December 8, 2023

This week I said goodbye, regrettably, to a faithful friend: my Honda Civic, which unfortunately was found to have several rubber joints perished causing other wear so, although it could be repaired, we felt at 325,000 miles it was time to replace it. I now have a much younger Civic which we hope will serve us as faithfully.

As well as car-hunting this week, we helped the Selsey Music Group stage their cabaret night, and, as the end of term approaches, I have been busy at school while Donna has had several meetings, and Steve represented us at CDC’s Cabinet (watch meetings live here) There will soon be more you can watch because panel meetings will shortly be made public. Last June, CDC’s Cabinet approved measures to hold as many panels as possible in public; only meetings which discuss confidential information that cannot be legally shared with the public will be held in private, with the decision normally being made by the Chair of each panel. Panels to be held in public are the Boundary Review; Chichester District Parking Forum; Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel, Economic Development Panel, Environment Panel, and the Housing, Communities, Culture and Sport Panel. Meetings will take place in person apart from the Boundary Review panel, which will usually be held online. Where panel meetings do take place in person, the public will be able to come and watch any items which are not listed as containing exempt information. Donna therefore has the last Development Planning and Infrastructure Panel on Wednesday before streaming begins.

CDC celebrated Carbon Literacy Action Day on Monday by announcing that it has now trained nearly all of its managers, and delivered dedicated sessions for councillors, since introducing their ‘Carbon Literacy’ initiative earlier this year. This climate education training programme has led to staff pledging changes to their everyday activities both at work and at home, which could amount to a reduction of around 12 tonnes of carbon — the equivalent of two return flights to Australia.

Training decision makers about climate change is just one of over 60 actions outlined in CDC’s Climate Emergency Action Plan, with the aim of further embedding climate action into the heart of the organisation. The comprehensive training programme, which is designed by the Carbon Literacy Project and is delivered by CDC’s Environmental Strategy team, gives officers and members the tools to further integrate climate considerations into the council’s day-to-day work. The council is also supporting the University of Chichester with their carbon journey by delivering a course to its staff and students in the new year.

Hospitality, tourism and leisure businesses are being invited to a special event aimed at helping them reduce their carbon footprint, while also reducing costs. The Sustainable Growth Summit – All The Ingredients For Sustainable Success is being held on Wednesday 24 January 2024 for businesses which supply this important part of the local economy. The free event has been organised by CDC”s Economic Development Team in association with The Great Sussex Way and South Downs National Park Authority. It will run from 10.30am until 2pm at the Memorial Hall in the South Downs Centre, Midhurst. Businesses will have the opportunity to network with local suppliers and hospitality business owners. Delegates will also hear from thought leaders and local business owners about how they have lowered their own costs while also reducing their carbon footprint.

CDC and WSCC are asking you to ‘Think Before You Throw’ particularly when waste and recycling collections change slightly over the festive period. CDC has teamed up with St Wilfrid’s Hospice again to offer a Christmas Tree Recycling scheme: Please also consider making a list first, shopping second-hand or making your own presents, and ditching disposables if you entertain and getting creative with leftovers. CDC is offering a free third hour if you buy two in all their car parks (except Avenue De Chartres and Westgate) at weekends when using the MiPermit app: Avenue de Chartres is free on Sundays. There is also the Chichester Christmas Cheer market on 9, 10, 16 and 17 December, the regular Chichester Farmers’ Markets on 1 and 15 December,  the city centre Wednesday markets, and the Saturday traders markets in the Cattle Market car park.

CDC has launched a new grant scheme to help people plant trees and hedgerows in priority areas across our District with the aim of improving connectivity between woodland habitats. Through this new targeted tree scheme, landowners can access funding to help plant trees, hedgerows, small-wooded areas (copses) and orchards in specific areas of the district where tree-planting interventions could help increase links between habitats and help our environment adapt to the changing climate. The new initiative is delivered through their ‘Tree Chichester District’ scheme, which has seen nearly 25,000 trees planted across our District through 175 individual projects since its launch in 2021. The scheme is funded by the government’s Shared Outcomes Fund and is part of the Trees Outside Woodland programme, which seeks to test new ways to boost tree numbers and tree health outside of woodland areas across the country.

Midhurst, as the BBC have reported, is hoping for a Christmas trading boom after this year’s devastating fire. If you fancy the trip, they would appreciate your custom. If you are happy to journey a little further, the Winchester Christmas Market is, of course, one of the best in the country - as you can read here.

You may also like to read this because language learning platform Babbel has collated a shortlist of the 120 most popular shop name puns which people can vote on - here's what Babbel say about their ‘pun-fight!’

You may remember a month or so ago we shared some information on how to turn empty wine bottles into winter bird feeders. In the present cold weather, some of you may be interested in some other ideas. Home and Garden have suggested three ideas for natural bird feeders you may, therefore, find interesting.

Returning to CDC’s Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, if you live on the Peninsula, you will be interested to learn that the Foreshores Service will be delivered differently in future. Rather than focusing mainly on Bracklesham, the service will be spread across all of our key beaches and involve inspections all year round, along the nine miles of coastline CDC is responsible for. Inspections aim to identify potential hazards on the foreshore. In the past, this has sometimes involved the use of boat patrols. Following a review of the service, it has been identified that these are no longer required. Due to this, other discretionary services such as the boat launch and recovery service; and the grading of shingle on the beach, can no longer be provided. The majority of these are provided by, or can be accessed through, other local locations or organisations. This includes the provision of slipways at Selsey and Chichester Harbour for launching boats. Other challenges faced by the service include equipment constraints and difficulty in recruiting and training casual staff to what is a very physical and complex role. These factors have led to the service being reviewed and redesigned to meet current needs.

Before we finish, an important message from Andrew you may have seen posted on Facebook about Selsey Council Tax payers increase from STC, which will also be of interest to anyone on the Peninsula: - 

“I have been contacted by numerous residents since last week's meeting and yesterday when one of my colleagues posted a note about the mobile tip…it seems that as a whole, from provisional figures released, fewer households will be paying council tax next year. When we calculate precepts we take the total amount of money required to function and divide that by how many homes will be contributing, so this means you'll be paying more. 

We cannot use/borrow from our reserves as we are using these to make repairs to the Selsey Centre and the toilets at the Co-Op car park. We are covering cuts made to certain services and grants by central government in order to keep things ticking along. We have had to adjust normal costs upwards to cope with inflation and the cost of living crisis. 

What this means is that we are thinking about services which are bespoke and the impact they have on the precept. You already pay in your council tax for refuse collection from CDC and the tip services at Westhampnett. Therefore having a mobile tip is a form of double taxation and not a statutory requirement. We had a public consultation three years ago where people requested we implement it - so we did.

Currently, the budget dictates that we can keep a precept rise to under inflation circa 6%. If we were to renew the tip licence, this additional cost would push the rise up to between 10-11%. In reality these rises are £5-6 a year roughly. STC has not made any decisions about the tip yet as we are awaiting feedback from our current consultation where we have asked you to rate your priorities. Thank you for your time.“

Finally: - 

• Free digital business tools training

• Report potholes to WSCC

• Housing Health & Safety

• Warmer Homes UK

• Suicide in Sussex

• Domestic Abuse

• Supporting You

• WSCC Meetings

• CDC Meetings

As always, from the whole Team, stay safe.

Tim