I had a long, final Full CDC then we met with the Team to welcome our new members and decide what we are doing in May's elections. You may recall we delayed things because, pleasingly, more of you came forward to help ensure what we have achieved since 2019, is not undone. In particular, as the next CDC will during its term start work on the next Local Plan, we believe it is vital for the Peninsula that there continue to be Local Alliance Members to argue for no inappropriate development on the Peninsula.

Returning to Tuesday’s Full CDC, last weekend Donna and I viewed a track in Birdham which was the subject of a potential Compulsory Purchase Order to enable access to new affordable housing. We were concerned about the risk to schoolchildren as the access road is opposite a primary school.  I tried unsuccessfully to secure a delay so other options could be investigated further, consequently we abstained as while we support more affordable housing we were uncomfortable about the risk to Birdham’s school children. 

By now you will have had your 2023/24 Council Tax Bill. The team are pleased Selsey Town Council’s precept is roughly two thirds of CDC’s, half the Police and Crime Commissioner’s and significantly less than a tenth of WSCC’s. Without boring you with every Band’s breakdown, the range from Band A to Band H is STC £82.53 - £247,58, CDC £120.71 - £362.14, Police £159.94 - £479.82, WSCC £1088.94 - £3266.82.

Details on your Council Tax bill, wherever you live in our District, are here.

Earlier this week, Donna shared this article in The Health Service Journal because of concern that the government's promise, in the Social Care White Paper, to allocate £500M into social care as a long-term career choice, is being cut to £250K. In West Sussex, social care is struggling to keep up with demand; there are insufficient care staff, particularly those who visit people in their homes. The pay is low, and the work hard can be hard. It also looks like the proposed funds to make 'new supported housing options available', are going. Not only do our more vulnerable suffer, but others who may find a rewarding career within social care, will look elsewhere. If this happens, it's very disappointing.

Staying with money, Donna also mentioned STC’s most recent grant decisions, clarifying that STC “didn't give any grants this time round. I've now, personally, had 6 messages from residents about this, so should anyone else wish to know, this is what happened: we had very little left of the allocated grant money (£30) and not only did we have a few, unusually large applications (one was for £4000 from the Community Forum) but we had many more applications than usual. Because of this, we took the unanimous decision to defer a decision until the new financial year.  Council finance is complex; we aren't able just to move money around at will. (The suggestion was made that we take money from the Events budget.) More fundamentally, I'm not sure that everyone realises where this grant money comes from - the fact is, it comes from our council tax and the overall budget is tight. These grants were initially capped at £500, to help our smaller groups, with a £5000 overall yearly budget allocation. Any increase to this budget either means taking money from another service, or an increase in the council tax we all pay in order to cover the increased grant requests. I said that any significant increase to this budget should be for our residents to decide as it's not our money. Council life is full of hard decisions, and sadly, I'm yet to find the magical money tree." 

Easter is getting near and as usual Selsey's Full Up - nutritious meals 4 kids will be providing meals for many children during the school holidays. They are asking for donations of Easter Eggs so, if you are able, please pop them into The Bubble Bar in Selsey's High Street. Thank you.

UK Harvest also have spaces in their Easter Good Club. 

Some local news for you: -

• The most recent release we have had from the Police about this week's incident in Chichester. 

• Appropriately for someone blogging from Seal Island, a warning to keep you (and your dog) away from any seals that you come across on the beach

• Somewhere locally many of you use to source your organic veg was recently broken into. 

• If you like a tipple, Sussex single malt will be available soon.

• Open Table's top West Sussex restaurants.

Finally: - 

• CDC’s app

• Local Wellbeing

• Suicide in Sussex

• Help for businesses

• Help for households

• Warmer Homes help site

• CDC Meetings

• WSCC

As always, from the whole Team, stay safe.

Tim