Parish Matters 32

Last month I wrote at length concerning the General Date Protection Regulations (GDPR), by now you will have received an email from our Parish Clerk asking if you wish to continue to receive parish emails. If you were on our list and received an email and did not respond you will no longer received Parish Council emails. If you were never on our email list and wish to be, or you never got around to responding on time then you can still email the Parish Clerk asking to be included on parish circulars, the Clerks email is listed in the back pages of the Village News.

As we begin to draw out of winter, fingers crossed that we are, we can already see the ditches and drains have served their purpose, many have silted up due to the annual soil erosion, but have avoided serious flooding and blocking access to the village The drain outside the Collis’s and another on the Street have become completely blocked with mud and gravel, while several ditches have become full with soil too. In the Autumn I reported that Cllr Brown had commissioned contractors and the council to have many of the problem areas dredged and cleaned out ready for the winter. So in being proactive in maintaining these we have avoided submerging part of the road at the Plantation, the flooding of the corner where Glatting and Folly lanes meet and improved the soak away on Sutton Hollow. This has meant the village has not been cut off from flooding despite some very heavy rainfall this winter. Despite our best efforts the ditches going down to the Bignor Ford have silted quickly and again we have water transgression the road. We will have to look at this again in the coming months and see if we can improve it further.

Another item we continue to monitor is the Village website, the use of the website is gradually increasing, with the Parish Council business being the most viewed/popular area closely followed by the Village Hall. Interestingly, we are getting hits from a far afield as Canada and America, although most viewings are closer to home. As we build up the website and continue to add archival material the website will attract more viewings and potentially bookings for events and businesses in the locality.

Finally, at the last Parish Council meeting Cllr Neave gave us an update of the parishes finances and we believe our budget forecasts are on target, and we therefore decided to informed WSCC that this parish wishes to have 0% increase in our precept.

Chair
John Cross
Sutton and Barlavington Parish Council
Next meeting on March 5th, 7.30pm, Sutton Church