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Arundel ward is top left hand corner and is vast. |
You may or may not be
aware, but the Arundel & Walberton wards have had a boundary
change forced
upon them by the Boundary Commission. We now have a
ridiculous situation where as The Arundel and Walberton ward is being
joined to make it a 3 member (Councillor) ward. It is a huge
geographical area with a total of 11 parishes. (part of Angermering, Arundel, Polling, Lyminster, Warningcamp, Burpham, South Stoke, Madehurst, Houghton, Slindon, Walberton)
Residents may not be
aware but District Councillors have to service the Parishes and I
regularly visit Arundel Town Council, Burpham Parish, Warningcamp and
Lyminster Parish Council. Norman Dingerman who is the Councillor for
Walberton regularly visits Walberton, Slindon and Madehurst parishes
Arun District as a
whole is reducing from 56 Councillors to 52, but I believe the
Boundary Commission has missed a trick. I wanted to see a reduction
from 56 to 45 which I believed would save Arun up to £250,000 and
could have kept an Arundel two member ward, I made my own
representations, but there wasn’t unanimity by Arun Councillors so
the Boundary Commission forced its own solution on the Council.
So now we have a
situation where each of us will need to service 11 parishes, unless
we decide to divide the ward ourselves into areas of responsibility
which defeats the whole purpose of the Boundary Commissions review.
The Conservatives have
chosen their 3 candidates for the Arundel & Walberton ward, they
are myself, Norman Dingerman and new Candidate Robert Wheal, Don
Ayling who is the other current Arundel District Councillor didn’t
put his name forward for re-selection, so our thanks need to go to
him for his erstwhile service as Arundel District Councillor.
I don’t know the
names of other party’s candidates yet; maybe someone from those
parties can contact me so I can advise readers who they are in future
articles. I would hope that we could possibly get some public
hustings going when the election starts so the public can join the
electoral debate, I leave that to the individual parishes to decide
if they wish to do that.
Local Conservatives are
holding a Curry Lunch on the 7th of September at the
excellent India Gate restaurant in Arundel, Non Members are very welcome -Tickets only:
£19.50pp.which includes
Papadoms, Two Courses
of Indian Cuisine inc wine or beer. Bookings can be made via
http://www.southdownsconservatives.com
Until next month,
Paul Dendle is Arundel
Ward & Cabinet Member for Leisure & Amenities on Arun DC.
He can be contacted on email pauldendle@aol.com.