Published in the Littlehampton Gazette on February 14th. 2013

If you are reading this then the good news is that the space pundits were correct in their prediction that the wayward asteroid would not collide with the Earth and therefore Bruce Willis, who was in the UK on a movie promotional visit, could stand down. It also means of course, and you have avoided a racehorse burger! But your day isn’t done yet…

It is right and expected that the chief executive of the ADC should come to the defence of officers recording the minutes at public meetings and it is correct that such minutes are rarely verbatim. However, Tony Dixon does have a point (letters January 31^st.) when he says the minuted answer to a question posed by a member of the public did not really reflect the importance of the question or the answer given and both were a little lost in those minutes as approved by the ADC. I would respectfully suggest that, given the fact that a great many folk in LA are not exactly enamoured by the current antics and decision making of the ADC on their behalf at this moment and that perhaps a little more sensitivity should be shown to a question that I am sure was indeed a very serious question, a valid point made and one no doubt echoed by many an LA ratepayer. I only offer that suggestion with good intent and in the best interest of all concerned. We work together or we work apart and the latter is not in anyone’s best interest.

And so to Rustington again and the proposed new retail park on the A259. Readers have made their views felt and I echo those general sentiments. We don’t really need such a development on a Greenfield site and the A259 is sgetting more and more cluttered almost to gridlock on some days.  Also,  unless a great deal of consideration were to be given to the existing retailers in the area and the effect such a development would have on them and the village of Rustington, it should, like the asteroid,  not happen. It is at best a confused outline and one muddled even more by the secrecy of who the proposed interested parties are and by the fact that there is  already the existing planning permission for a new garden centre on the old Focus Store site when Sainsbury’s complete their extensive works and move back to their original site.