The sea is emotion incarnate
It has been a momentous week for which we are still humbled and grateful. You gave us four of the 36 seats on CDC and thirteen of the 14 seats on STC, electing all our candidates, and giving us an even bigger landslide than in 2019. Again, we wish to thank the Admins who allow us to share our blog with you, particularly Luke, Emma and Meryn. We now have the second largest number of Parish/CDC Councillors across the District (nearly twice the Conservatives who have just one more seat than us on CDC.) There is an understandable tendency for local media to focus their reporting on the national parties, so we greatly appreciate being able to keep you informed through Facebook groups.
Donna was still too unwell to make the Count last Friday (but is recovering well so we spent Monday afternoon in Sandown.) Counts are very emotional; Val and Ali both cried when they were elected. I didn't leap into the air, as I did in 2019, but came close as our last set of results was announced. I had some welcome feedback from a Conservative who told me her mother lives in Selsey, and very much respects what we did to draw attention to our issues here. Also, from a Labour candidate, who said how much she enjoyed reading the blog. Several Liberal Democrats and Greens warmly congratulated us on our landslide and expressed their horror at the way we were treated during the campaign. Thankfully, the final parts of the Elections Act come into force soon, so for transparency, a name and address will be required on posts or profiles if a hostile position is taken against a registered group like ourselves.
So what happens now? You win with words, but govern by numbers: in 2019 the Conservatives only just held sway at CDC, but now the Liberal Democrats have a very large majority. We will fight for our corner and have no doubt that we will work constructively together. Here is the new CDC by party.
Wednesday is a very heavy day for Steve, Val, Donna and myself as we have the first meeting of the new CDC at 2pm, then, along with the rest of the team, the first meeting of the new STC at 7.30pm. As well as electing Committees at both meetings, CDC will also elect Adrian Moss of the Liberal Democrats as its new Leader, and he will announce his Cabinet.
We will be able to tell you more about what our contribution to the bigger picture is next week, once everything has been decided; however we will be leading the official Opposition as we have reached agreement to form the Green & Local Alliance Group which will give us early and more insight into what is going on plus extra input.
This week Steve, Val, Donna and I had post-election 1:1s at CDC. Steve and Val have been looking closely at the training days for new Members which Val is very excited about. Steve was up early today for the first training day to prep up Den’s before he went, then raced back quickly to help open up. Ali is beginning to reach out to small groups so we can help them more and Mick, Ian and Andrew have continued their quiet volunteering, for instance they stopped campaigning to put up flags for the coronation.
If you have not heard, you can take part in Tea for Trussell this June. Sign up to host, invite your guests, bake or buy and make a brew and have a great time to raise money to help them end the need for food banks in the UK.
Scientists may have found a "cure" for hearing loss.
There are warning signs for young people about bowel cancer.
Don't forget the benefits of walking.
Selsey Open Gardens is getting near.
Donna is trying to pull everyone's personal memories of Sir Patrick Moore together. It seems like a lot of people met with him and have personal anecdotes about him, which give a fascinating insight into his personality and character. She has set up a specific email address: SirPatrickmemories@gmx.co.uk
As part of this order, it is an offence in public locations — such as footpaths and verges, parks, playgrounds and the foreshore — to fail to remove dog mess immediately; to not put and keep a dog on a lead when instructed to do so by an authorised officer; and to allow a dog to enter an area from which dogs are excluded.
A breach of the order can result in offenders being issued an on-the-spot Fixed Penalty Notice of £100. The proposal is to extend the current rules for a further three years from October 2023 until October 2026, with no changes. The consultation ends at 5pm on 7 June.
Ofsted Inspectors have praised West Sussex County Council’s Children’s Services for its ‘relentless approach to improving practice,’ giving the service an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’, with two ‘good’ judgements and two that ‘require improvement to be good’. You may recall that this rating is up from the last full inspection of Children’s Services back in 2019, when all areas were rated as inadequate.
Earlier today, Martin Lewis tweeted “Water companies - we privatised but didn't introduce competition - so you can't switch. Meaning there's no competitive pressures so we must fully rely on regulatory not market influence. It could be argued that's the worst of both worlds.” He is of course absolutely correct, which is even more worrying when you consider our local situation with sewage pumping into the Harbour and this report that England could face severe water stress from climate change in future
Finally: -
As always, from the whole Team, stay safe.
Tim
Comments
Post a Comment