Latest News of Local Interest

Resurfacing the coastal car park

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Coastal car park resurfacing
The Shoreham Herald reports:

From 8:00pm tonight until 6:00am tomorrow, road users travelling eastbound on the A27 wishing to join the A23 northbound and southbound will be directed to remain on the A27 to Hollingbury Interchange (Carden Avenue) and return westbound.

From tomorrow for four nights, between 8:00pm and 6:00am, road users travelling westbound on the A27 will be diverted on to the A283 southbound at Adur Interchange, then, via Old Shoreham Road, on to the A259 Brighton Road, Shoreham, and Grinstead Lane, Lancing, before rejoining the A27 at Manor Road Roundabout.

Full story here.

Steyning Festival feedback

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The Sixteen at Steyning Festival 2014
If you attended any of the events earlier this summer, then the organizers are keen to hear from you. Email your comments or suggestions to admin@steyningfestival.co.uk. They want to know what events you attended, which you enjoyed, which you didn’t enjoy and why, your thoughts on the ticket pricing, your thoughts on the printed programme and the website, and what you thought about the communications and marketing in general. Finally, they are interested to know what direction you think the Festival should take in the future.

If you prefer to just tell people your age, sex and ethnic group and strongly dis/agree about things, then they have a questionnaire [DOC] that should meet your needs.

Fewer complaints

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Shortlisted for planning excellence in 2014
The Midhurst and Petworth Observer notes a report to the SDNPA from its director of planning, Tim Slaney:

[The] report showed that a total of 19 complaints were received in the year to March 31, 2014 compared with 32 the previous year when the new planning administration system was introduced and “numbers are considered to be relatively low”. .. A total of 2,366 planning applications were decided 
across the park last year by the authority’s own planning committee and all the planning authorities inside its boundaries. .. Almost 80 per cent of the total were decided in the allotted timescale of eight, 13 or 16 weeks and, said Mr Slaney: “This is considered to be a generally good overall level of performance.”

New bus service

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A section of the Southern Transit bus route
Southern Transit, a company based at the Upper Beeding butterfly sanctuary, is introducing a new bus service between Shoreham and Horsham that will run every weekend over the period 26th July to 7th September this year. There’s a stop in Small Dole, buses run every couple of hours, and the usual fare concessions apply. Click the map above to download a timetable [PDF].

Update: The Argus reports here.

WSCC dating website

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WSCC dating website

West Sussex County Council runs a dating website, love.westsussex.gov.uk which enables members of the public to meet, and perhaps even marry, council employees. Council employees have secure employment, reasonable salaries, comfortable pensions and better than average looks which makes them a sensible choice in the mating market.

Er, no, not exactly. At least one of those claims is as misleading as the name of the website. The purpose of the latter is altogether more prosaic. But useful, nonetheless. Check our new reference page, ‘Potholes, etc.‘, under the ‘The Environment’ menu near the bottom of the left sidebar.

Removal of overhead power lines [2]

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Eyesore on the ridge above Fulking
The South Downs National Park Authority has another relevant press release on this topic:

UK Power Networks, which delivers electricity supplies in the South East, has just completed a project to remove 1.4 miles of power lines, poles and equipment at the Rathfinny Wine Estate. .. The £426,513 improvements were funded by the electricity distributor’s £6.6 million initiative to enhance nationally-protected landscapes. New underground cables have been laid to replace the power lines on the wine estate and National Trust’s Frog Firle Estate.

Pete Currell, from the South Downs National Park Authority, said: “This underground cabling is just one of three schemes happening in the National Park over the next two years and we hope that we’ll be able to announce two more in the very near future.”

The projects are chosen by a regional steering group of environment experts, including the South Downs National Park, and chaired by Natural England. UK Power Networks provides technical support and guidance and carries out the projects. Between 2010 and 2015 UK Power Networks has £6.6million to invest in projects to replace overhead lines with underground cables in AONBs and National Parks in the South East. Since 2005 the company has removed 86km of power lines to enhance some of Britain’s most important landscapes.

Earlier post here.

SDNPA issues first article 4 direction

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Soberton view
The Hampshire Chronicle reports:

For the first time, the national park authority has removed planning rights for a field at Bere Farm, Soberton, following concerns that the owner was preparing to subdivide it with fences. .. The 20-hectare field has been recognised for its contribution to local views by the Soberton and Newtown Village Design Statement. The article 4 direction removes ‘permitted development’ rights for fences and gates to help protect the panorama. It does not prohibit their erection but means that planning permission is needed beforehand.

The full report is here and the SDNPA press release is here.