July 3, 2026

 

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 would be out and about quite a bit and thought you might enjoy seeing places you have not visited, or at least not for some time. We went to Winkworth arboretum to film the first episode as a bit of a dry run.

On Monday, Donna had a meeting with the Leader of West Sussex County Council then on Tuesday, a meeting with their Democratic Services before being in the Chair for Chichester District Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee. She was joined by Val. The agenda included Donna's annual report on what the Committee has done for agreement before it comes to Full Council and the Social Prescribing Evaluation Report for 2025/26. On Wednesday Donna and Val had CDC’s Planning Committee in the morning then in the evening Val was joined by Mick, Ian and Andrew for Selsey Town Council's Planning Committee. On Thursday Donna had a further three private virtual meetings in readiness for WSCC Full Council, on 17th July.

Next week there are no public facing meetings for any of us, but the week after I have CDC’s Corporate Governance and Audit Committee on Monday July 13th, 2026. Donna, Val, Steve and I have the next Full CDC Meeting the next day. Donna and Val have CDC’s Development, Planning and Infrastructure Panel on the Wednesday with the whole team having the next Full Selsey Town Council Meeting that evening. On the Friday Donna Chairs the next Full WSCC Meeting.

You can watch CDC meetings here and watch WSCC meetings here.

As we now have our fledgling travel vlog and the better weather is here, we thought you might want to travel too, so here are three quieter seaside towns to consider - unless like us you live in Selsey which is, of course, one of Yahoo’s recommendations:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/3-quieter-seaside-towns-visit-040000459.html 

Finally:  -

• Selsey Sea Defences

• Report potholes

• Supporting You

• WSCC Meetings

• CDC Meetings

• STC Meetings

As always, from the whole Team, stay safe.

Tim