Because you elected us Selsey has...
Because you elected us Selsey has...
Embedded Files
Funding for new sea defences
Zero housing allocation
and its mobile tip
Welcome to this week’s blog - as always, thanks for having a read and we hope you enjoyed the Bank holiday weekend. Donna and I were busy campaigning and, as has been the case throughout, met some nice people who greeted us warmly. Thank you to everyone who voted for Donna.
Today, Friday May 8th, was the day of the count for the West Sussex County Council electoral divisions in our District. Andrew joined me after the verification to help tally the actual counting of votes. The result was that Selsey voted to #keepdonna which, considering the national context, we find quite humbling. Thank you all once more.
This is the County results map: -
As you can see, at the time of writing, Selsey has returned the only Local Interest / Independent Councillor.
Over the last five weeks between us all we have walked nearly a million steps, and prepared and posted a large amount of material online and in printed form. For us, it is not quite over, because we have expenses to compile and submit.
If you have never been to a count, the first stage is verification. This involves opening all the ballot boxes to count how many ballot papers there are in total. Once that is done the votes for each candidate are counted and the overall total checked against the verified number to make sure no ballot papers have been missed. Selsey is second to last alphabetically, followed by Witterings, so it is always an anxious wait. The verification can give a feel for how things have gone but you can never be sure until the final results are in.
Next Wednesday, Donna and Val have Chichester District Council’s Planning Committee which includes an application from Boxgrove and consideration of whether to approve the responses to the questions for submission in response to the government consultation on permitted...
development rights for Onshore Wind Turbines. In the evening the team has Selsey Town Council’s Annual Meeting at which the Chair and Vice Chair are appointed and Committees formed. Appointments are made to outside bodies too.
You can watch CDC meetings here and watch WSCC meetings here.
Professor Colin Copus recently summarised the reality of being a Councillor: -
“You are all the life blood of our democracy, local and national. There’s a lack of appreciation and understanding in central government, the media and the public about what councillors do, the time you spend on council work in committees and other meetings; or the time spent working with people and communities solving individual's problems and developing community resources.
There's little understanding too of how being a councillor affects family, social and work life.
The phone ringing at 6.30am, or midnight; the constant and countless emails; no more popping to the shops without meeting someone who wants to talk to you, or complain about some council decision or another; the abuse and intimidation you can experience - both on line and in person; and, the frustration of central control.
The tremendous work you do, irrespective of party (or having no party), representing, governing and working for communities and the often intractable issues you face, are barely recognised. Yet councillors are blamed when things go wrong, even things over which the council has no responsibility - but you are expected to sort it out.”
There is an ongoing debate about coffee versus tea which continues to prompt research into their respective health benefits. Coffee may help our bodies fight the effects of ageing as you can read here: -
Finally: -
As always, from the whole Team, stay safe.
Tim
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