Planning facts and figures

the enjoyment of children and families. As chair of the festival committee I am always amazed at the support we receive during Madhurst and would like to take this opportunity to thank the sponsors, local businesses, community groups, volunteers, artists and musicians, our supporters who buy tickets and attend as much as they can and our dedicated committee for making Madhurst what it is today, after ten years of growth.

I personally am excited to see what the next ten years bring to this exceptional community festival that celebrates creativity and builds our sense of community year on year. JESS BROWN-FULLER

Midhurst Fellow taxpayers and voters might be interested in a summary of some facts and figures about planning application P/30/19/OUT: Land north of Hook Lane.

1. The vice-chairman cllr Thursten (Green ) was replaced as vice-chairman by cllr Chapman (Conservative), already standing in for cllr Oliver-redgate (Cons).

The authorisation for this is not clear.

2. At the meeting there was no seconder to move the discussion to a vote.

The chairman moved to a vote ‘since there were no more speakers’. Presumably this is within the chairman’s authority?

3. This is a published representation of the make- up of the committee (development control) responsible for agreeing to this planning application: Lib Dems – five, Labour – one, Independents – two, Greens – one, Conservatives – six.

The sharp-eyed amongst us will spot the discrepancy between (a) the number of people there are supposed to be on the committee: looks like 15 to me and (b) the political affiliations of said committee members compared to the actual construction of the committee that voted this application through.

The voting results (below) reveal that (a) there were only 13 committee members gathered together (I assume it is legal, if not democratic, to run a committee on reduced numbers) and

(b) unlike the published affiliations represented on this committee, we have six Conservatives (full quota) but only six councillors who could have been relied upon to vote against the application.

According to the figures above, there should have been eight members who could be relied upon to vote against it.

(The Labour member voted for the application; local Labour policy is unclear.)

The building of houses in the Pagham area is a very sensitive matter and it behoves civil servants and elected representatives to ensure that the ‘will of the people’ is truly represented and adhered to.

The local election results

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