At long last the new Steyning Health Centre opens at 10am on Monday, 1 September. For more information go to the Health Centre website via the link on the left.

In an article today in many national newspapers I understand that the Tories will be launching a drive to encourage healthier lifestyle and insisting that people claiming biological or environmental causes for their obesity are simply making excuses.

 

Well they obviously have no idea why most people get into this condition. Just one example from the whole variety of possible causes - for those on low incomes, is to compare the price of junk food/sweets etc with good nutritional meals/fruit etc – no prizes for guessing which is the cheapest. They are really launching a persecution of such people by encouraging bullying in the playground, at work and in the community. The outcome will certainly not reduce obesity but might increase the number of suicides.

This is the great news from Jennie Musgrove, the Project Coordinator for the new building which is due to be handed over by the contractor this Friday 22nd August - 2.30pm on time and within budget. Congratulations to Jennie and her team on this success!
Following the delivery of new furniture and fittings next week, the doctors, other health professionals and administrative staff will move in on Thursday 28th and Friday 29th August. The Upper Beeding Surgery will remain be open for emergencies during the move. The New Health Centre will then open to patients on Monday 1st September.

The existing temporary Health Centre buildings in Fletchers Croft are due to be removed on 2 and 3 September, so the Steyning Centre car park will be closed whilst the removal work is carried out. The work should be completed in time for the car park to re-open just ahead of the school term start on 4h September.

For more information about the New Health Centre click on the link on this website under Health services.

The official opening celebration date has yet to be confirmed but is still likely to take place in October.

 

The meeting of the Steyning, Bramber and Upper Beeding Local Action Team (LAT) today heard that the Steyning Zero Tolerance campaign is a success. The figures for anti-social activities are being collated, but the indications are that they show a welcome downturn on the figures for the same period last year. Good news for the launch of the campaign in Bramber and Upper Beeding next month.

However, aggressive behavior by individuals who have become intoxicated with alcohol continues to be a problem. In my view we must start to change the culture in this Country, that getting ‘merry’ or drunk is just a ‘laugh’ and is something to be expected, especially from young people. The media is to be blamed for promoting such a culture, particularly on television.

Not that the media is much better on the smoking front. How many TV programmes can you name where people are unnecessarily shown as smoking and/or drinking to excess? We cannot expect young people in particular not to smoke or to drink to excess when leading personalities are shown doing just that almost every night. It would surely not be difficult to eliminate such activities from television shows? The savings to the NHS from fewer smokers and heavy drinkers would be enormous, as would be the benefit to family life and community safety from a reduction in anti-social behavior from drunks on our streets or in their own homes.

The Police, Police Community Support Officers and our Neighbourhood Wardens can help tackle the drunks in our community, but the Government, media and people as a whole can do much more to show that drinking to excess is unacceptable in a civilized society. And let’s do much more to show that anyone with any sense or concern about their own, as well as other peoples, health should not be smoking at all, not just in those places banned by law.

The construction of the new Health Centre is expected to be completed later this month.

Provided all goes to plan it is likely that the move to the new building will take place at the end of August with the new Health Centre open for business from 1 September. The temporary Health Centre will close whilst the move takes place, but the Upper Beeding centre will reamin open for urgent appointments.

The temporary buildings at Fletchers Croft should be removed a few days after, but the Steyning Centre car park will have to close whilst this takes place. The new car park in Church Street (next to the Library) for the School (and community use after school hours and at weekends) should help relieve the parking situation at that time.

There will be more publicity about the move and confirmation of the dates at the Temporary Health Centre, in the local media, and hopefully the Parish Council’s ‘Steyning News’.

In a historic vote the County Council at it’s meeting on 6^th June voted by an overwhelming majority to bid to the Government to take over the functions of the West Sussex Primary Care Trust (PCT).

The Council was encouraged to take this action by the Government’s recently announced proposals to give people the chance to have a greater say in the way local health services are delivered, to help improve services to patients, and to make the local NHS more accountable to the people they serve.

Liberal Democrat County Councillor, Derek Deedman (Bramber Castle), proposed to the meeting that the functions of the PCT be brought under democratic control. The Leader of the Conservative Group congratulated Derek on bringing the proposal to the Council, which he said was one of the most important that had come before the Council in recent years. With some agreed amendments the proposal was accepted by the majority  Conservative Group and passed overwhelmingly, with the only opposition coming from the three members of the Labour Group present.

Mr Deedman said, “Local Government Association, Conservative and Liberal Democrat policies support greater local democratic control of local health services, and we should take up that challenge as to how that can be achieved, now.

“Direct County Council responsibility for local health services would enable the democratic deficit to be addressed, and would lead to improved working between health and social care. If it had already been in place this would have enabled the appalling original ‘Fit for the Future’ proposal, which, even now, has only been partially addressed at a high cost to the County Council budget, MPs’ and stress to the public, to have been avoided.

“Furthermore such a responsibility would give democratic control over the need for a new hospital in the Crawley and Horsham area which is currently of great to local residents. In addition the County Local Committee network would be an ideal forum for local monitoring and public consultation on local area health provision.

“Finally such an organisation would lead to considerable cost savings. For example it would need one Chief Executive and one set of support services for finance, legal, IT and personnel.

“This is a ‘win win’ situation - better, more effective and efficient local health and social care services, under local democratic control, and at a lower cost. I am delighted that the Council supported my proposal.”

Note - a full webcast of the debate can be seen via the West Sussex County Council  website link  from this website.

The meeting, open to the public, will be at County Hall, Chichester, starting at 10.30am.

The meeting may be filmed for live or subsequent broadcast via the County Council website on the internet. Log on to the West Sussex website (link from this site) at 10.30am on Friday!

Apart from questions to the Leader and Cabinet Members, one major debate will be on whether to approve more paid jobs for the Tories with an additional Cabinet post (for Education & Skills) and up to four more deputy cabinet posts.

Another debate will be on my Motion to welcome the Government’s proposals in the draft Queen’s Speech to improve local control over the National Health Service, by asking the Leader of the Council to call on the Government to approve a merger of the West Sussex PCT and the County Council.

In starting the debate, I will highlight the Conservative Chairman of the Local Government Association press release supporting giving people the chance to have a greater say in how their local health services are delivered. I will refer to the existing close working between the County Council and the PCT in a number of areas (£100m budget) and how this is proposed to be extended in the next Local Agree Agreement to work jointly on a number of targeted improvements to services.

I will stress how such a merger would address the democratic deficit in the current situation, which led to the appalling proposal as the original ‘Fit for the Future’ which has only been more-or-less corrected at a high cost to the County Council budget, MPs and stress to the public. Furthermore such a merger would give democratic control over the need for a new hospital in the Crawley and Horsham area. In addition the County Local Committee network would be an ideal forum for local monitoring and public consultation on local area health provision.

Finally such a merger should lead to considerable cost savings. Starting at the top, one organisation would only need one Chief Executive and one set of support services for finance, legal, IT and personnel.

This is a ‘win win win’ situation - better, more effective and efficient local health and social care services, under local democratic control, and at a lower cost. I hope the Council will support my proposal.

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?      

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.

Despite excellent speeches from seven local residents explaining why the planning application to extend the life of the Horton Landfill Site at Small Dole should be refused, including health fears, the majority of the County Planning Committee voted to approve the application.

Local County Councillor, Derek Deedman, in his presentation to the Committee, highlighted the continuing growth in heavy traffic throughout the area, the fact that the Head of Waste Management Services (the Waste Disposal arm of the County Council) had told him that the Site did not feature in the Interim Contract for Waste Disposal (thus shooting down the claims that there was a need for the extra waste facility at Small Dole), and that the draft County Minerals & Waste Planning Framework policy on land raising (which this scheme was) stated that it did not form part of the preferred waste strategy and was unlikely to be acceptable. He then read out an example email from two local residents showing what a very bad impact the operation of the Site had on their daily life. Derek also referred to the litter from vehicles going into and out of the Site and wanted an extra planning condition to require vehicle containers to be covered to prevent spillage or loss of material onto the public highways. He finally asked for the application to fill the present void to be approved by extending planning permission to 1 June 2009, (with a further 18 months for restoration only), but called for the bid for extra waste to be tipped at the Site to be refused.During the Planning Committee discussion some of the Committee members were concerned at the health fears which had been raised by the Henfield Medical Centre, outlined by some of the residents speaking against the scheme, but wanted this addressed by stronger planning conditions rather than to refuse the application. One Member took the view that his area had suffered from planning decisions in the past - so why shouldn’t Small Dole receive the same treatment! Another Member felt that although the Committee had refused a similar land-raising waste application in the recent past, because this had then been allowed on appeal by the planning inspector, the Committee could not refuse this application.

Two Members did, however, speak out against the application. One agreed that the present void should be filled, but that any further tipping went against what could be regarded under the Human Rights Act as proportionate in terms of its continuing effects upon the private lives and homes of Small Dole residents. They had had their ’share’ of waste disposal. The other Member felt that the quality of life of local people was important and the County Council should base its actions on improving and enhancing the quality of life of all its residents.

Following a discussion as to how the planning conditions could be improved to better control the toxic and other gases and smells from the Site, the Committee decided, despite the objections, to approve the planning application. The use of the Site for disposal of waste is now to cease on or before 1 October, 2010, with restoration to be completed by 1 April 2012.

Derek said, “I hate to lose any debate, and although the odds were stacked against the application being refused I really thought there might have been a chance this time. For the people of Small Dole it is an extremely disappointing decision.”

There was an excellent presentation at yesterday’s Learning Difficulties Partnership Board on the help that is available.

Many people with learning difficulties do not know how to look after their eyes, nor whether they can get help about this.

Stephen Kill at West Sussex County Council is responsible for helping adults with learning difficulties to look after their sight and wants to do more work this year about eye care and even start to help people look after their hearing.

Although the County Council and voluntary groups know of many of the people who can be helped in this way, there could be many others for whom there are no records. If you know of a person in West Sussex with learning difficulties with sight or hearing problems who does not know what to do about them, contact Stephen Kill for advice.

Stephen can be contacted on 01903 745331, stephen.kill@westsussex.gov.uk or via his website, www.lookupinfo.org

The five parish councils in the Bramber Castle Division will be holding their annual meetings over the next two months.

Although the meetings will be chaired by the chairman of the parish council in each case, they are not parish council meetings, they are the annual opportunity for the public to attend , make their views known on current issues concerning the parish and ask questions of the parish councillors. The parish council chairman will usually give a short report on the activities of the parish council over the last year and answer questions. There may also be a presentation on a topical subject by an invited guest which should be of interest to local people.

The meetings this year will be: -

Steyning Parish Meeting - 7.30pm, Monday 31 March at the Steyning Centre. Jennie Musgrove, from the New Steyning Health Centre Development Group, will give a short presentation on the new Health Centre and answer questions. (Note this is not a public consultation meeting.)

Ashurst Parish Meeting - 8pm, Thursday 3 April at Ashurst Village Hall. Steyning Parish Councillor, Marlene Carman, will be speaking about the Steyning & District Community Partnership and the Steyning & Ashurst Conservation Volunteers.

Woodmancote Parish Meeting - 7.45pm, Tuesday 8 April at the Parish Hall. Two of the major topics to be discussed will be traffic developments in the Blackstone area and progress on implementation of the Woodmancote Parish Plan.

Upper Beeding Parish Meeting - 7.30pm, Wednesday 23 April at the Beeding & Bramber Village Hall. The final list of speakers has yet to be finalised, but may include a representative of Viridor Credits (West Sussex) talking about the community grants available from the organisation (relating to landfill tax paid for waste going into the Small Dole site), and how they can be applied for.

Bramber Parish Meeting - 7pm, Wednesday 7 May at Beeding & Bramber Village Hall.

The Liberal Democrat Spring Conference yesterday backed plans to radically transform the NHS into a ‘people’s health service’ by empowering individuals and decentralising control to local communities.The measures will set the NHS free from central government control, make it accountable to the people it serves through elected health boards and deliver high quality services to all guaranteed in a ‘Patient’s Contract’.

Plans contained in the policy paper Empowerment, Fairness and Quality in Healthcare include:

·        Guaranteeing every citizen access to a high standard of core healthcare entitlements within maximum waiting times in a ‘Patient’s Contract’. To make sure that the NHS delivers, patients would have the right to receive private treatment, paid for by the NHS, if the waiting time was not met.

·        Introducing a ‘Care Guarantee’ by spending £2 billion on personal care payments for all elderly people requiring care, based on need and not their ability to pay.

·        Directly electing the majority of members of local Health Boards instead of unaccountable Primary Care Trusts, putting people in charge of decisions about their local health services.

·        Rolling out the use of direct payments and individual budgets for people with chronic, long-term conditions and mental health services.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb said:

“I am thrilled by this result, it is a very significant vote for the Liberal Democrats.

“The Government’s obsession with targets has distorted clinical priorities without giving specific rights to patients.

“Entitling patients to be treated in a private hospital if their wait breached a defined period would provide a real incentive for local health boards to ensure that hospitals deliver that treatment on time.”

County Councillor Derek Deedman said:

“I especially welcome the decision to directly elect people to Local Health Boards. If this system had already been in place the appalling ‘Fit for the Future’ proposals to downgrade our local hospitals, with no acceptable alternative arrangements in place would never have got off the ground.”

The Joint Health Overview Scrutiny Committee considered this evidence on the Fit for Future proposals for West Sussex and Brighton & Hove City PCTs’ at its meeting on 5 March.

The meeting was webcast so that you can see the meeting in full by clicking on to the West Sussex County Council website link to the left.

Once on the West Sussex site, click ‘Your Council’, then click ‘Meetings and Decisions’, then click ‘webcasts’, then click the webcast archive for the Joint Health Oversee Scrutiny Committee, 5 March.

Interesting viewing!

Following complaints from people about difficulties in finding the temporary health centre, the Local Highway Manager has agreed to Derek Deedman’s request for a couple of signs to be erected directing people to the temporary Health Centre near the Steyning Centre.

They will be at the Church Street/High Street junction and at the entrance to the Fletchers Croft access road.

Derek Deedman reported:-

1. Horton Landfill Site - the planning application is due to be heard by the County Planning Committee on 8 April, there will be a site visit by Committee members on 3 April. The current planning permission expires on 31 March, but no enforcement action will be taken to stop tipping whilst the current planning application remains to be determined. If it is refused, no enforcement action will be taken if there is an appeal until that is determined, which could be another 15 months.

2. The next Chanctonbury County Local Committee (CLC) meeting is on 18 March at Pulborough Village Hall, starting at 7pm. The main item on the agenda will be a discussion on the proposed closure of the Mobile Waste Service. Under the bids for a CLC grants, a decision will be made on the Upper Beeding Parish Council bid for a grant towards a new bus shelter outside the Kings Head and a Beeding & Bramber Village Hall bid for a grant towards the replacement of radiators at the Hall.

3. A response is still awaited from the Safe Routes to School Team regarding improvements to the Pound Lane/Monks Walk twitten where it goes through the Monks Walk garage compound.

4. The repair to the interactive speed limit sign opposite the Village Hall in Small Dole is awaiting a spare part. Also in Small Dole, County Officers have been requested to consult with the Parish Council on the design of the Village ‘Gateway’, planned for construction during 2008/09.

5. The reasons behind the latest electoral review of the County Council divisions, and the possible impact on the Bramber Castle Division if the Horsham District were to have an additional County Councillor.

6. The new Health Centre was due to open in Autumn 2008. A newsletter was being produced to give more details of the building and the services which might be available.

7. The interviews for the new Head of Upper Beeding Primary School, to replace the existing Head who was retiring in the Summer, would take place on 8 & 9 May.

8. Recent publicity about new incinerators in West Sussex was based on very old news regarding possible sites for waste management facilities. Nothing had changed in the past few months and arrangements to decide on the successful bid for the Materials Resource Management Contract dealing with the waste left after recycling etc were still in progress. The new contract would not be signed until 2009, and so it would not be known until later this year whether the old cement works site would be proposed to be used as part of that contract.

A well attended meeting on Tuesday afternoon heard from a number of speakers, representing the New Steyning Health Centre Development Group about the proposals for services in the new building which is due to be open this Autumn.

To enable more people to hear about the New Health Centre proposals, Jennie Musgrove will be speaking on behalf of the Development Group at a Steyning Parish Council meeting on 31 March. The meeting will start at 7.30pm at the Steyning Centre.

The meeting is at the Penfold Church Hall, Church Street, Steyning starting at 2pm.

The major items on the agenda are the presentation/consultation on the New Steyning Health Centre from 2pm to 3.30pm and the Bramber Road Crossing, Steyning which will part of the main agenda starting at 3.30pm. Tea and cakes will be available.

Everybody is welcome to attend to make their views known, on both the major items and on any other matter concerning County Council services in the Chanctonbury area.

A presentation on the new Steyning Health Centre will be made at the next Chanctonbury County Local Committee meeting at the Penfold Hall in Church Street, Steyning from 2pm to 3.30pm. 

Speakers will include: -

Pat Arculus, Chanctonbury County Local Committee Chairman, who will open the event,

Jennie Musgrove, West Sussex County Council, will provide information about the Steyning Partnership Approach and the Care Closer to Home project, and

Dr Eric Noren, Senior GP Partner at Steyning Health Centre who will have information about New Service Delivery and Chanctonbury GPs working together. 

Put your Questions to a range of Professionals

Michael Bish, from ADM Architects and architect of the new Health Centre will be there to display the Building Design and Plans.

John Snell, Property Services at West Sussex County Council will have information about plans for the care home next door to the new health centre.

Chris Carey, Head of Property & Economic Development at Horsham District Council.

Tony Appleby, Principle Building Surveyor from Horsham District Council.

Sharon Plank, Adult Services at West Sussex County Council. 

Local County Councillor, Derek Deedman, and District Councillors, George Cockman and Len Warner will also be present.

There will be a Graffiti Wall available at the meeting to enable people to make their comments about any issues raised at the event. To make a contribution people will be able to simply write write a comment or question on a sticky label and put it on the Wall.

Liberal Democrats are opposed to the Government’s proposals for the building of replacement nuclear power stations and want radical plans for increasing the use of renewables and reducing overall energy use to be adopted instead.

Local Liberal Democrat campaigner Derek Deedman said,

“The Government is determined to push forward an expensive programme of new nuclear power stations, which will undermine the potential for an increase in renewable energy and energy efficiency measures.

“As well as the cost, there is the risk of accidents, the long-term legacy of waste and the danger of terrorist exploitation of nuclear material. Plus a new generation of nuclear power stations will mean that other technologies, such as renewable and carbon capture, are pushed out of the mix. This only serves to make the day that we can be fully sustainable further away.

“The Government should reject nuclear power and instead invest in reducing the amount of energy we use. The Liberal Democrats have put forward radical proposals to improve the energy efficiency of homes, here in Arundel & South Downs and elsewhere.

“By setting tough new insulation standards for new homes, and creating a system of ‘energy mortgages’, so the cost of energy efficiency measures can be repaid over the long-term, using the money saved from lower energy bills, we can reduce carbon emissions from existing homes by more than 60 per cent, and from newly built houses by 95 per cent, by 2050. That is more carbon than is produced annually by all the cars on Britain’s roads.

The next Chanctonbury County Local Committee (CLC) meeting will take place at 2pm at the Penfold Hall, Church Street, Steyning on Tuesday, 22 January.

The major item on the agenda will be a presentation by the New Health Centre Development Group. This will give a general update, share information and invite comment on the plans for the new Steyning Health Centre building and services, and other current NHS and Social Care initiatives affecting Steyning and the wider Chanctonbury area.

Derek Deedman is very pleased that the CLC and the Development Group agreed to his suggestion for this presentation. It will give local people the opportunity to be consulted, comment on and influence the proposals for the new Health Centre, which is still due to be completed in July 2008.

Derek Deedman reported the following to the Parish Council meeting on 4 December: -
1. The next Chanctonbury County Local Committee meeting on 22 January 2008 will be at the Penfold Hall, Steyning, starting at 2pm to include a presentation/consultation by the Health Centre Development Group on the proposals for the services etc to be based/available at the new Steyning Health Centre.
2. The County Members seminar on 28 November on the next stage of the Fundamental Service Review (FSR3) of County Council services had highlighted the significant reduction in chief officer posts from April 08, with further reductions in April 09, and the major change in culture for the County to become completely customer focussed. It is anticipated that this will lead to very large cost savings in County Council expenditure.
3. The planning application to extend the life of the Horton Landfill Site at Small Dole had not been considered by the County Planning Committee on 4 December. The next meeting is on 15 January 2008, by which time all the queries from both county officers and the Small Dole Action Group should have been answered so that a decision could be made to either approve or refuse the application. With the current planning permission running out on 31 March 2008 a decision must be made soon.
4. Viridor Credits, West Sussex will be meeting on 6 December when the Committee will be considering a grant application for a Skateboard site at Small Dole.
5. The new material recycling facility (MRF) being constructed at Ford will not now be operational until October 2008. When completed this will enable waste collection authorities such as Horsham District Council to introduce mixed kerbside collections rather than the current separate bins and also enable other material such as glass to be collected in this way rather than having to be taken to a household waste recycling site. This should improve recycling rates.
6. The next full County Council meeting on 14 December will be considering it’s response to the post office closure proposals.
7. As part of the safe routes to school improvements being introduced for the Upper Beeding Primary School, the County School Crossing Patrol Officer will be carrying out a survey just before or after Christmas to enable consideration to be given to the provision of a School Crossing Patrol at the Pound Lane/Hyde Square junction. If the results do not meet the national criteria then a voluntary patrol could be considered with the County Council meeting the cost of training, uniform and equipment. If such a volunteer was unpaid the School would need to carry out the CRB checks, if paid for from sponsorship (School, local companies, parish council etc) then the County would carry out the CRB checks.
8. The new yellow lines painted along School Road related to the safe route to school work, but unfortunately had been painted before the required Traffic Regulation Order had been published, let alone approved. They would therefore have to be removed as they cannot legally be enforced and so were causing confusion.