Sidlesham Parish Council October meeting highlights - including trustee resignations from community association

By HILARY GAVIN

Friday, October 10th, 2025

I AM writing this report on Sidlesham Parish Council’s full meeting held in the St Mary’s Church Hall Parish Rooms on Wednesday, October 8th, after downloading two YouTube videos of the proceedings which is always time-consuming.

As you can see from the footage, Wednesday’s meeting covered a great deal of ground including an update on the gypsy and travellers’ letter to parliament, reports on the Devolution and Reorganisation of local government by WSCC Cllr Pieter Montyn and Cllr Donna Johnson in her role as a CDC representative.

During his report WSSC Cllr Montyn briefed parish councillors on Scotia Gas Networks’‘ planned gas pipe improvements at Stockbridge as workmen are expected to be digging up the stretch of road south the bypass roundabout to Grosvenor Road for SEVEN WEEKS from January 5th 2026.

In addition to her update on Devolution and Reorganisation, CDC Cllr Johnson updated councillors on the Melita site in Chalk Lane, which was the subject of a retrospective planning objection to a traveller site expansion in May 2025. (See link – Traveller site expansion refused near Chichester – BBC News )

The meeting received an updates on the GLAM meetings, road traffic calming, a parishioner’s petition and the overgrown Keymor Lane footway which results in “mums” with pushchairs walking to and from the primary school in the village stepping into the road which Vice Chair Nick Wade branded “dangerous“.

As usual, Mr Norman Robson attended the parish council’s full meeting in his role as the treasurer of Sidlesham Community Association (Charity Commission no 1164569) on Wednesday evening when he broke the news to parish councillors that his fellow trustees, Mr Paul Devonshire and Mrs Wendy Devonshire, had resigned.

If you watch the footage in my first video, you will see Mr Robson allege that a certain party acted unlawfully in the run-up to SCA’s AGM, which took place on Monday, presumably October 6th, 2025, by trying to call it off (see footage).

At this point I would invite you to watch Mr Robson‘s account of events at the SCA in the footage in my first video. You can also visit the Charities Commission site on Gov.UK to view SCA’s annual accounts and reports filed there since 2019/2020 and which you can download at home.

If you read SCA’s annual reports, it would appear that Sidlesham Memorial Hall and Recreation Grounds, which the parish council owns, were virtually derelict when Sidlesham Football Club left around five years ago and the parish council and SCA agreed to manage both concerns jointly as an experiment.

Thankfully, they able to invest £50,000, split equally, into improving the hall and grounds when the SCA received an NHS windfall during Covid-19 pandemic and, if I recall, Sidlesham Memorial Hall became a vaccination centre.

Of course, this income source dried up after the pandemic but Infinity Football Club (Infinity Football Club ) have since been paying SCA for the use of the Memorial Hall’s Recreation Ground and changing rooms.

During Mr Robson’s update on the SCA’s management accounts he told parish councillors that he had recently had to send “a warning shot across the bows” of the Infinity Football Club for late payments. He also advised councillors that Mr D Blackford had pulled the planned performance of Kindly Leave the Stage by New Theatre Productions, in association with the amateur dramatic company SCATS (Sidlesham Community Arts and Theatre Society) tonight and tomorrow.

If you go online, you can see the flyers for tonight’s and tomorrow’s scheduled am-dram performances of the comedy Kindly Leave the Stage, by John Chapman, in arrangement by Concord Theatricals Ltd on behalf of Samuel French Ltd with the contact details for D Blackford who dealt with the show’s bookings.

Unfortunately, my stills Canon E0S camera only takes videos in hour-long segments so it stopped as Mr Robson was still speaking. but you can pick it up again in my second video below:

Hilary Gavin – YouTube

As you can see, Mr Robson claims he received two “very grateful emails” from Infinity Football Club to “thank God certain parties have gone” and they look forward to a constructive future which included raising youth status.

I would invite you to listen to Mr Robson in my second YouTube video before the councillors discuss a football grant application and the current state roof repairs at Sidlesham Memorial Hall which it is still on-going.

Vice Chairman Nick Wade was in the Chair on Wednesday as the Chairman Martin Mellody, who attended the meeting, had only got back from holiday and the Parish Clerk Alison Colban briefed Cllr Wade beforehand instead.

As you can see Cllr Wade introduced item 8.6 of the agenda quizzing councillors as to whether they felt there was a “conflict of interest” if members served on both the parish council and as SCA trustees. At this stage Cllr Tricia Tull mentioned that in her past dealings with Hunston Parish Council the parish councillors as a whole served as the trustees for Hunston Village hall.

The Vice Chair Cllr Wade told the meeting that he felt this matter depended on the trust’s constitution. CDC Cllr Johnson warned that there could be a conflict of interest and suggested councillors seek advice from the Charities Commission.

As you can see my second YouTube video lasted just over 29 minutes during which time councillors discussed their new parish councillor email addresses, and an email from Yeep! asking if they would like parcel lockers in the village (Yeep – Your community, eco- friendly local parcel place ). Councillors heard that the village petrol station had Amazon lockers but it used different delivery firms.

Cllr Corina Hall also raised issue of water flowing along the side of B2145 opposite the Londis petrol station which recently had roadworks there.

Vice Chair Wade reminded the meeting that it was up to everyone, including parish councillors and parishioners, to report issues of this kind to WSCC so the Highways department could deal with them. As the meeting closed, Cllr Adrian Harland mentioned hedge cutting and the meeting heard about overhanging branches in Hunston.

I should say that Cllr David Guest and Cllr Mary Monnington were present at Wednesday’s meeting, Cllr Lewis Ramm sent his apologies for absence and Cllr Tracy Parsons was unable to attend proceedings for personal reasons.

Please note that I intend to add a link to the parish council’s agenda for Wednesday’s meeting sometime later today, along with timings allowing you can skip footage to the items that interest you.

In the meantime, I am publishing my blog post on WordPress here as written by 10am on Friday, October 10th, 2025, (and updated before 12noon) and I should say that you can view the agenda at the Sidlesham Parish Council website http://www.sidleshamparishcouncil.gov.uk

UPDATE: Monday, October 13th, 2025 at 8am. Please note that I took the weekend off so I haven’t added the timings to this report. As yet, I do not know the reasons why Mr Paul Devonshire and Wendy Devonshire resigned as trustees of the Sidlesham Community Association or whether the two planned am-dram productions of Kindly Leave the Stage did or didn’t go ahead at the weekend. HG

Hilary Gavin

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

Hilary Gavin

Freelance Journalist & Writer

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Tel: 07940 444664

Email: grumpywoman@hilarygavin.blog

http://www.hilarygavin.blog

One response to “Sidlesham Parish Council October meeting highlights – including trustee resignations from community association”

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January 7, 2026 at 2:03 pm

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