Chance to have your say on future shape of transport in West Sussex

Chance to have your say on future shape of transport in West Sussex

People are being urged to have their say on the future shape of transport in West Sussex.

Further £50,000 approved by Chichester District Council for new district-wide celebration of culture in 2022

 

 

More funding has been approved by Chichester District Council to support the development of a new event to celebrate cultural activities throughout the district.

 

Chichester District Council’s Cabinet approved the funds at their meeting on Tuesday 6 July 2021.

 

The celebration is being developed by the Chichester District Cultural Partnership, which includes Chichester District Council, Chichester Festival Theatre and Pallant House Gallery. In March, leading creative consultant Gregory Nash was appointed as Project Manager to coordinate a number of cultural events to celebrate a number of key anniversaries, including 60 years of Chichester Festival Theatre, 40 years of Pallant House Gallery and 10 years of The Novium Museum. The additional funding agreed by the council will employ a Project Co-ordinator and a Creative Director to help with developing and delivering the additional activities during 2022.

 

The event will be a celebration of the creative power of individuals and communities and will involve a wide range of groups and organisations from across the district. Its values are to be innovative; bold; welcoming and inclusive.

 

The main aims of the festival will be to:

 

• celebrate the creativity of Chichester District
• showcase the next generation of Chichester creatives
• bring people together from different parts of the district to make things happen
• enable every child in the district to have a creative experience; and
• bring visitors into the district in order to help boost its town centres.

 

The proposal was inspired by several important milestones that key cultural organisations in the district will be marking next year:

 

• Chichester Festival Theatre: 60 years
• Pallant House Gallery: 40 years
• The Novium Museum: 10 years
• Chichester International Film Festival: 30 years
• Festival of Chichester: 10 years
• Chichester Canal Trust: 200 years since the canal was constructed.

“We are hugely excited that this celebration of culture is progressing so well and we are really looking forward to hearing more about the programme as it develops over the coming months,” says Councillor Roy Briscoe, the council’s Cabinet Member for Community Services and Culture. “As our communities recover from the pandemic we see events as being a key part of the district’s economic and social recovery. 

 

“We want the event to showcase what our district has to offer, offer a diverse range of activities and events to engage residents and visitors alike while helping to support the extraordinary range of local arts and heritage organisations that we have in the district. We also want to create a lasting legacy for future generations by inspiring young people and increasing people’s general engagement with culture and creativity.”

 

Gregory Nash has been leading on developing the project brief and programme, consulting widely with the district’s cultural partners as well as investigating funding opportunities. He is being supported in this work by Project Coordinator, Caroline Sharman.

 

“We are delighted with what has been achieved since the beginning of the development phase in April and by the exceptional level of enthusiasm we have discovered for the event across the district,” says Gregory. “We are now in conversations with more than 50 groups, societies and organisations. We are confident that the season will offer opportunities for people throughout the district and attract visitors to its city and town centres. Some really exciting ideas are developing in partnership with a range of people and groups and we hope to be able to announce more details about these in August.”

 

People across the district are still being invited to suggest ideas for events that they would like to see as part of the celebration and to let the organisers know of anything planned by their groups or societies during 2022. Ideas and suggestions can be emailed to chichester22@chichester.gov.uk

More information will be released as plans are developed. People can keep up to date on news from the council by visiting: www.chichester.gov.uk/latestnews or following its social media channels.

District Dispatch

5th July 2021
Housing is a huge issue for the district. Around 1,500 households with a connection to the district — such as people who have been brought up here or who are a key worker in the district — are waiting for a home in our area. Around 40% of these have urgent housing needs.

These people are your children, grandchildren, local nurses and other key workers. They are important people who we rely on and want to keep close by. We want those who grow up here to have the option to stay here and important key workers to be able to afford to work here — and so we need to make sure that there are homes of the right size and type.

This is why our planning powers are so important. Over the past year, nearly 200 affordable homes have been provided in the district, including at Graylingwell, Shopwhyke and Southbourne. This includes delivering shared ownership and affordable rental properties. Our housing policy, under the Local Plan, means that we can make sure that 30% of all housing on all larger developments is affordable and that this is ring fenced for those with a local connection. By far, the majority of affordable homes are provided through this route, and this is why it is so important.

We also work closely with housing associations and Community Land Trusts to deliver affordable housing and have invested nearly £1 million into these projects over the past year. This includes social rented homes in Bracklesham, Midhurst and Chichester.

On top of this, we are investing over £2 million pounds into expanding our short stay temporary accommodation for those who are homeless. This project has been moving forward throughout the pandemic and we hope that the seventeen new flats will be available early next year. You can see the progress that we are making here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtCjqpqo04c

The Government has also recently introduced a new scheme called First Homes. This new scheme means that a First Home must be discounted by a minimum of 30% against the market value. After the discount has been applied, the first sale must be at a price no higher than £250,000. ‘First Homes’ will be protected to ensure that restrictions are place on the property at each future sale to make sure that the home continues to be affordable to future buyers. These homes will also account for 25% of all affordable housing units delivered by developers through planning obligations moving forward.

There are also people who don’t quite fit the national system of income support. Every day, we make discretionary housing payments to prevent hardship and homelessness. This vital support enables people to afford housing in the private and social housing sector.

We’re also working really hard to make sure that rough sleepers access accommodation and the support that they need. Since the pandemic began, we have worked closely with our charity partners, including Stonepillow, The Four Streets Project, and HEART, to help transform lives. The amount of rough sleepers in the district has reduced from 32 in 2019, to three in 2021. This continues to be a priority for us, because we know that once rough sleepers are willing to access a roof over the head, we can then provide them with a package of support to help them get their lives back on track. We have some amazing stories over the past year where people’s lives have quite literally been turned around. We have also provided Stonepillow with £100,000 towards acquiring a property so that they can provide move on accommodation and we are bidding for more funds to further expand this work. To find out more about the work we are doing or to access support, please visit www.chichester.gov.uk/housing

Best wishes

Cllr Alan Sutton

Cabinet Member for Housing, Communications, Licensing and Events at Chichester District Council

Continue to play your part to stop the spread of Covid-19, urge Public Health leader

07 July 2021

 

Covid-19 hasn’t gone away yet’ is the message from West Sussex Public Health leaders as the UK prepares for restrictions to be lifted.

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For further information please contact the news desk on 0330 222 8090 or email pressoffice@westsussex.gov.uk.

For urgent out-of-hours enquiries please call 07767 098415.

£70 million in grants issued by CDC in past 15 months

Date of Release: Wednesday 16 June 2021         Ref:  4008

A review of the outcomes delivered by Chichester District Council since the pandemic began showed that over £70 million of grants were issued to local businesses, community groups and those residents who are struggling financially.

Diane Shepherd, Chief Executive of Chichester District Council, reported to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday (15 June) on the progress and achievements of the council over the past 15 months.

As well as working with partners on the emergency response, the council created four recovery groups last June, which identified the actions that needed to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. These looked at housing; the local economy; planning, health and environmental protection; and also the organisation.

“The past 15 months have been some of the most challenging any of us have ever faced,” says Diane Shepherd, Chief Executive if Chichester District Council. “I am so proud of our communities, staff, councillors and partners in the way that they have responded to the pandemic. Everyone has supported one another, whether that’s offering to pick up someone’s shopping, volunteering at the vaccination centres, or supporting our amazing local businesses.

“The list of achievements since the pandemic began is considerable. Over the past year we have issued well over £70 million of grants to businesses, community groups and those residents who are struggling financially. Due to the speed at which we issued our business grants, we also qualified for a further £1.1 million, which is also being distributed.

“We’ve worked tirelessly with rough sleepers and due to the hard work of our outreach team the amount of rough sleepers in the city has reduced from 32 in 2019 to 3 in 2021. We were also awarded a £324k grant to assist with ongoing support for rough sleepers and provided funding to Stonepillow to purchase a property for move-on accommodation and the construction of four additional rooms at the lodge.”

The council also launched its ‘Make your change count’ campaign to discourage residents from giving money directly to rough sleepers and instead to divert this money to local charities who can offer ongoing support. During the pandemic, the council has also been moving ahead with the development of its short stay accommodation for households who find themselves homeless. This is due to open next year.

As well as issuing millions of pounds in grants and support to local businesses, the council has been supporting its local high streets and businesses in many other ways.

“Supporting local businesses has been, and continues to be, a key priority for us Training, retail support grants, support for the self-employed and micro businesses, and working with the Observer series on a campaign to support local, are just a few of the actions we have taken. We’ve also advised businesses how they make their premises covid-secure, and offered reassurance to visitors through our Covid Ambassadors. We’ve got lots planned for the months and years ahead, including the launch of Invest Chichester; preparing for events to return to the district when restrictions ease; celebrating our cultural offering through a series of events next year; continuing to provide high quality business accommodation; and, attracting businesses to relocate here.”

Climate change, health, and planning for the future of the area are other priorities the council has been focusing on. While some officers have been directly responding to the crisis, others have been busy progressing vital work such as the Local Plan Review. Huge amounts of work has been carried out on this, including in relation to employment and horticultural development, to make sure that future planning policies are capable of supporting economic recovery.

“It’s important to point out that financially, the pandemic has hit councils hard too.

We’ve completed the first round of an efficiency review and are currently on track to achieve £932k of savings in 2021-22. Our target is to save £2 million across the next three years, but things are changing all of the time, and this may well need to be increased. We’ve also been developing our website and making it even easier for people to access our services online and improving our customer service centre ready for when it reopens. The safety of our customers, staff and councillors is a top priority for us. Although some restrictions have been lifted there is still some way to go, and so we want to assure our residents and businesses that we are here to support them every step of the way,” adds Diane.

Nutrition & Hydration week - Warning signs of malnutrition CM

Dangerous food products found online by West Sussex Trading Standards

A sampling program funded by the Food Standards Agency and carried out by West Sussex County Council Trading Standards found nearly half of packets of dried beans bought online contained unsafe amounts of pesticide residues.

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For further information please contact the news desk on 0330 222 8090 or email pressoffice@westsussex.gov.uk.

CIL monitoring report Birdham May 2021

Notice of Public rights and publication of unaudited return May 21

ACCOUNTING STATEMENTS 2020 - 2021

 

WSCC Talk with us – and meet your local County Councill

news release

04 June 2021

This June and July, West Sussex residents will have the opportunity to meet their local County Councillors and ask any questions they have on county council-related business.