Subsidised bus services that operate under contract to the County Council in the Horsham District area are to be re-tendered during the winter 2008/9. The 1985 Transport Act requires that contracted bus services are re-tendered at least every five years, and the new contracts will run from the end of March 2009.

It is expected that the timetables on these services though my Division will for the most part remain the same as at present. Unfortunately the Tories are unlikely to make any additional County Council finance available to allow significant improvements to be made to any services.

The services which might be used by people from my area to be re-tendered are listed below:
Service 17 (Sundays) Horsham - Cowfold - Brighton: Two hourly operated by Compass Travel
Service 23 (Sundays) Horsham - Ashington - Worthing: Two hourly operated by Compass Travel
Service 100 Pulborough - Storrington - Steyning - Burgess Hill: Hourly operated by Compass Travel
Service 101 Horsham - Billingshurst - Pulborough: Hourly operated by Compass Travel
Services 108/109: Lancing - Steyning - Horsham: Shopping services operated by Compass Travel

The main concern about the present 100 timetable is that it runs at almost the same time as the 2A between Upper Beeding and Steyning. Clearly this is of no value to those residents who wish to just travel between the two. In addition, since the present 100 arrives in Upper Beeding from Small Dole just after the 2A has left for Shoreham, and in Upper Beeding going to Small Dole just before the 2A arrives in Upper Beeding from Shoreham, it is most unlikely that Small Dole residents will use the 100/2A as a way of going to/from Shoreham as they have to wait for nearly an hour before the next connection. I will be making these two points to the Public Transport Section reviewing these services, so that hopefully they can be addressed in the new contract.

If you have other comments or suggestions to make about any of these services please do not hesitate to contact me. I would be grateful if any comments you wish to make could be with me by early December

The current location of the Register Office for the District at the Horsham Old Town Hall has been less than ideal, not least because of the very poor access arrangements and there had been a proposal to move the facility to Park House in Horsham. However there is now a much cheaper option as the County Council has purchased the former Insurance Office building ‘Parkside’ which it is now renovating to become ‘County Hall North’ to re-house the County Offices in the area in one building.

Despite this option, instead of relocating the Register Office to the new ‘County Hall North’, which already provides impressive accommodation, including the banqueting suite, which may be made available for wedding receptions by a future restaurant franchisee, the Tories are sticking to their original plans to move the Office to Park House!

Lib Dem Morwen Millson, Leader of the Opposition on the County Council, has asked the Tory Cabinet Member making the decision how much will be paid to Horsham District Council for the accommodation at Park House, and what arrangements will be made for reserving parking for weddings. She pointed out that the adjacent District Council car park is a public pay and display car park.

The County Council has a modern Registrar’s Office at Centenary House Worthing for the Worthing area, why not a similar Office in Horsham? And, since ‘County Hall North’ is just a short step away from Park House the excellent planted and maintained gardens there could still be used for post wedding ceremony photographs.  

It will be a disgrace if the Tories press ahead with renting office facilities at Park House instead of using the excellent facilities which will be available at ‘County Hall North’ - at a time of considerable financial pressure on the County Council budget and Council Tax every opportunity should be taken to save money, not waste it!

Steyning Parish Council meets tomorrow (Monday, 10th), 7.30pm at the Steyning Centre. The meeting is open to the public and they can ask questions of the Parish, District and County Councillors present at the meeting.

Woodmancote Parish Council meets on Tuesday, 11th, at 8pm at the Parish Hall, Brighton Road. The meeting is open to the public and District and County Councillors will be present.

Make sure you are able to vote at future elections.

Go to the link on this website under Local Councils links. By having a postal vote you can vote whether you might be away on holiday or business on election day and of course you do not lose your vote should you be ill or have young children and your spouse is late back from work on the day.

Upper Beeding Parish Council also agreed at it’s meeting last night to recommend to the Chanctonbury County Local Committee that planning development contributions related to transport schemes could be used to help fund a new footpath from Silver Birches in Small Dole to Woods Mill.

This scheme was suggested by former Lib Dem District Council candidate, Marian Brown, to enable Small Dole residents to visit the environmental centre without having to get into their cars for such a short distance.

The Parish Council is also supporting the possible daily bus service running every two hours from Henfield to Worthing, subject to confirmation of support from villagers. Hopefully the next Upper Beeding Parish newsletter will contain an article about this and people will respond to the Council in good numbers.

I will also be supporting these two schemes at the next Chanctonbury County Local Committee meeting.

I recently had to complain yet again about some poor aspects of this year’s grass cutting of highway verges and that some verges continue to be ignored.

From colleagues on the County Council I know this is a problem throughout the County so I welcome the news that a new contract for grass cutting is being issued for next year. I understand that this will provide contractors with electronic maps of all urban grass, so hopefully this will ensure that no areas are missed in future.

We will still have to on our guard for poor standards and to report them to the County Council whenever they occur! I will post the work schedule for grass cutting as soon as I am informed.

The Chanctonbury area County Task Force met this morning to review the current situation and the progress on the plans for the Service next year.

The current service should include a white van for people to leave white goods (such as washing machines) for recycling as promised in the County Council letter to all residents a few months ago. This has not happened, and we were assured today that this was due to a delay in gaining Cabinet Member approval. This has now been agreed and a collection vehicle for such items will be provided by Horsham District Council (hopefully from next week) when the Mobile Waste Service attends the various sites.

There have also been delays in replacing the various recycling collection dry mixed waste bins based permanently at each collection site. This is due to long lead-in times for the supply of such equipment by suppliers who are also facing rapidly increasing costs (plastic bins, oil price rises). It could still be a few more months before the bins arrive; in the meantime people should continue the separate bins.

Task Force members also asked about the supply of free home composters to residents in the Chanctonbury area to help reduce the use of the Mobile Waste Service. We were told that as at 4 October nearly 3500 units had been requested by residents. If you have not yet taken up this great offer, please do so soon!

The new Mobile Waste Service from next year will be introduced on a rolling basis as Horsham District Council roll out their new improved kerbside recycling service. This is expected to be by July 2009 in the Steyning area.

Finally consideration is still being given to the provision of a new permanent Household Waste Site in the Chanctonbury area. A further report will be made on this at the next Task Force meeting on 9 December.

I had a very constructive meeting yesterday with Chris Chatfield, the Managing Director of Compass Travel.

He is very keen to try to improve the bus services to/from the Bramber Castle area and we talked about how this could be progressed. This will clearly involve consultation with the people of the area who would hopefully be interested in using improved services and with the various Parish and District/Borough Councils who would need to be involved.

He will now be contacting the various Councils to arrange a meeting when these possible improvement plans can be discussed.

As I have campaigned for improved public transport in the area for many years, I welcome this initiative by Compass Travel. All depends on the authorities involved and the willingness of people to use the bus rather than the car, but hopefully with good will this will be achieved.

Additionally, if this initiative does result in improved bus services it would also give those without cars greater opportunities to travel to Worthing/Horsham Town to work, go shopping or use the bigger leisure facilities. And, of course, it would give the people from those areas a better chance to visit the rural attractions available in the towns and villages of our area. A win-win situation for the economies of both areas to help offset the current downturn.

I am a member of the West Sussex Learning Difficulty Partnership Board.

At the Board meeting last week I met Martina Osei-Bobie who is one of the three part time members of the West Sussex Carers Support Service team. She is responsible for the Worthing & District area which includes the Chanctonbury area of south Horsham.

Although she already has contact with many people in our area who are caring for adults with learning difficulties, there are no doubt many others who are not aware that she might be able to help them in their role as carers.

If you are such a carer or know someone who is, and maybe needs help/advice, Martina would be glad to hear from you. She can be contacted by: - ‘phone 01903 528689, fax 01903 528611 or email martinaoseibobie@carerswsx.org.uk

The new community car park in Church Street is now open for use after the school day, at weekends and during school holidays.

Jointly funded by the Grammar School, Horsham District Council and planning contributions allocated at the request of Steyning Parish Council, this car park is an important addition to parking facilities in the Town.

The extra car parking facilities for the teachers will release spaces in the Steyning Centre (Fletchers Croft) car park they used to occupy during the school day and so the temporary car parking facilities along the access to Fletchers Croft Car Park ought to now be restored to grass.

I have been pressing for the signs for the new car park to be provided soon.