Steyning Parish Council has arranged a public meeting for 3.00 pm on Saturday 28 January 2012, at the Steyning Centre to discuss their proposal for a concrete skateboard facility in Steyning’s Memorial Playing Field (MPF). 

There has been considerable discussion of a skateboard facility in Steyning for more than a decade including a Parish Poll on 28 September 2000 which resulted in a majority vote against the provision of a site on the MPF. On 19 December 2006, the Steyning Parish Council Playing Fields Committee concluded the top of the MPF was the wrong area to create a skateboarding site due to its isolation in case of accidents. The Parish Council conducted a household survey of residents March 2011 which found that almost 70% of the 680 residents responding favoured a site opposite the Leisure Centre on Horsham Road rather than a site on the MPF. 

The Lib Dem Focus Team has long campaigned for a skateboard facility in Steyning but believes any site must be away from large concentrations of residential housing and near public amenities. It therefore regrets the Parish Council’s decision to propose the MPF as the only possible location for a skateboard facility, especially given the known lack of support for this site registered in the March 2011 survey and the previous public opposition highlighted in the 2000 Parish Poll. 

During 2011 the Parish Council commissioned a noise assessment report which concluded “with all mitigation measures in place it is likely that some residual skate park activity will still be audible … due to the nature of the activity being significantly different in nature to the existing noise climate (in the MPF)”. Unlike the noise from other users of facilities in the MPF which are during relatively short periods of time, the noise from skateboarders could be at all times of the day and evening. Many houses surround the MPF and the Rublees Allotments would be immediately next to the proposed site. 

Whilst noise is certainly a, if not the, major consideration, the Focus Team believes there are additional arguments against a skateboard facility in the MPF: 

1. The MPF is a place of natural beauty - many residents, including those not living nearby, want to preserve the environmental and visual beauty of the open green field on the edge of the South Downs; 

2. As the Parish Council noted in 2006, the MPF site is not close to first aiders and public amenities;

3. The necessary external funding for the proposed skateboard park will be difficult to secure if the proposed site does not command the widespread support of the community.   

The Lib Dem Focus Team believes that youth in Steyning deserve to be supported. However, we oppose the location of a skateboard facility in the MPF for the above reasons. We believe a fuller consideration of another site, opposite the Leisure Centre, continues to offer the most feasible way for a skateboard park coming to fruition in Steyning. 

For further details, please contact the Lib Dem Focus Team: Nick Hopkinson on SusNickH@aol.com or tel :01903-813013

 Pressure of personal work and preparing for his mother’s 100^th birthday celebrations later this year has forced Lib Dem campaigner and Focus Team activist, Andrew Purches, to resign from the Parish Council.  

Andrew also feels that, after some 15 years on the Parish Council, latterly as Vice Chairman of the Council (and during which time he also served as a District Councillor for the area between 2004 and 2007), new blood is needed to meet the challenge of the wholehearted support to the concept of the Big Society and the Localism agenda which is needed with the move to encourage local communities to take on more responsibility for the carrying out of local government services. 

Although Andrew will remain an active member of the Lib Dem Focus Team, I am sure that the local community will sorely miss his activities as a member of the Parish Council.

West Sussex residents and businesses are being urged to register their support for better broadband in the county. 

The County Council has committed £6.26 million to match fund a government grant to improve the county’s broadband network. For everybody to get the full benefit of this investment and ensure improved broadband is delivered, first to those who need it most, a clear picture of the demand across West Sussex is needed. 

Residents and businesses can register via the West Sussex – Better Connected website at www.westsussex-betterconnected.org.uk or by completing a registration form at their local library or help point. 

By registering their support on the County Council website, residents will be playing their part in showing where the demand is in communities when planning the broadband improvement programme, it does not commit residents to sign up to any new service.

Concerns have been expressed to me about the continuing rumbling of lorries through Woodmancote carrying soil to the former Horton Landfill Site as part of the restoration works at the site. 

I have contacted the After Care Manger responsible for the work and he informed me that since the acceptance of the last load of waste in July, Viridor has successfully completed the engineered capping of 64,000m2 of the landfill and continued the importation of soils that has resulted in the successful seeding of the southern and eastern flanks of the site in November 2011. 

Since the start of 2012, the second stage of tree planting has started that will see 4500 trees being planted across the site in the next 6 weeks which follows the stage 1 planting during which 2000 trees were successfully planted up to the end of 2011. 

With regards to the progress against the programme of soil importation to meet the restoration need at the site, a survey of the site has been undertaken and this is currently being reviewed to accurately understand the remaining soil need for the site. The After Care Manager said that this survey will be used to inform the options for completing the site restoration, including where possible a review of the routing of vehicles and alternative means of controlling the timing and speed of vehicles visiting the site. A primary consideration within this review will be to ensure that every effort is being made to minimise the disturbance to local residents while achieving a timely restoration of the site. 

Following the review of operations and programme for the delivery of a completed restoration scheme, Viridor will issue an update in February to maintain clear communication to all.

 I attended a councillors’ seminar meeting yesterday evening regarding older persons. An officer from Saxon Weald Housing Association was present and reported an update on the Britons Croft situation as part of her presentation to the meeting.

She said that Saxon Weald intends to re-develop the Britons Croft site for the purpose of affordable housing, which may be a mix of rented and shared ownership homes. The key challenge identified for Saxon Weald was meeting the requirements of the planning authorities, the long term housing need in the local area and ensuring financial viability.   

The initial assessment of the site showed that it might be possible to develop about 30 flats or 15 houses or a mixture of the two. The recent Steyning needs survey would help inform the best mix, for example, for families, older people and single young people.  

It was confirmed that the site would not be used for a new extra care scheme because it is too small and there is continuing uncertainty over County Council funding for care in these types of schemes. (The County Council is looking to spread the existing funds, which are reducing anyway, over all eligible people needing support care, whether in care homes or remaining in their own homes.) 

There remains a possibility that Saxon Weald might provide some well-designed older peoples housing if there is sufficient local demand beyond Dingemans Court. 

In answer to a question from me about the warden service at Dingemans Court it was stated that a decision on the retention of the service as it is at present would depend on the outcome of the County Council consultation on allocation of Supporting People funding. It was agreed, however, that even with reduced funding from the County Council, it would still be a Saxon Weald decision whether to reduce, stop or charge more for the warden service, which residents at the home want retained.

Nick Hopkinson and Jessica Sproxton-Miller on the 106

Nick Hopkinson, Jessica Sproxton-Miller and I travelled on the 106 buses to Worthing and back on Tuesday to hand out the bus survey forms.

Although most people were aware of the County Council threat to local bus services, it was surprising, of the many people on the buses, how many had not sent in a survey form to the County Council, either online www.westsussex.gov.uk/buses or by sending in the form to the Freepost address.

The County Council will be using the survey responses to assess which bus route subsidies to cut late this year, and so it is vital that if local people want to influence the Council’s decisions, which will almost certainly mean bus service cuts, they should send in the bus survey forms or complete the survey online to ensure they are received by 17 January at the latest.

Steyning Parish Council meets at 7.30pm this evening at the Steyning Centre.

Two major items on the agenda relate to a report on the results of the housing needs survey (and the possible outcome in relation to Britons Croft), and a recommendation from the Skateboard sub-committee working group. The latter could lead to further public consultation on whether the provision of this facility proceeds, and whether it should be provided at the Memorial Field.   

Upper Beeding and Woodmancote Parish Councils meet tomorrow evening at 7.30pm at the Beeding & Bramber Village Hall and the Woodmancote Parish Hall respectively.

I hope to attend all three meetings.

 An extra £2m for social care in West Sussex will mean people can leave hospital earlier and receive better care at home. 

This comes from a recent announcement by the Coalition Government of an extra £150m to be spent on shortening hospital stays across the country during the busy winter period. 

Thanks to the Liberal Democrats in Government, the cash can be used to access various preventative services such as better home care support, crisis response teams and specialist equipment for people in West Sussex. 

This is on top of the £648m already given nationally to Primary Care Trusts this financial year to support social care services, and the cash is due to savings made in the Department of Health’s budget. 

Commenting, West Sussex Lib Dem Adult Services Spokesperson Bob Smytherman said:

“At this time of year it is of particular importance to do everything we can to ensure people are cared for at home in a safe and familiar environment, with their family and friends close by. 

 “Nationally the Coalition is already doing the right thing and providing an extra £7.2bn in social care funding over the next four years. This extra cash for West Sussex further shows how the Liberal Democrats recognise that we all prefer to be out of hospital, receiving care in our own home.” 

 “By reinvesting these savings in social care we can offer more help and support to older people leaving hospital.

“It is absolutely crucial that the NHS and the County Council work together to help people leave hospital when they are ready. The benefits are on all sides – patients get to go home with the support they and their families need, and hospital beds are freed up. 

“This money will help cut the delays in getting the equipment and adaptations that people can need to enable them to live independently at home – saving them from an unnecessary stay in hospital or going into residential care.

I am continuing to chase the County Council on the 2A bus route in Shoreham. 

The most recent response is that they are reviewing the situation regarding the East Street pedestrianisation Scheme (which caused the route of the 2A to be changed), but say that Brighton & Hove Buses (B&H) were consulted on the current revised route. 

I am aware that B&H were consulted on the changes, but understand that the current route was agreed as the least worse option. It is not, however, very convenient for bus users, especially for those going to Steyning at peak times when there are often other delays on the route from Brighton without having to cross the railway at level crossings three times in Shoreham.

I have expressed my wish that it will be possible for the shorter route via Surry Street, avoiding two of the railway crossings, to be adopted in the near future.

Both Councils will be meeting on Thursday evening, 5 January - Bramber at the Bramber and Beeding Village Hall from 7pm, and Ashurst at the Ashurst Village Hall from 8pm.

I hope to attend both meetings and my Councillor report will include references to Viridor Credits, Shoreham Cement Works Site in Upper Beeding, the Localism Act 2011, no County Council tax rise in 2012/13 and the recinding of the A24 Horsham to Capel improvement scheme.