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Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. Thank you too, if you took part in Selsey’s VE80 event yesterday, Thursday May 8, and said hello to any one of us: I particularly want to thank Maria from Asda who was working until 11pm and was sad she would miss it but wanted me to pass on her good wishes. Hopefully she saw the TV or V2 Radio coverage . We were touched by all your appreciation of the work Selsey Town Council put into organising the event, particularly the two senior Officers we thanked last week, Jenny Ririe the Deputy Clerk and Zoe Neal, the Development, Engagement and Communications Manager. I caught up with Zoe on Tuesday for a final technical run through. Zoe wrote a series of articles that appeared in the press to recognise the day: -. https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/community/ve-day-80-honouring-the-heroes-of-rnli-selsey-lifeboat-5081548?fbclid=IwY2xjawJp65lleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHrvnR-Z-NSMvTAXpxgzYP-XANfIs4rGtKAXfu0uMA_VjDuJWjr_E-KEFLxQQ_aem_aTKX...

Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. Our thoughts continue to be with exam students whose written GCSE and A Level exams start very soon: my Year 11 Computer Science students sit their first paper on May 12th. I mentioned last week that Donna went to the daytime opening of the Coastal Partners exhibitions about sea defences in Selsey and I to the later one the next day. We also checked how well attended the last day was. Coastal Partners was really pleased to see how many residents attended the exhibition and the ideas and opinions shared. Donna had a Governance meeting at West Sussex County Council on Monday. On Tuesday I had an update on the Unitary authority options from the CEO of Chichester District Council, Diane Shepherd. The final choice will have a transition ‘shadow’ year from when it is elected in 2027 before fully taking over from CDC and West Sussex County Council in 2028. Although maintaining local accountability is important, ensuring it is ...

Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. We start by wishing exam students all the best. You may not realise that things like Art practicals have already begun, and written GCSE and A Level exams start very soon: my Year 11 Computer Science students sit their first paper on May 12th. We did not blog last week because of Easter. The main meeting in the week before Easter was Full Selsey Town Council but Donna and I had other meetings that week too. In fact we spent half my school holiday on casework and being in meetings. One of the other things that occupied us was the plight of the fish in East Beach pond on Selsey. It is a key part of Selsey's flood defences and only gained fish when unknown people added them. The run of dry weather caused problems with the water level and some fish died. There was news on Tuesday afternoon as Donna posted: -  “ Hi all, I have been in communication with CDC and they visited the pond late this morning. The consequence is ...

Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. On Sunday, Gareth presented the Local Alliance trophy at this month's Selsey Scooter Club meeting, while on Tuesday Val, Donna and I had Full Chichester District Council which included a successful motion I put forward, seconded by Donna, asking the Leader to write to: - The Local Government Association to ask them to make urgent representations to central government to fully fund a fairly negotiated NJC pay award that helps local government staff catch up from previous years of low settlements and ask our MPs to lend their support. The Chancellor and Secretary of State to call for a pay increase for local government workers to be fully funded with new money from central government.  I pointed out that much of the work is white collar in nature, so the low pay settlements since 2010 have disproportionately affected women. As the UK tax burden is over 36% an increase would not be as costly as it might seem and most o...