April 2017

As of the first of April the parish council has a new Clerk, Louise O’Callaghan, Rachel will hand over the finances at the end of the May and Louise we then be in charge. The parish council thank Rachel Orr for all her stirling work over nearly two years. Communication by email with Louise is exactly the same, so anything that arises that you feel should be bought to the parish council’s attention do please contact any of the parish councillors or Louise on the same email address.

Something that the parish council, in particular Cllr Wendy Brown, has been focusing on recently is clearing drains and ditches. This spring we are taking a proactive approach, having spent several years clearing drains, ditches and culverts that had been long neglected, we can finally target our efforts on areas that tend to flood, overflow or block readily. In particular you will have noticed the water pooling just south of the Permissive path before Couch Farm Lane, our contractor has dug soakaways and this water has now ‘soaked away’. All drains into the village have been cleared, and the stream that rises in the middle of Sutton Hollow, has hopefully been diverted by a newly created ditch, which you can see as you go down the hill on the left hand side. We are hoping this new ditch will stop, or at least drastically reduce, the water crossing the road and then freezing. Finally, now the winter is behind us we will be pushing to get our annual road repairs done very soon.

One of the many communication the parish council are sent by WSCC is the draft neighbourhood plan and sustainability appraisal for Petworth. I haven’t had a chance to look at this yet, but thought this might be of interest given its proximity to us. You can gain sighting of these documents by visiting Petworth Town Council’s website.

Finally, to remind you of the date of the annual parish meeting. This will be held in the Village Hall on Wednesday 24th May at 7pm, and our guest speaker will be Ian Wrightman, senior historic buildings advisor at CDC.

John Cross

Chair Sutton and Barlavington Parish Council

Next Parish Council meeting will be in the Village Hall on 26th April commencing at 7.30pm.