Hilary Gavin

Sidlesham Parish Council: Round-up of the council’s full March meeting in the village

By HILARY GAVIN

I AM posting a round-up of a report on the March meeting of the full Sidlesham Parish Council held at St Mary’s Parish Rooms in the village in West Sussex. As you can see I had to edit the second and fourth video of this meeting in my report for legal and privacy reasons as stated in my write-ups below:

THE first video of the full Sidlesham Parish Council meeting held at St Mary’s Church Parish Rooms in the village in West Sussex on Wednesday, March 11th, 2026 when Vice Chair Nick Wade presided over proceedings. The Chair Martin Mellodey and Cllr Tracy Parsons were both absence and sent their apologies.

In this first video, WSCC Pieter Montyn updates councillors on county council matters, including the hold-ups on the B2145 at Keynor Lane when contractors left traffic lights up over the weekend; the rollout replacement of the Second World War gas pipes in Donnington; HGV traffic movements in Birdham, and Stagecoach bus diversions. Cllr Wade reminded Cllr Montyn that there had been a crash at the Donnington and Selsey road junction about ten days ago and Cllr Montyn highlighted the difficulties of diverting traffic to and from roads without the same classifications.Turning to “relative good news”, Cllr Montyn said WSCC was “bucking the trend” nationally with a reduction in fly-tipping before asking parish councillors to remind other people to register to vote in forthcoming elections. Cllr Tricia Tull quizzed Cllr Montyn about the “HGV movements” in Birdham, when he explained that two pre-commencement conditions hadn’t been been cleared yet. He went on to say that he wasn’t getting a response from Southern Water about their plans to upgrade the sewerage network “bearing in mind the 140 houses” due to be developed. Cllr Tricia Tull asked Cllr Montyn if nearby Earnley was in a similar situation and Cllr Montyn said it was. He added that Southern Water was “having a conversation” with the parish council “over the 100 houses” in Clappers Lane, yet he wasn’t getting a response at all. He said he wondered if Southern Water thought they had two years before construction is due to begin so they had enough time to think about it, before adding: “If they don’t deal with it, we’ll have another Clappers Lane situation”.

Before Cllr Montyn left the meeting, the only member of the public present asked for an update on the remaining ACTIONS on flooding at Highleigh Road and Keynor Lane and on the remaining sewerage items that had been raised, so I’d invite you to watch my footage. CDC Cllr Donna Johnson gave councillors an update on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) before rounding off this video to say only two issues affected Sidlesham (see next video).

THE second video of the full Sidlesham Parish Council meeting held at St Mary’s Church Parish Rooms in the village in West Sussex on Wednesday, March 11th, 2026. (Please note that I edited this second video by cutting out around 16 seconds of footage from 9.33mins into the video to 10.39mins for legal reasons when Cllr Mary Monnington and Cllr Tull discussed land at Hunston which the meeting heard was the subject of an injunction).

Cllr Donna Johnson told the meeting that the Melita Site Public Inquiry has been set at Chichester College for 6th July 2026 and her understanding was that the discretionary rate relief will come to Grants and Concession later this month. She said CDC was taking a pragmatic view of LGR by concentrating on, and getting larger projects “far enough down the road so they cannot be reined back” such as the coastal defences at Selsey.

After Cllr Johnson’s update Cllr Wade told the meeting that the only feedback he would like to give her was that – “in tackling” sites such as “Lodsworth, Melita and Westbourne” – that the CDC should look at a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency approach rather than simply relying on planning. He told the meeting he had discussed this matter with the Chair Cllr Mellodey and Cllr Wade felt that, until that happened between police, social services, HMRC, “nothing would move forward”. The parish council then had a lengthy discussion on this complex matter so I would invite you to take a look at the meeting’s footage. Cllr Johnson said CDC was “very close” to reaching its quota and once that was hit it would be “a lot easier to refuse anything else” and she was hoping that CDC should not have too many applications for new sites. Cllr Lewis Ramm ask Cllr Johnson about the procedures regarding people entering publicly-owned land and Cllr Johnson said this was a matter for Enforcement. Cllr Johnson mentioned the contentious issues at Lurgashall on the South Down National Park being which led to police being involved and Cllr David Guest asked if the site would be returned to grass field but Cllr Johnson said she did not know. At this point both Cllr Tull and Cllr Monnington brought up the land at Hunston which I have edited out. The footage resumes with Cllr Wade quizzing Cllr Johnson about the Enforcement emergency phone number.

As usual Sidlesham Community Association (SCA) treasurer Mr Norman Robson (10.28mins) updated the parish councillors on the Sidlesham Memorial Hall and Recreation Ground’s updated accounts and told the meeting there was a REAL surplus of £6,900 in February 2026. He said a Ferry Farm grant of £3,000 had been received but had not been spent. Mr Robson said as far as he was concerned “things were going on reasonably steadily” as the Memorial Hall accounts were slightly ahead of a year ago. He mentioned the bad weather and the knock-on effect of masses of football matches being cancelled, but he said there was really good news about use of the hall’s use, including line dancing and a young children’s group which was solid income.

He opened the floor up to questions when Cllr Ramm asked for a breakdown of the percentage the hall generated in income before raising the issue of the possible redevelopment. Mr Robson admitted there were “too many rooms” at the hall for a village of this size and can be heard saying the footprint of the building was too big. At this point I’d invite you to watch my footage (16mins) of the discussion of plans and a possible Lottery grant. At the end, Cllr Tull raised the question of what could be sacrificed at the current hall as she estimated that it would “cost millions and millions” to start looking at a new build now and said it was a question of whether this could be justified.

THE third Sidlesham Parish Council meeting held in the St Mary’s Church Parish Rooms in the West Sussex village on Wednesday, March 11th, 2026, begins with Cllr Wade suggesting that the parish council and SCA should both meet to discuss a route forward for the hall. Mr Robson said the lavatories would need upgrading if the current hall was going to be used over the next five years and also mentioned that a panel in the roof of the Infinity bar had recently fallen down. Cllr Wade asked whether a structural survey might to be needed and Mr Robson felt that this could soon be the case. Cllr Tull asked Mr Robson about the memorial hall and recreation ground’s reserves and Mr Robson said the cash reserves were topping £40,000. During this third video Mr Robson said the SCA did not have the depth of muscle of management skills to tackle “meaty issues” such as Safeguarding. He also told the meeting that he had drafted changes of the agreement with Infinity Football Club. The Parish Council Clerk Alison Colban asked Mr Robson to send the her 24-page Safeguarding document SCA had been considering redrafting for the memorial hall to her to look at. At the end of the video Cllr Wade mentions the £10,000 grant for heating for the clubhouse and its annexe, which could cost a total of £20,000. Cllr Wade said both he and Cllr Mellodey had recently met with the Selsey Community Hub and there could be the possibility of more money as Cllr Wade asked me if I could pause filming for this discussion to be “off the record”. I paused my videoing.

THE fourth video of the full Sidlesham Parish Council meeting held in St Mary’s Church Parish Halls on Wednesday, March 11th, 2026. Please note this footage has been edited and cut 7.24mins into the video for privacy purposes – when Cllr Adrian Harland asked the meeting where a SCA trustee lived – before being resumed 15 seconds later.

This video begins with Cllr Wade suggesting that councillors and the SCA meet to discuss and inspect the issues facing the village’s memorial hall. The meeting went on to discuss flooding in Sidlesham when the Parish Council Clerk Alison Colban told councillors about her impasse with Southern Water. The meeting went on to discuss the possibility of the parish council and SCA joining forces with St Mary’s Church to publish a joint newsletter online and in print. The parish councillors discussed an informal meeting of the business forum which is due to be held at the hall later this evening (Thursday, March 12th, 2026). Ms Colban said the RSPB had requested that only one bus stop at Ferry be built now as they didn’t want to cut back shrubbery at this time of year and she said she had to go back to WSCC and Stagecoach to ask if this was an option as work was expected to finish at the end of this month. The parish council has received letters of thanks from the charities they funded in February. Cllr Wade said a parishioner had written in about the level of maintenance on footpath 62 and the council parish has sent a holding reply to the parishioner until WSCC answers questions about previous issues at the footpath when Cllr Wade said they would be a better position to reply. The video ended with parish councillors discussing, and then approving, the parish council’s schedules of income and expenditure to the 28th February 2026.

THE fifth video footage of the full Sidlesham Parish Council committee meeting held in the West Sussex village on Wednesday, March 11th, 2026. In this fifth and final video of the March meeting, you can hear that Cllr Corina Hall sent in a letter of resignation to request that she step down in April 2026 but Vice Chair Nick Wade explained that the council had to accept Cllr Hall’s resignation from the date of her letter. He closed the meeting at 8.50pm.

By HILARY GAVIN

Copyright Thursday, March 12th, 2026

NB: Visit the official Sidlesham Parish Council website for a copy of the agenda for the full meeting held on 11th March, 2026

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

Hilary Gavin

Freelance Journalist & Writer

6 Southover Way

Hunston

CHICHESTER

West Sussex

PO20 1NY

Tel: 07940 444664

Email: grumpywoman@hilarygavin.blog

Discover more from Hilary Gavin

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply

Discover more from Hilary Gavin

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading