Whispering Smith Column published in the Littlehampton Gazette on April 17th. 2014

THEY ARE changing the street lights around and in Littlehampton’s Western Road area replacing the current lights on their concrete posts with green steel poles which are much the same as the existing lights although a little taller. The fact that the road is in a conservation area and there was a chance here to replace the existing lights with something more in keeping with such an area seems to have been overlooked. A missed opportunity and, not surprisingly, one that is in danger of being repeated along the eastern end of South Terrace, Norfolk Gardens and the attractive eastern end of Western Road all currently lit by lamps on ‘heritage’ poles. These steel posts and lamps are in one of the last of the surviving areas of architectural note in the town and must be retained and not replaced with similar to those in the rest of Western Road and South Terrace. West Sussex County Council offer differing and confusing answers when approached and residents in the affected area are, quite rightly,  irritated with the current exchange but, I suspect, their howls of anguish will as is usual with local government, be completely ignored and uniformity on the grounds of cost, be  maintained. Why don’t these authorities ask us and then listen to what we say before going their own sweet way?

I NOW fear that we are likely to see our Windmill Complex site sacrificed for a hotel or housing as did we all fear and foresee from the very start. After squandering yet more of our money, this time £28k on consultants, Arun are now quite openly hinting that the solution might be just that and with any money made from the sale to be spent on a new leisure complex elsewhere, somewhere, sometime never… Come on Arun, a planned sell off has always been in the background and we knew it but vainly hoped that opposition to such a blatant move against the wishes of the townsfolk could not be ignored. Now it seems that even our  Littlehampton town mayor Joyce Bowyer appears to agree that such a move would be to the greater good and to the ‘benefit’ of the local community. Time to get back in the fight folks…