March 29, 2024

 

Happy Easter and welcome once again to this week's blog. As always, thank you for sparing the time to have a read. Whatever your view of them, on a human level our thoughts have been the Royal Family this week since we learnt that the Princess of Wales is their second prominent member to be battling cancer. Both my parents had different forms of cancer: my mother passed away in the summer of 2013 while my father was immunosuppressed because of his chemotherapy when he caught Covid last year, and passed away from pneumonia.

We are a week nearer the election for the vacancy in Selsey North for Selsey Town Council, caused by Patrick’s unexpected passing. It is taking place on May 2, the same day as the Police and Crime Commissioner. We will be announcing our candidate this week, and whom, we hope, electors in Selsey North will judge to be the right choice to succeed Patrick. We are going to run a more sombre campaign out of respect to Patrick focusing this week on submitting nomination papers and preparing campaign materials.

There was CDC’s Planning on Wednesday (and STC’s too!) There have also been several CDC meetings including the Business Routeing Panel which Donna and I are both on in our capacities as Leader of the Opposition and Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The new policy for the use of CDC car parks comes before their Cabinet on April 16th. (You can watch all public CDC meetings here and WSCC here.) We told you last week about the petition from the Manhood Classics being debated by Full CDC. The present situation arose from CDC not knowing the Classics were using East Beach car park in Selsey for publicly advertised meetings at which they showed off their cars. We have been working to resolve this since December and succeeded in getting the affected parishes, which include Selsey Town Council, consulted by Officers as they drafted a new policy. This coming week the draft policy is on the agenda for my regular catch-up with Senior Officers at CDC.Whilst we cannot disclose any of its contents at this point, we are pleased to see in places we have been listened to.

Recycling Centres have switched to extended spring/summer opening hours until the end of September. You need to make an appointment before visiting but can book a slot up to 14 days in advance or on the same day where available. Chichester will open 9am to 6pm every day.

With the Easter holidays here, it seems appropriate to tell you again about an egg-citing new exhibition roaring into The Novium this summer: Dinosaurs: Hungry Hatchlings showcases how even the largest dinosaurs started life as eggs and tiny hatchlings. Visitors can discover the secrets of dinosaur eggs and babies with amazing dinosaur specimens from around the world. The exhibition will follow iconic dinosaurs such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, and Diplodocus on their perilous journey from egg to adult using skeletons, authentic models, and stunning artworks.

The Novium has also been upgrading its lighting to help reduce its carbon footprint thanks to a £4,000 grant from South East Museum Development. In 2022, the museum was audited to look at possible carbon reduction methods, with LED light installation identified as the most beneficial, impactful and feasible. The ‘Going Green’ grant has allowed over a third of the museum’s lighting to be upgraded, focusing on areas where lights are used most frequently and in closest proximity to museum collections, which will significantly reduce the museum’s energy consumption and help to safeguard the collection. South East Museums Going Green Grant offers up to £4,000 to help museums introduce, improve, or promote environmentally sustainable initiatives. The scheme supports the Environmental Responsibility investment principle in Arts Council England’s Let’s Create strategy for the cultural sector.

Work to refurbish public conveniences across our District has begun. Specialist contractor Mountjoy is carrying out the work for CDC and has started at the site in Chichester’s Priory Park and also at Bosham. Once this work is completed, they will move on to East Beach in Selsey and Market Road in Chichester. It is anticipated that the project will be completed by the end of the summer. All the sites will have new disabled facilities that meet modern legislation, while other work will include providing new flooring, tiling, and sanitary ware. Some of the sites will also be suitable for solar panels. LED lights, which are much more efficient and better for the environment, will also be installed. STC's public conveniences in Warners Yard will soon also be operating again.

We often mention the impact on local people of the cost of living crisis. New research has shown that in January we kept our homes colder than anyone else across Europe. Too often economic choices are forced upon people as they struggle to cope - this distressing article highlights credit card debt. If you, or someone you know, is struggling, we keep some useful links at the end of this blog each week, including CDC’s Supporting You, so please take a look and / or share them.

Many more residents can now benefit from warmer homes that are cheaper to run, following a change to the eligibility criteria of the Home Upgrade grant scheme. The maximum income threshold has been increased to £36,000 a year, expanding the eligible pool of households who can access free energy saving upgrades by nearly 20%. If the household income is under this amount and the home does not use a gas boiler as the main heating system, residents can apply to receive free insulation, air source heat pumps, solar panels, and more. The scheme is open until November with applications processed on a first come-first served basis. This grant scheme is available thanks to funding from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero following a successful bid by a group of 23 local authorities, which included CDC. The funding is accessible through the Warmer Homes Programme, which is currently open to applications, and is linked at the end of our blog each week.

Another area we sometimes include is health. This article caught my eye because soup is something we have on cold winter evenings, particularly Sundays as they precede the start of the working week: it reveals the soup eaten by the longest living people in the world. You might be relieved to learn we live nowhere near the hottest city in the world, which can become so unbearable at least one street has air conditioning.

A partnership between Metrobus (Go Ahead), WSCC, Surrey County Council, Kent County Council and London Gatwick has won a bid for funding to launch a new fleet of 43 hydrogen powered buses The Department for Transport has awarded them over £10 million, which combined with £11.6 million from Metrobus (Go Ahead) and almost £3 million from the other partners brings the total for the project to over £24 million. The buses will operate across a wide area of Sussex, Surrey and Kent to connect rural areas with local towns and London Gatwick. Destinations will include Burgess Hill, Crawley, East Grinstead, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Worthing, Brighton, Caterham, Dorking, Redhill and Tunbridge Wells.  

WSCC is calling for people to share their experiences and observations of nature and wildlife in Sussex as part of a new, nation-wide initiative to address declining habitats and species. Residents will be asked what aspects of nature and wildlife are important to them and what changes they have noticed locally which will help inform the Local Nature Recovery Strategies being developed for Sussex. Sussex is fortunate to be home to many iconic and wondrous wildlife species, and some of the rarest natural habitats in the world. But nature is in trouble with one in six UK species at risk of extinction. Urgent, locally coordinated efforts are needed to reverse this decline. Local Nature Recovery Strategies are a new initiative being rolled out across England to address the problem. Two strategies are being developed by the county councils, one covering West Sussex and another for East Sussex and Brighton & Hove. The easiest way to get involved is to complete the residents' survey.  This asks questions about how and where people connect with nature, the habitats or species they value, any changes they've noticed, and any wider benefits they'd like to see in their local area. The survey takes about 5 to 10 minutes to complete and will close on 30 June 2024.

If you want to do more yourself, you can sign up to CDC’s ‘adopt an area’ scheme. This invites community groups and businesses to ‘adopt an area’ and take pride in their patch. Whether you are a resident, community group, school or business, you can take part in our scheme. The area you adopt can be as small as the pavement outside your home, a favourite footpath, play area, village or shop frontage – all CDC ask is that you help to keep that space litter free. You just decide on the area you wish to adopt and then sign up at: www.chichester.gov.uk/adoptanarea. CDC will then send you their ‘Adopt an Area’ pack to help you plan your activities and how they can help you. For example, they can loan you a litter picking kit and arrange for your litter bags to be removed. CDC also has a Green Dog Walkers scheme, which is a national community-led programme to help reduce dog fouling and encourage responsible dog ownership – www.chichester.gov.uk/greendogwalkers. This offers a proven, non-confrontational and friendly way to change attitudes about dog fouling and encourages responsible dog ownership. Most importantly, the scheme acts as a reminder to others that they need to pick up after their dog has fouled and keep them under control.

Finally: - 

• 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