Arundel Town Council Update in The Bell
Published Autumn 2021
From the Council’s diary, Spring - Summer 2021
Community Awards
May 10th: Covid rules enable us to present the final 2020 Community Award to Rainbow and Brownie Leader Rachel Stanford, for her brilliant work done in holding weekly Zoom meetings throughout the lockdown. Presentation incudes mountains of hot dogs from an open fire!
Elevensies
May 17th: First meeting of the Monday morning Elevensies at the Lido. Open to anyone who feels like a coffee, cake and a chat, including people with dementia and their carers. Led by Jackey Burzio of the Co-op and Lido Manager Nikky Richardson, the meetings are supported by the Co-op, the Post Office, the Town Council, the MACE fund and the Chamber of Commerce.
On ensuing Mondays Elevensies flourishes. Attendance rises. School choirs and musicians provide entertainment. Some people paint with local artist Pauline Lovell. Concurrently there is a campaign to make Arundel a ‘Dementia Friendly’ town, with Cllr. Joe Riley and Jackey Burzio speaking to local businesses and organisations.
Town Meeting
May 25th: Canon David Parmiter kindly allows us to hold our 2021 Town Meeting in the Cathedral. You could hear a pin drop as Canon David Twinley and Parish Administrator Fiona Maxwell describe the work done by the 200 St. Nicholas Parish Church Community Volunteers. One volunteer has carried out 112 jobs for a vulnerable resident. Deep relationships have been forged. Nick Field describes the progress of the Bee Project. Everyone in Arundel will have a chance to get involved. Finally, Jackey Burzio describes the start-up of the project to make Arundel Dementia Friendly. Arundel has a wonderful community spirit. We all have to do everything we can to nurture it.
The Town Meeting was filmed and can be viewed on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9JEVcxiV-c
Grants
8th July: With income from weddings coming in strongly again, we can resume our quarterly grant awards . At this meeting we provide grants to the Victoria Institute, Citizens Advice, ACE (for their cycle training progamme) and Arundel Community Partnership for the email news bulletins, which will be fortnightly from September. All valuable for the community.
Arundel Clean-Up Day
June 12th: Arundel sparkles in the sunshine again after the Clean Up. Participants included Arundel Church of England Primary School, St. Philip’s Primary School, the Arundel Scout and Guide Group, the Arundel Bee Project, St. Nicholas Church, the Arundel Community Orchard, the Co-op, the Lido, the Chamber of Commerce, Mackley and Tivoli, together with individual residents. The youngest volunteer is 3 years old, the most mature is 85. Rubbish collected includes abandoned road signs, a £20 note, a £1 coin, an old spoon, a mattress, a large number of empty spinach packets, a baby’s dummy, a wheel, and lots of beer cans, beer bottles and discarded face masks. At 3.30pm on Saturday afternoon the Biffa team collect 40 sacks of rubbish.
We are fortunate to live in a beautiful town, and clearly many people in our community want to contribute to caring for it.
A Safe Footpath and Cycle Path to Ford
16th July: Pupils from Arundel Church of England Primary School interview passengers at Ford Station, and encourage them to support the campaign to get a safe pathway between Arundel and Ford Station. Response is positive. One passenger comments, “it’s dangerous to cycle down this road and walking is even worse”.
The campaign has moved forward strongly since the original letter asking for a safe pathway was signed by 56 community leaders, headed up by the Mayor, the Duke of Norfolk and MP Andrew Griffiths, back in February. A Steering Group on which Highways England, West Sussex County Council, Arun District Council and Arundel Town Council are represented is now developing a business case to secure funding for detailed design work to be undertaken in 2022. Other local councils, including Littlehampton and Bognor Regis have expressed strong support. It is now envisaged that this path will extend to Littlehampton, providing access to the N2N cycle path and improving connectivity across the south coast.
A27
July 20th: Highways England report that detailed route design work for the proposed ‘grey’ bypass route is on schedule. Work includes mitigating the effects of the road for local communities and protecting the habitat of wildlife. The Bypass Design will be submitted for a public consultation in the Autumn of 2021.
Welcome Back Fund
July 21st: Arun District Council has a grant of £208,718 from government to help the district’s High Street to recover safely. Our application goes through 9 drafts, because there are lots of strings attached to what you can use the money for. We are awarded £27,000 for a range of projects, many of which are Chamber of Commerce initiatives. The first small sign of this is the bunting in the High Street.
Waving the Flag for the Festival
July 22nd: With Sharon Blaikie, Chair of the Festival Committee, to ACE and St. Philip’s to judge the flag- making competition. The children have been making flags for the Festival opening procession on the 20th August, and their work will then be displayed in Arundel Cathedral. The flags really capture the spirit of the Festival and are so vibrant that as we award the prizes we really feel as if the Festival has started.
Emergency Planning
July: Our Flood Advisor, Derek Waller, reminds us that what has happened in recent weeks in Germany, Belgium and London, might happen here one day. Our Tidal Flood Defences will hold, but water could find its way to Arundel from other, less-well protected locations, or surface water could enter lower Arundel from higher areas. With this in mind, the Town Council has formed two new working groups: one to work on an Emergency Plan should the worst ever happen, and the other to work on how Arundel can contribute to protecting the Environment and preventing damaging climate change. Everyone in Arundel is invited to join these, or any other of the Council’s working groups as listed on the Town Council website.
Join the Council
We will be co-opting two additional councillors in the Autumn. If you are interested in applying, please contact the Town Clerk, Carolyn Baynes at townclerk@arundeltowncouncil.gov.uk
ARUNDEL TOWN COUNCIL
“The Town inspired by Heritage and Nature”