I am sure you have all seen on the News both national and local about the flooding on the coast in West Sussex. This extraordinary weather just goes on and on and that added to the normal exceptional high tides at this time of the year everything came at once.
All I will say about it is that West Sussex Fire and Rescue and many other agencies were on site and helped people as soon as they possibly could. It must be devastating to wake up and find water swirling around your bed etc. What a nightmare but luckily no one came to serious harm and I believe one person was taken to Hospital with suspected hypothermia but all is well except of course for the clearing up that has to be done.
As ever it’s the highways that dominate my emails and all I can really say is that, as ever, I report all issues from either residents, Parish and Town Councils and what I find for myself whilst driving around my division. These when logged get a job number and after that it’s ‘here’s hoping’. It is not a quick process I am sorry to say and because of all the circumstances this winter and spring that hasn’t helped. I’m not sure that I mentioned this before but one of the disasters that is now probably a couple of months ago was our Durbans House in Bognor which houses all our Highways Staff that deal with our requests for work to be carried out work from this building. This building was itself flooded and is not yet fully operational. That does not of course mean that the staff there are not still carrying out their work in this building, it just means that for a while we have had to move them to somewhere not flooded and safe.
None of these problems help in getting things done but it can only get better she says with fingers crossed.
Our children’s homes have been inspected recently by OFSTED and I am pleased to say that all 6 have fared pretty well – 2 being outstanding and the other 4 good which is a pretty high standard. We continue to improve in our children’s services generally but we are not there yet.
You have all received your Council Tax bills now and hopefully read the notes and you will see that Children’s and Adult Care takes the large proportion of our budget and I know it is not getting easier.
For those who have not seen it in the Press we have now appointed a new Chief Executive, Leigh Whitehouse who was deputy at Surrey County Council. Until Leigh can join us Becky Shaw will stay with us and then return full time to East Sussex County Council.
I recently had a very interesting session at Platinum House the new Fire Station and training centre at Broadbridge Heath. This also goes from strength to strength with many training enquires from not only the UK but across the World.
The day before my session there the Chief Fire Officer had meetings with representatives from South Korea checking out the facility with a possible intention to send fire and rescue people from there for some training. Every time I visit they seem to have some new scheme and of course this bring in finance. It really is the top standard in the Country.
It is not an easy job getting around all my 11 parishes although I have found that attending Parish and Town Councils help keep me up to speed but the other way I find is by attending village events especially the parish lunches which are amazing and I get to meet so many people. Of course when you lead a fairly busy life it isn’t always possible.
A quick mention of the South Downs National Park. We are also recruiting a new Chief Executive and it looks as though with a lot of work we may have a new person in situ by August. There will certainly be a lot of applicants.
My position on the SDNPA keeps me quite busy as I sit on the Planning Committee and this also involves of course site visits usually held one week before the planning meetings and for the April meeting this took up most of my working day and this week the good part of another working day. I do assure you that I have quite a work load with County and SDNP but very interesting.
All I hope is that we get some good weather now for what’s left of Spring and look forward to a good Summer. My goodness we deserve it.
Please contact me if you need my help or information regarding County Council issues on either:
janet.duncton@westsussex.gov.uk or my mobile 07979 152898.
Janet Duncton
County Councillor Petworth division