Watch my footage of Hunston Parish Council’s meeting in May, 2025
By HILARY GAVIN
AN OLD and dear friend of mine WhatsApp’d teasing me yesterday by referring to the well-known proverb: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”.
I’d been struggling, you see, trying to upload my footage of Hunston’s Annual Parish Council meeting held in the annexe of our village hall on Monday, May 19th, 2025.
I’d turned to my friend, who has worked in computing for years, to ask for advice on how to get my Canon EOS camera to talk to my Acer laptop. I’m not going to bore you here on my WordPress blog with these struggles, but I eventually mastered technology with the help of a very knowledgeable member of staff at the London Camera Exchange in Chichester nearby.
Anyhow, you can finally watch my footage, as promised, which is published on YouTube, here in this blog post – or you can view on my Facebook and LinkedIn Social Media sites by clicking on the rather cumbersome links at the bottom of this post.
OK, now I’ve got the technology out of the way, I can now concentrate on Monday’s parish council meeting in depth. If you watch the footage, you’ll see that I raised my concerns about the busy B2145 which leads down to the seaside town of Selsey.
As I told the meeting, I’d been scared “witless” when I stood at the Stagecoach bus stop at the Green Lane T junction on a wet and rainy day two years ago waiting for the delayed no51 service.
I believe it is a 40mph speed limit on this stretch of road but it felt the cars, vans and lorries were travelling much faster that day as I stood terrified at the tiny Stagecoach bus stop. In fact, I felt so fearful for my life that I videoed the passing traffic in the hope they would see me and slow down.
Once onboard the bus, I think I tried to phone WSCC Highways to ask a council official whether they would be surveying the T-junction and would be liaising with Stagecoach to get something done there before someone gets killed. Of course, the WSCC automated switchboard had an array of baffling options and I think I was left on hold until I was told the council offices had closed because it was after either 4.30pm or 5pm.
So frustrating! No wonder we, the electorate, get ANGRY!
I should say that the reason I’m so concerned about this bus stop is because I’d been using it to reach Chichester Golf Club when I didn’t have a car at the time and I’d been terrified doing so as you can see from the letter I sent to the CEOs at Stagecoach and WSCC Highways in July, 2024, posted below.
As you can see from this letter, I’d also heard on the local grapevine that groups of teenagers, who weren’t yet old enough to drive, stood at the tiny bus stop after visiting the Escape Rooms at the golf club’s driving range, par 3 golf and football course and crazy golf complex. So dangerous!
Anyhow, I hope you watch the footage of Monday’s parish council meeting and my question to the Chairperson Wendy Gray when I asked her if councillors knew what was happening at the Green Lane T junction because the road surface there is a disgrace at the moment and I’m afraid someone will die there.
As I told the meeting WSCC is aware of my letter because they emailed me to ask me what I would like to see done there (NB: looking through my correspondence, my local WSCC councillor Sarah Sharp emailed me on September 2nd, 2023, and not 2024 as I had erroneously stated in my letter of July 7th, 2024, to say Highways officials had asked her to ask me what I would like done. EDITED: 22.15pm, May 23rd, 2025). Cllr Sharp is aware that I should like the relevant parties concerned, WSCC Highways, Stagecoach, Chichester Golf Club (Mapleleaf) and local residents living nearby, to investigate a safe route to and from the Stagecoach bus stop and the golf complex, because I sent a copy of my letter dated 7th July, 2025, and sent on 8th, July 2025, to her (EDITED: 22.23pm, May 23rd, 2025).
I’m sure you, my readers, know exactly what I’m going to say next, yes – that’s right – I’ve heard nothing from WSCC Highways or Stagecoach since, so has my voice as a VOTER gone unheard? I know Sarah Sharp, our local Green member county councillor was aware of my concerns because she was copied her in on my correspondence.
On Monday, David Betts, a local Chichester District Councillor, advised me to go on to the WSCC website to log my concerns – because, I believe, this leaves an audit trail – but why? WSCC Highways already know about my worries, so why do I have to let them know AGAIN! To my mind, it would seem WSCC and Stagecoach are choosing to IGNORE my initial enquiry because they haven’t sent me any updates on developments.
Really, I shouldn’t have to spend my precious time navigating WSCC’s cumbersome website to log my concerns as David Betts advised me to do. The onus should be on WSCC Highways officers, and local county councillors, to do their job, and fulfil their roles, to update me on my initial enquiries.
What has happened to my letter and my suggestion on the action I think should be taken?
Before signing off, I would make one last observation on WSCC’s insistence that individuals and members of the public, the electorate in other words, use its website to log concerns. I’d argue that this is DISCRIMINATORY against the poor, the young, the elderly and the homeless who find going online tricky and often don’t have the money or electric power sockets to do so.
Come on WSCC, Stagecoach, Chichester Golf Club and local residents. I know you can do better than this! One voice is lost in the wind, so to speak, but many voices can be heard.
COMMUNITIES WORK BETTER TOGETHER!
PS: I should make you – my readers – aware that my camera cut out after an hour when I informed the parish councillors and restarted my footage, so I have an extra minute or so of the meeting which I am hoping to post soon. I would ask you, though, to bear with me. As you know, I am trying my best, as a local constituent, to revive local journalism and, by extension, local democracy – but this will take time.
I can only hope that the proverb, “From little acorns do might oaks grow’, will ring true in my quest.
PPS: As I have informed my LinkedIn and Facebook contacts, my camera stopped filming of its own accord after around an hour of recording when I informed everyone at the Annual Parish Council Meeting at our village hall annexe in Hunston, West Sussex. I then resumed my footage, which lasted a minute or so becfore members of the public were asked to leave the meeting before parish councillors discussed confidential staffing matters. Hilary Gavin, added 7.25am on Friday, May 23rd, 2025. See link to my YouTube video below:
Additional footage Annual Hunston Parish Council Meeting on May 19th, 2025
- April 2026
- March 2026
- February 2026
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- Adventures in Amsterdam on my 1984 stopover to Cold War Berlin
- Weekly Facebook Round-Up: Law, order, and personal Insights
- Isn’t it time to change? My weekly news round-up is challenging you to ask whether the “law is an ass!”
- Hunston parish councillors discuss flooding and crackdown on drugs at March meeting
- My news in brief: A round-up of last week’s FB commentary
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19HkVjSfva/
Leave a Reply