Watch our local parish council online on my blog and social media sites

Hunston councillors meet tonight for their Annual Council Meeting

hunston Parish Council — SHEDDING LIGHT ON LOCAL ISSUES: the venue for today’s council meeting

By HILARY GAVIN

(UPDATE Thursday, May 22, 2025, 9.45pm : You can watch Monday’s Annual Parish Council Meeting in my latest blog post Concerns Raised Over Bus Stop Safety at Parish Meeting (see link below) which I posted on my WordPress site earlier today. In it, I primarily address the question I raised in the meeting about road safety on the B2145 and my frustration that WSCC Highways appears to be ignoring a letter I sent them in July 2024.

Concerns Over Bus Stop Safety Raised at Parish Council

TUESDAY LUNCHTIME, May 20th, 2025: Just writing an update at lunchtime on Tuesday, May 20th, to inform my readers that I attended yesterday’s meeting and that I intend to post my footage online as soon as is humanly possible – Hilary Gavin.)

I’M writing this blog post at breakfast-time this morning (Monday, May 19th, 2015) to inform you that I’ll be posting this evening’s Hunston Parish Council meeting, which is taking place in my village, on my WordPress, Substack and Social Media sites.

Given their previous meeting, which I attended two months ago, it should be an interesting and informative event in my busy life.

If you missed my writer’s sketch recounting the meeting in March on this blog – here’s the link to it Hunston Parish Council Discusses Possibility of New Village Hall. https://hilarygavin.blog/2025/03/18/finally-some-politicians-talking-common-sense/

As I said it was a lively, informative meeting when parish councillors discussed a variety of village matters including anti-social behaviour, vandalism at children’s playground, hedge-cutting at the playing fields, The Selsey Greenway Route, whilst also mentioning that rumours had been circulating locally about what might be happening with Dudman’s, the local aggregates company. These rumours were not discussed in public at the parish council meeting in March, 2025.

A young man, named Benedict Target, was co-opted as a new parish councillor and Carol Smith, Hunston Parish Clerk, updated councillors on the response to the council’s feedback survey about the possibility of building a new village hall either at the current site on the Selsey B road or across it.

At the time, the meeting heard that Hunston Parish Council had received 39 completed questionnaires, out of a village population of around 1,000 villagers, quizzing households about the possibility.

I have to admit that this number seemed low to me, but – given our modern-day apathy for parish council matters – I can only assume the Chair, Wendy Gray, was right when she described the response as “a roaring success”.

The parish councillors were due to meet in private on April 14th, 2025, to pore over the feedback to their new village hall survey and issues raised in the survey responses, so I presume they will be discussing their findings publicly today.

You can find a copy of the agenda for tonight’s Annual Parish Council Meeting, and minutes of previous approved parish council meetings, at the Hunston Parish Council website http://www.hunstonparishcouncil.org.uk

As for myself, I have decided to film tonight’s proceedings as a matter of public record as both journalists and members of public have a legal right to do, and there is no outlet to cover parish council meetings responsibly in my local Press.

Our Hunston Parish Council Clerk, Carol Smith, has emailed me to confirm I can film tonight’s proceedings in accordance with the council’s guidance to protect the privacy of the general public. She has also advised me, both in an email reply to me and in person, that the council will be ‘undertaking’ its own audio recording of today’s meeting ‘to ensure the authenticity of any media posted on the internet’.

Before signing off this blog post, I should say that Carol Smith made me aware that some of the councillors aren’t comfortable with being filmed in this manner, and I know at least one councillor is wondering why I want to make a public record of the parish council meeting online and on my Social Media.

If they are wary and worried about my intentions, I would refer them to my previous blog post on my WordPress site hilarygavin.blog, entitled Reviving Local Journalism: A Call to Action https://hilarygavin.blog/2025/03/02/being-selective/

I should say that I intend to ask a question myself about the busy B road to Selsey which runs through our little village at tonight’s meeting during the allotted time for residents’ questions. I am happy being filmed doing so, but I will be posting the rest of the meeting in full on my Social Media following the parish council’s privacy guidelines.

May 19th, 2025

Hilary Gavin

A freelance journalist who wants to see a return to public accountability in the local press

Also at Facebook, LinkedIn and Substack

Hilary Gavin, Journalist and Writer, T/A Business ‘n’ Commas

Hunston, West Sussex, PO20 1NY

Hilary Gavin

Like this:

Discover more from Hilary Gavin

Leave a Reply Cancel reply