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-rewilding-plan-restore-nature-2030-criticised 

Last Monday, July 20th, Donna had a casework meeting whilst I caught up with the Senior team at Selsey Town Council. On Tuesday she had Chichester District Council’s Joint Employee Consultative Panel which included considering a new Disclosure and Barring Service Policy.  On Wednesday I was on Consort duty once more, meeting Donna at Crawley railway station to accompany her to a Civic Reception near Uckfield (in her capacity as Chair of West Sussex County Council.) We experienced a bit of deja vu because we met the nationally independent Member of East Sussex County Council and his wife. They are both Members of their District and Town Councils and their two sons are Councillors too.