Chairman's Report

It is my pleasure to deliver to you my first Chairman’s report. Ken Boyle stood down as Chairman last year and in a fleeting moment of insanity I agreed to stand and was duly installed. The first thing I would therefore like to do in this report is to say a big thank you to Ken for all his efforts on your behalf over the years. Having had the experience of the last nine months as chairman I can honestly say that it is remarkable how he managed to carry out the role with consummate ease and with an impressive appearance of calm throughout. I can only hope to achieve some of that although I don’t think I’m doing too well so far!

 I also have to report that your Council clerk, Norman has tendered his resignation as of the 1^st April. I would also like to thank Norman on your behalf for the sterling work he has put in over the many years that he has been involved with our community. His work has gone well beyond the call of duty and I’m sure we all really appreciate the efficiency with which he has dealt with the day to day running of the Parish affairs – especially latterly in dealing with the welter of initiatives and requests that have been raining down from local and central government. The burden of this has become bigger and bigger and we are grateful for Norman’s expertise in fielding most of the work on the Council’s behalf. Norman has also been tenacious in his dealings with service providers and in particular has quite correctly become a thorn in EDF Energy’s side. I wonder if the day will come when we do not have to discuss problems with EDF at our council meetings.

Chris Hinchey has decided to stand down as vice chairman. Our thanks are also due to Chris for his efforts and from a personal viewpoint Chris has been invaluable to me in teaching me the ropes. Many thanks Chris. We are also fortunate in our District and County Councillors and I would like to thank them on your behalf. Thanks Andrew, Sue, Bill and Peter.

Finally, as far as thanks are concerned, I would like to thank your councillors. I really hope that you all appreciate the effort and time that your councillors voluntarily give on your behalf and I think it is worth reminding you that everything they do is done with the best interests of the Parish at heart. We may not (and don’t) get everything right but we are striving to do what’s right for the community.

 Moving on to our activities during the past year. It has been a busy year and I do not wish to dwell in too much detail on every activity undertaken but I would highlight a few issues that have been exercising the council.

The Parish Plan (yes, an old one but a good one!) is nearly in a position to be presented to you. I know you have heard this before but there has been an enormous amount of data to be collated.  We will be publishing the plan in draft for comment initially, after which we will proceed to ‘final draft’ before being printed. We hope to be in a position to present the draft to you all at the fun day in July, where I intend to have a Parish Council marquee. More on this later.

The A23 enquiry has involved a huge amount of work for the Council and in particular Norman and David Ross. You will all have heard the results of the enquiry which we are not happy with in particular the closure of the Slaugham junction which is an option that was grabbed by the Highways Agency under the pretext of safety but we suspect simply to save money. This was clearly a case of making a decision and then consulting on it despite feeble protestations that this was not the case. We are still considering what avenues, if any, remain for an appeal although the chances are slim. Traffic (always a burning issue for us) will now become an even bigger issue for the villages and we are investigating the offer of traffic calming measures in the event that it is subsequently proved that traffic volumes through the villages is significantly increased. We will need your help in this regard.

 The issue of the new Finches Field hall drags on. The latest position on this is that the trust that owns a large part of the site have not offered anything more than a licence for occupation which is insufficient for the purposes or raising money for a sporting facility. As a result, we are progressing the option of restricting the building to a village hall facility only and we are due to meet the relevant officer from Mid Sussex early next month.

 We have had interesting input and presentations during the year from a number of sources. Our MP, Francis Maude has been good enough to attend our meetings twice as well as providing help as needed. New election boundaries now mean that we also have The Hon Nicholas Soames MP serving us and we hope to see him at one of our meetings soon. He has already been helpful in various ways. We have heard from West Sussex Highways who were helpful regarding potholes but less able to assist with traffic calming. We have had the police tell us about their activities which seem to be mainly traffic related. We are fortunate to live in a low crime area (as the police are keen to tell us at every opportunity) although crime and the threat of it are still real concerns for many of you. Having been the victim of a recent theft  I know this first hand.

 The issue of the forthcoming expiry of the lease on the Parish Hall has exercised minds – in some cases to fever pitch. The delay by Mid Sussex in the preparation of the Core Strategy has led to the withdrawal of some of the options that had previously been suggested. This allows the whole issue to be properly debated and I am relieved by that. Nevertheless, 2014 is not far off and we need to move things along if we are to reach a solution by the expiry. The next stage in this is that the New Parish Hall Committee will, with the assistance of Action in Rural Sussex, be going back to stage one and carrying out a Parish-wide survey on what you all want from a future facility. We can then plan for providing such a facility. Time permitting I intend to present the preliminary results of this survey on the fun day in July. I don’t want this issue to dominate Parish Council meetings although it has been most heartening to see the increased attendance at our monthly meetings. I hope this will continue. Nevertheless, hard decisions will have to be taken to achieve the right solution and there is no doubt that the solution will not be to everyone’s liking. It will, however, with your assistance be the right decision for your community.

 I mentioned the Core Strategy. When this document is finally published it will set out the District Council’s plans for meeting housing targets. There is no doubt that the pressure for new housing in our Parish will increase. We need to be prepared for this and to that end I have asked the Council to consider the preparation of a Housing Needs Assessment; an independently produced assessment of your NEEDS for housing (as opposed to what housing you might like to see, if any). This document will be invaluable in influencing Mid Sussex in their consideration of any applications that are received for housing. Again I hope to be able to present more on this at the fun day.

I have touched on some of what we will be doing on your behalf in the coming year. There is of course the matter of the forthcoming general election which is bound to affect us all in some way. Nevertheless, whatever the colour of party we end up with there appears to be a broad consensus in Westminster that more power should be devolved to ‘local level’. We are indeed already seeing some of the effects of this. Cynics might say (with some justification) that this is a means of off-loading unwanted responsibilities from central or county level to district and parish, or back-door taxation but whatever you think this will be a feature of the local government landscape in coming years. We need to be prepared for this and part of that is my desire to see your Parish Council move towards ‘Quality Council’ status meaning that we will be qualified to take advantage of the increased powers should we so wish. We are not a Quality Council at the moment and achieving this status is I believe vitally important for us to be able to best serve you in coming years.     

 We will have some big issues to deal with going forward – not least the parlous state of the economy and how this impacts on our rural community. I was flabbergasted to hear at a seminar on Tuesday that the public sector employs 50% of the workforce in rural areas and clearly cutbacks in this sector, however overdue, will be keenly felt.

 Anyway to end on a positive note I would reiterate that I have been delighted in the increased interest being taken by you all in the activities of the Parish Council and I hope this will continue. It is the sign of a healthy democracy. We will continue to strive to serve you as well as possible and I hope we can exceed your expectations.

Archie Cowan 23.03.10