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Tressell Blog
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May 2009:
May 28th: Meeting of the Millennium Communities stakeholder group. It seems that the Millennium Communities site has been earmarked for the Government's 'kickstart' programme, so we might finally see something start to happen now .. hopefully. And we talked about the Sussex Arms Junction - it's being 'remodelled', but still no definite date for the lights being switched on. They're going to put in some temporary road islands and a lollipop patrol for the time being. We weren't happy about this ... I can't begin to imagine how Seaspace and the County Council could have got this so wrong. Peter Chowney
May 14th: Second part of the Annual Council meeting today! This time in the Council Chamber. At this one, we 'debate' the Council Leader's programme for the year, and vote on the chairs and vice-chairs of committees. The Liberals largely supported the Tories on all these, proving where their loyalties lie. Most extraordinary though was the election of the one Independent councillor (who was elected to the council as a Tory) as Chair of the Audit Committee. This is an important committee, which the council has to have by law. The chair also can't be from the controlling party. Usually it's someone from the main opposition group, to make sure financial and efficiency issues are properly scrutinised. But making the one independent councillor, who supports the Tories on all important issues, the chair of this committee is bizarre. I can only assume the Tories have got something they want to hide, and don't want to be exposed. Peter Chowney
May 13th: First part of the Annual Council Meeting today, where we all sit on the stage of the White Rock Theatre with the spotlights on us, so we can elect a mayor and Council leader. The meeting got complicated this time as the Council also has to agree the make-up of the Council's Cabinet. After a lot of votes and amendments (which must have been incomprehensible to most of the audience) the Tories got the Cabinet they wanted, which will include 6 Tories, 3 Labour and 1 Liberal Democrat. So still not a politically balanced cabinet (that would have been 4 Tories, 4 Labour and 1 Liberal democrat) but the Tories have in effect recognised that they were wrong to have a one-party Cabinet. What we have now still doesn't represent the overall composition of the Council, which has no party with an overall majority, but the Tories still managed to force this through with the help of the one so-called Independent Councillor and the Mayor's casting vote. Peter Chowney
May 9th: At long last, the Sussex Arms junction traffic signals were finally switched on, after two years' delay in installing the scheme. And they caused so much chaos, they had to switch them off again! County Council officers say: " We will find out urgently why this has gone wrong and we will not re-commission the new signals until we know they will work properly." Oh well ... Peter Chowney
May 6th: Did some door knocking today, in Broomgrove Road, because of the work being done to the road there (the developer of the allotments site has to bring the road to 'adoptable standard' before they start building). Didn't get very far - a lot of people wanted to talk about it! Quite a few problems, but overall, residents seem pleased the road is finally being improved. Peter Chowney
May 2nd: Conservation work in the Upper Ore Valley today. A beautiful day for it, sunny and warm, and lots of local people turned up. The Ore Community Land Trust is getting plenty of applications for membership now including, encouragingly, local children. many of whom had turned up today, as this really is a perfect natural play space, as enjoyed by children for generations. I learned how to build steps, and how to use a storm kettle, which was fun. Peter Chowney
May 1st: Met with one of the Council's highways inspectors, a local resident and developers, to look at the construction of Broomgrove Road. The Highways officer has some concerns too, both about the width and the technicalities of the construction. The road will have to be 5.5m wide, plus a 2m footway to be adopted by the Council - and if it's not up to adoptable standard, the developers won't be allowed to proceed with the Broomgrove allotments site, where they're intending to build 38 new homes. We made this point very clear to the developers. Highways inspectors will now keep a close eye on it, as will I. Peter Chowney
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