Published: 16 July 2024
FUNTINGTON PARISH COUNCIL
We have just been informed by WSCC Highways that we were unsuccessful with our recent applications for reduced speed limits in West Ashling, East Ashling and West Stoke, however we have been advised by Highways that we may wish to reconsider the scope of our applications and re-submit them, so back to the drawing board with this one!
At the January Parish Council meeting it was decided to raise the parish precept. Parish precept income is used to maintain/replace/repair the parish assets such as: The Dell, the parish playground, the Speed Indicator Devices, The Deliberators, the finger post signs, the bollards around the parish as well as pay a salary to the Parish Clerk (Rachel), who is the only paid employer of the parish council. As WSCC and CDC have less money to spend, they may well be carrying out less and less maintenance work, so in the future the task of clearing back footpaths and general maintenance around the parish could also become the responsibility of the parish council.
At the parish council meeting we also heard about a new ‘Flexibus’ service which will shortly be starting to operate around the area. The idea of the bus is that anyone wishing to use the service will be able to pre book a pickup and drop off time. As soon as we know more about this service, we will put all the information that we have about it on the parish council website.
We are still in need of a volunteer/volunteers to move the ‘Speed Indicator Device’ around Funtington and West Ashling, Kate DuPort who has been doing an amazing job of moving this devise about ,will shortly be stepping away from the role, if we do not have anyone willing to take over then this devise will no longer be operational, we are not permitted to leave the device in any one place for any length of time. Please contact the Parish Clerk for more information.
Please report fly tipping, overgrown footpaths etc. you can report many things on-line to WSCC or CDC, we as a parish council do report anything that we see ourselves or are informed about, the more people who report single incidents the quicker they are dealt with.
We learnt the sad news from Alan Chance, at our January meeting, that Funtington farm shop will be closing, this will be a huge loss to us all, but we thank Alan and his family for the many years that this much loved shop has served our community.
The parish council has received an application for the change of use of the office buildings in Cheeseman’s Lane into small light industrial units, the parish council do not object to this change of use, however they have concerns about a proposal to put 90 containers on the site.
We also learnt about the future plans for Waterloo Farm, with a change of use to light industrial and storage, members of the public and the parish council expressed concerns regarding traffic movement to and from the site.
A new tree has now been planted in Heather Close, the tree is in memory of Peter Hall and to give thanks to Peter and Angela Hall for the many years they both devoted to Funtington parish council.
Jane Mottershead.