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  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. Amazingly we put out our fifth Tim’s Travels this week, which was mainly filmed in Hotham Park, Bognor. Upon seeing it, Ali kindly sent me some photos of a family trip of hers five years ago. My parents met when they were training to be teachers in what is now part of the University of Chichester. The campus overlooks the park so they used to go for walks around it. They took us there regularly when I was growing up, and the train and paddling boats I have very fond memories of are still there today. Apparently lots of grandparents take their grandchildren on the train because like me they went on it when they were growing up too. Hotham is a great resource and retains its trees and vegetation. It reminds us why green spaces are so important and why we need them so much. There has recently been criticism of plans to restore 30% of nature by 2030: - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/13/england-rewil...

  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. We were recently reminded that it is a small world when we filmed the fourth episode of Tim’s Travels at Wakehurst Place near Ardingly because we bumped into some neighbours. As we are doing more digitally, and younger generations embrace technology more readily, I asked Gemini about youth unemployment in the UK; it is 735,000 16 - 25 year olds, or 16.2%. There are also a million NEETs (not in education, employment or training.)  This compares to overall unemployment of 4.9% and the EU average of 14.6%. I find this sad because futures are potentially blighted. If you want to do a country by country comparison, this article should help: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/europe-youth-unemployment/   Last Monday, July 13th, I had Chichester District Council’s Corporate Governance and Audit Committee which included the Internal Audit Conclusion 2025 - 26 and Treasury Management Outturn. We also considere...

Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. We have moved the day we put this out to help us further expand our range of content. If you check on a Monday evening, the latest post should be up before the social media promos go out on Tuesday.  Donna as Chair of West Sussex County Council (and I as her Consort) have attended two further events, both civic and charitable. We also went to one that came to me as Leader of the Opposition of Chichester District Council organised by high profile care leader Donna Ockenden .  You may have seen our third Tim’s Travels which was filmed at the second civic event we attended,  in Horsham. It proved to be a walk down Memory Lane for me as I went to secondary school there. Since then we have attended the service of thanks in Chichester Cathedral for the District Foodbank, and the House Drama Final at Bishop Luffa School. Understandably I found this to be a bit of a busman’s holiday but at both events we were a...

  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. Last weekend was our ceremonial debut, now Donna Chairs West Sussex County Council. I have a role too as her consort, as you will have seen if you caught the second episode of our new ‘travel blog’, Tim’s Travels .  On Saturday we were at the Armed Forces Day in Littlehampton and took part in the parade. On Sunday we were in Horsham for the annual Horsham District Council Civic Service. This coming Sunday, July 5th, 2026, we are nearer home, at Chichester Cathedral, for the annual service of thanks for the District Foodbank.  We were warmly welcomed in both places, in part because we are a bit of a novelty: a female, nationally independent Chair of WSCC and an official Consort - a former County Councillor we met, who served for twenty years, had clearly not met one before! The idea for our new travel vlog, Tim’s Travels, came from getting the invitations to Littlehampton and Horsham. We realised we wo...

Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. Last weekend we made several trips to the Westhampnett Recycling Centre because we are doing one or two things in the house. Although booking a suitable slot was quite straightforward, we noticed when we got there that the improvement in the weather has got many other residents doing the same. We always find the staff very helpful and, as a result, empty the car quite quickly. On Monday, Donna had a Harbour Conservancy meeting at County Hall, then on Wednesday Chichester District Council’s Grants and Concessions Panel. The panel looked at several applications for Discretionary Rate Relief and for the Improving Places and Spaces and the Stronger Communities programmes. On Thursday she was joined by Val for their Housing, Communities, Culture and Sports Panel which included an update on progress with CDC’s Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy for 2025 - 2030. Because of the heat wave, the meeting was moved on...

  Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read. Last weekend, at our nursing daughter's suggestion, Donna and I completed a first aid course for children. Now we are grandparents we thought this was a good idea. It included seizures, burns, poisons and CPR. It also included defibrillators, choking and meningitis. It was a very worthwhile use of our time. We were joined by expectant, new and longer running parents, as well as a 5-month old baby. On Monday, Donna had West Sussex County Council’s Governance Committee which she now chairs (as Chair of the Council.) Amongst other things, it considered some constitutional changes, appointing a chair of the Electoral Review Panel and filling vacancies on the Member Development Group. It was the June Full Selsey Town Council meeting which included considering the Annual Governance and Accountability Review, reviewing the Council’s current financial position and several policy documents.  On Thursday Donna and I ha...