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February 13, 2025

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Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  Last Sunday, Donna and I headed in an easterly direction and caught up with number one daughter, son in law, and, very happily, our two grandsons. We met at Wakehurst Place which is run by the National Trust and Kew, housing the latter’s millennium seed bank. Our youngest grandson happily chased after bubbles Donna blew, with great gusto, saying ‘pop’ as he did, then splashed in puddles in his wellies, before deciding he needed a quick rest and sat in one. Donna, as regular readers will know, loves all things garden so Wakehurst is of some interest to her. Luckily we are approaching the time when she can start doing things in our garden once more. Appropriately, there is a use for split teabags, her favourite drink, this month : - https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/garden/2167095/gardeners-put-torn-teabags-garden   We met paramedic daughter number two and paramedic partner in Arundel on our way home. We were...
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February 6, 2026

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  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  Last weekend Donna tried an interesting experience with our daughter: Le Petit Chef, in Brighton, whilst I got on with various things, including helping a fellow councillor with a computer issue. Le Petit Chef is an interactive 3D dinner show where a tiny animated chef is projected onto guests' plates to "prepare" each course before the real food is served. They both thoroughly enjoyed it, however, as a reminder that technology can sometimes falter, the card machine packed up and they had to queue in the bar to pay. Monday was Chichester District Council’s six monthly All Parishes Meeting. Donna also had a meeting at West Sussex County Hall. Then on Wednesday, Mick, Val and Donna took part in CDC’s Planning training for parishes while in the evening Ali, Ian, Andrew, Donna and I had an STC Personnel Committee meeting looking at various policy documents. Next week on Wednesday Donna and Val have Chichest...
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January 30, 2026

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  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  Last weekend Donna and I were in Poole, and walked through Lifeboat Quay next to the national headquarters of the RNLI. We saw several boats, their training college and their Lifeboat Centre which was unfortunately closed. You may not realise that the HQ was founded on 4th March, 1824, to save lives at sea and that, as the heart of the charity, Poole has a deep history and featured  in wartime rescues like Dunkirk  On Monday Donna had a Chichester Harbour Conservancy meeting at County Hall because she is one of the West Sussex appointed representatives and I had some errands to run relating to my charitable involvements. Wednesday was a busy day because Donna had Chichester District Council’s Grants and Concessions Panel on Wednesday morning while Val, Mick, Ian and Andrew had Selsey Town Council's Planning Committee in the evening after we all had a short Extraordinary Full STC to confirm a Person...
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January 23, 2026

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  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  Last week we mentioned the government’s new national pothole map so this week it seemed appropriate to share something that might interest pedestrians. Have you ever thought streetlights should give out a different colour light to white? The idea had never occurred to me until I read about red street lighting in Denmark and the very laudable reason for it: -  https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/01/denmark-red-streetlights-urban-lighting-revolution/   On Monday morning, Donna successfully debated the merits, or otherwise, of development with the Leader of Chichester District Council, Adrian Moss, at The Academy in Selsey to Year 7, while I caught up with staff in Selsey Town Hall. In the afternoon I had CDC’s Corporate Governance and Audit Committee which included a significant focus on internal and external auditing and associated practices. On Tuesday Val, Donna and I had Full CDC. Amongst other things...
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January 16, 2026

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  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read.  This is our first blog of 2026 so Happy New Year to you all. We ended last year sharing the news that having built up Selsey Town Council's reserves so we have something to draw upon now, when things like Selsey’s Christmas lights and play equipment need replacing, we hope residents will be pleased with what we have agreed in terms of STC’s part of April’s council tax increase. The exact percentage won’t be clear until Chichester District Council finalises things in March once they know how much more West Sussex County Council and the police are seeking, but we believe the size of the increase will compare very favourably with them and other councils. We’d like to remind you, as you may still be discarding the odd thing after Christmas, that batteries and small electrical items, such as mobile phones, vapes, and hairdryers should not be thrown away in your household waste or recycling bins, as they often con...
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