By HILARY GAVIN
AND Then There Were None! I couldn’t help thinking about the blockbuster Agatha Christie mystery murder novel when I read the Notice for a Vacancy for YET another Hunston Parish Councillor.
I must say that councillors are falling like tenpin bowling skittles here in Hunston – first Cllr Theo Michell last spring, now Cllr Martin Simms and Cllr Charlene Simms early this year.
Of course, I was told that some Hunston parish councillors felt “uncomfortable” being filmed last year – but I haven’t attended the council’s past two meetings in November 2025 and January.
Put simply, I’ve no idea why Martin and Charlene Simms have stepped down but it seems Charlene has a busy time ahead going by the resignation notice and Thankyou message on the HPC site.
The Vacancy Notice for Cllr Charlene Simms posted at the parish offices in the Annexe of Hunston Village Hall is dated February 4th, 2026 (see below) giving electors TEN days to trigger a by-election by raising enough interest.
So, it would seem that deadline has been and gone and we’ll have wait and see if any resident steps up to be co-opted as a new parish councillor.
Cllrs Martin and Charlene’s resignations now leaves our village with FOUR parish councillors – Chair Wendy Gray, Cllr Sue Lucas, Cllr Becky Davis and Cllr Benedict Target(t).
This could make it tricky for HPC to form a quorum for future full meetings because at least THREE councillors need to turn up along with Parish Clerk Carol Smith for them to go ahead.
If I’m truthful, I thought most villagers knew that the parish councillors have been discussing plans to either revamp or rebuild the village hall – despite the lack of info on parish council noticeboards.
The parish council quizzed villagers about the future of the village hall last spring – but it appears at least one of my neighbours whom I spoke to tonight missed that news in The Hunston Voice.
If you don’t know The Hunston Voice is the council’s newsletter which Chair Wendy Gray told the Annual Electors’ meeting last May was an “excellent” publication but she couldn’t help feeling that it went into residents’ letterboxes at the front before being put into the bins at the back.
Okay, I know no one reads my WordPress site – hilarygavin.blog – but I’ve worked hard covering both Hunston and Sidlesham Parish councils to try to fill the gap left by our local Chichester Observer which doesn’t pay for reports, so it is frustrating.
The neighbour I spoke to tonight said she’d not heard this news so I told her to visit my website to get updates – but she was adamant that she doesn’t “go online”.
So how do we share local news if residents don’t go online and yet put council newsletters in the bin before reading them? I dunno, you tell me!
Right now it seems our parish councillors have the future of both our parish council and village hall in their hands. You need at least THREE councillors to make a quorate for parish council meetings and THREE trustees to run our village hall (see AI).
Meanwhile the clock is ticking.
Three down, four to go!
Hilary Gavin
PS: If any elected or co-opted councillor can explain in layperson’s terms how this fits in with the Devolution plans, feel free to enlighten me.
HILARY GAVIN
Copyright Sunday, February 15th, 2026
(PS: I wrote this copy on my Facebook page last night and have pasted it here. Please feel free to look me up at Facebook and LinkedIn)
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