Discussions have taken place with the two Primary Schools and the Grammar School and with the Towers on individual travel plans, but there is a good case for a joint travel plan for the area.

This is because some children go from Upper Beeding to St Andrew’s Primary School, Steyning and Steyning Grammar School, some children from Steyning go to Upper Beeding Primary School and the Towers. 

Clearly a joint plan could put forward more radical solutions for safer travel to/from the various schools, especially involving a safe crossing of the A283, which would have more chance of sucess than if just part of individual plans.

The Grammar School is going to update all the survey information within their travel plan and also survey the staff and 6th formers as it is felt that this is where their biggest problem lies. 

A meeting will be organised after half term when everyone can meet to discuss the way forward.

Following the proposals in the Government’s draft Queen’s speech I am moving a Notice of Motion at the next County Council meeting on 6 June: -“This Council welcomes the Government’s proposals in the draft Queen’s speech to give people the chance to have a greater say in how their local health services are delivered, to help improve services to patients, and make NHS trusts more accountable to the people they serve. This Council considers that this would be best achieved in

West Sussex by merging the functions of the West Sussex Primary Care Trust (PCT) with those of the County Council, to bring them under local democratic control and to improve working between health and social care functions.

This Council would be pleased to work with the West Sussex PCT to establish a pilot scheme for such an arrangement, and asks the Leader to call on the Government to formally approach the Government to approve a merger of the PCT and County Council as a pilot for it’s proposals in the draft Queen’s speech.”

The Local Government Association (LGA) has made some good comments on the 2008 draft legislative programme: -

• “The best way to make the police more accountable would be through councils and councillors.  Councils are visible, open and democratically accountable to the residents they serve. Bypassing directly elected councilors risks disrupting the successful local work which is already occurring.” But the first past the post electoral system means that here in West Sussex the Tories have an overall majority on all County and District Councils and they can, and do, ignore the majority of local views on many issues - the opposition to a South Downs National Park despite massive local support for such a Park being just one example! 
• “Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) must be more accountable for the decisions they make. Health accountability can be achieved through the use of local government structures already in place and an additional local electoral structure would be unlikely to be effective or efficient.” The West Sussex County Council  should be campaigning  to become  the PCT for the County.
• “The government is absolutely right to want to improve people’s influence over local decisions.  Many councils are already leading the way on this issue, responding to thousands of petitions every year.  Councils will want to ensure that new legislation doesn’t impose unnecessary new rules for town halls to follow.” Right! But we can really only oppose this if councils actually represent, and make decisions on, the whole range of local political views. It does not happen like that in West Sussex!
• “The LGA is disappointed that the government has been overly cautious in its approach to the Supplementary Business Rate. It is important that local authorities should be given powers to levy the supplement and it is regrettable that the power will not be available to district and London councils.” Many local businesses are already struggling to survive in current economic circumstances, so giving powers to both County and Districts to levy supplementary business rates could be the final straw for a large number of them. There is a case for local authorities to have the responsibility for levying the Business Rate restored to them to help fund economic regeneration in their areas, but it should be at the strategic county level - perhaps the Government should be moving to a unitary local government system as the basis for its business rate proposals?      

The Conservatives have recently been making a great deal of noise about the need to compensate people who lose out as a result of Labour’s decision to double the 10p income tax starter rate.

But they refused to support a compensation package when one was proposed last year.

In June 2007, in the House of Commons, after the tax rise was first announced, the Liberal Democrats and a small group of Labour backbenchers proposed an amendment to the Government’s Finance Bill which would have made the Government compensate those people on low incomes who would end up paying more under Labour’s tax grab plans.

Where were the Conservatives? “We cannot support it,” said Conservative spokesperson Theresa Villiers MP during the parliamentary debate. Only one Conservative MP voted for compensation, and he has since resigned from the party!

The Conservatives only woke up to this issue and started making a fuss this year, after the changes came in, when they saw the press were interested in it, and thought it would help them in the local elections. More than a year after the Liberal Democrats first raised the issue.

And now Labour’s tax policy is a farce!

The latest u-turn to try to rescue Labour from defeat at Crewe, will cost £2.7bn, by increasing the personal allowance. But, as the Lib Dems Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable has pointed out, only £630m of that will actually go to the 5.3 million people who lost out from scrapping the 10p tax rate, making it an extremely poorly targeted policy. And 1.1 million of the lowest paid workers will still lose up to £100 each! And even those getting some money back will have to wait until September - thanks Gordon.

At the end of the day the poor will be paying more tax to enable those who are better off to pay less - and this is a Labour Government???

 

Increasing anti- social behaviour at the Memorial Field  was the topic of many complaints and calls for action at the Parish Council meeting last night.

Local people attending the meeting complained that, despite the attention of the Neighbourhood Wardens, the actions of a few local youths were making their lives a misery, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. Drinking leading to bad language and abuse, using the area as a toilet, youths going into back gardens to collect footballs, and use of the children’s play equipment to stand on to look into back gardens were examples of the problems faced by Newham Lane residents.

The Police were viewed as not being a great help, as when they did arrive in answer to residents phone calls the youths saw them coming and disappeared before they could be caught and identified.

The Neighbourhood Wardens suggested varying their working hours to try to catch the major culprits. It maybe, however, that other more expensive measures (with possible implications for the parish precept), such as moving the play area to the other side of the Field away from houses, providing a high fence to protect back gardens or even employing another Warden to concentrate on supervising the Memorial Field and other open spaces will have to be considered.

Clearly more needs to be done to reduce this anti-social behaviour occurring in the first place, perhaps working with parents and schools, but this will take longer to achieve and people, quite rightly, want action now.

Steyning Parish Council meets tonight, Monday, 12 May, starting at 7.30pm at the Steyning Centre.

Woodmancote Parish Council meets tomorrow evening, Tuesday, 13 May, starting at 8pm at the Parish Hall, Brighton Road.

Both meetings at the annual general meetings when the new Council Chairmen will be elected.

Both meetings are open to the public when they can ask questions on major local issues.

County and District Councillors will be attending.

A number of people have complained about the burger van in the High Trees Car Park at the Upper Beeding roundabout on the A283.

County Officers have advised that there are no highway grounds on which the burger van can be removed, but there are South Downs Joint Committee and County land ownership issues. The present management arrangements in respect of the car park need to be confirmed before recovery of the land presently occupied by the burger van could be considered.

In any event there is a view that the burger van is not really causing a problem. Also it is claimed that users of the South Downs Way seem to be enjoying the convenience of the van at the end of a long day walking, cycling and riding.

One of the problems is, however, that the burger van attracts heavy vehicles to the site which sometimes blocks the car park for other users, and can cause a dangerous traffic situation at the entrance from the roundabout. Since the car park is also used by equestrians to unload/load horse boxes, the provision of a height barrier to prevent use by heavy vehicles would be difficult, but this is being investigated. Clearly if this can be resolved then the presence of the burger van might be acceptable in providing a valued facility for users of the South Downs Way.

Any comments from local people would be welcome.

The updated, 17 page edition of the 2008 pocket guide is now available.

Please contact me if you would like to be emailed a copy.

At the recent Annual Upper Beeding Parish Meeting the Neighbourhood Wardens for Bramber, Steyning & Upper Beeding presented a report on their activities during the last year and their plans for 2008/09.

Now the Wardens can issue penalty tickets for dog fouling and dropping litter they will be working to reduce this sort of anti-social behaviour across the area. Fortunately this sort of behaviour is only carried out by a few people, but it has a significant impact on the street scene, and can also be a danger to health.   (And don’t forget that dropping cigarette butts is also litter.) Contact the Wardens, Paul Sweeney on 077344 387 888 or Kylie Calder on 07734 387 889 (or via the office on 01903 813 236) if you have information on regular sites/times when this sort of anti-social behaviour is carried out.

The Wardens will be continuing with their work to control other sorts of bad behaviour such as under age drinking in our recreation grounds, whilst at the same time working with the junior wardens from the Upper Beeding (and soon Steyning) Primary Schools.

And they are still able to help those more older residents who are unable to get out by collecting medicines etc for them.

Our Neighbourhood Wardens are doing a great job - help them to do an even better one!

The consultation period will be from May to July 2008.

The County Policy & Resources Select Committee on Wednesday (7th) at County Hall will be considering the methods used in preparing the draft Strategy, whether additional groups might be engaged in the preparation of the Strategy work and how to promote the consultation in local communities.

The Strategy will be for all the population, not just those who have been traditionally been supported because they have been seen to have the highest needs. It should: -

aim to build strong and cohesive communities where individuals feel included and recognise their responsibilities;

assist individuals and communities to access services and opportunities with minimal intervention; and

encourage service providers to work as partners in focusing needs and aspirations of people, ensuring that there are high quality affordable services, and improving information provision from a variety of sources including through the web, so people can identify, and take, opportunities and choices.

I will be suggesting that Parish Councils should be included in the consultation, and will be reporting on this the Upper Beeding and Bramber Parish Council meetings this week.

A summary of the Framework document is available from the County Council at:

www.westsussex.gov.uk/scs

Please read the Framework, consider the information it presents, and then respond to the questions at the end of the document.

Upper Beeding Parish Council meets tomorrow (6th) evening at Beeding and Bramber Village Hall.  It is the annual meeting of the Council  when the Chairman of the Council for 2008/09 will be elected. The meeting starts at 7.30pm.

Bramber Parish Council meets on Wednesday (7th) evening at Beeding and Bramber Village Hall. It is also the annual meeting of the Council when the Chairman of the Council for 2008/09 will be elected. The meeting starts at 7pm.

Both meetings are open to the public and County and District Councillors will be present.

Following the improvements to the Downs Link/South Downs Way earlier this year, a second phase of works is planned for later this year to improve the South Downs Way eastwards from the bridge to the A283.

This will involve raising in part the height of the bridleway, lengthening the ramp down from the riverbank to reduce the path gradient, and laying an improved stoned surface.

During negotiations with the landowner agreement has been made to widen the path to facilitate these works and for the convenience of future path users. The present path gradient is no steeper than previously existed but, once works are completed, will be significantly shallower.

This is more good news for users of the Downs Link/South Downs Way through the Bramber Castle Division. Hopefully there will be more to come soon!

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has praised the party’s strong performance in the local elections. Gordon Brown said it had been a “bad and disappointing” election for Labour, as the party suffered its worst council results in at least 40 years. BBC research suggests Labour won a national equivalent vote share of 24% of votes cast in England and Wales, behind the Tories on 44% and Lib Dems on 25%. Lib Dems gained a net 33 councillors on top of an already impressive 2004 performance, and have taken four new councils – Sheffield, Hull, St Albans and Burnley. (BBC)

Nick Clegg said, “These are a very strong set of results for the party. Against the predictions of most pundits, we have successfully defended the record number of council seats that we won in 2004 - the best ever year for Liberal Democrats - and for only the second time in our history, we have outpolled Labour

“We have gained my home city of Sheffield, as well as St Albans, Burnley and Hull. We are also the largest party and came within just one seat of gaining overall control in Oldham, Warrington and Cheltenham. And we made important gains in key seats like Derby, Colchester and Reading.

In Wales too our progress has been impressive. We’ve made gains across the country and strengthened our position as the largest party in Cardiff.

This is a very strong performance and a great tribute to the hard work of our councillors up and down the country. It was a very good night for us.”

Go to the link for the Liberal Democrats on the left for more information.