Charity & Community News

Sussex Snippets

Charity & Community news from across the counties

If you fancy a new experience while raising money for charity, then Turning Tides, the Worthing homeless charity, has a skydive on 25th September at Salisbury. www.turning-tides.org.uk Since 1972 registered charity and community publisher QueenSpark Books has been dedicated to gathering, preserving and making accessible Brighton & Hove’s histories. They are holding a birthday party on 17th September when, for the first time ever, they will bring every one of their 110+ books out of the archive. Regency Townhouse, Brunswick Square, from 11am-3.30pm. In addition, their whole archive will go online from 17th September, free to read. To find out more visit www.queensparkbooks.org.uk. QueenSpark have also created several selfguided walks, called Discover Brighton, using content from their archives. Use your mobile at www.queensparkbooks.org.uk/discover-brighton. The South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) is offering an opportunity for individuals, landowners and developers to put forward sites for potential development. This includes new homes, affordable housing, custom-built homes, renewable energy, traveller sites and sites where the natural environment is improved. The Authority is also looking for nominations for “Local Green Spaces”, which local communities think are demonstrably special and should be protected from development. Deadline for submissions is 28th September. www.southdowns.gov.uk. Katy Bourne, Sussex Police Commissioner, reports that the cost of rural crime is increasing nationally while Sussex has seen a year-on-year fall in reported rural crime. Sussex has a dedicated Rural Crime Team - the largest in the South East - made up of 20 specialist officers. The school meals team at West Sussex County Council has beaten multi-million-pound private caterers to win the Catering Business of the Year 2022 award. The Council’s small team of around 45 Cook Supervisors, Catering Assistants and Officers fought off competition from other councils and private caterers to scoop the top prize at the Awards for Excellence organised by LACA, the professional body for school meals. Following a successful trial, West Sussex Recycling Centres can now accept hard plastic items. such as garden furniture, coat hangers and plastic piping. The scheme has now been extended to all recycling centres except Midhurst, which is too small for collections. A new campaign ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ has launched to find parents for the children waiting longest to be adopted. These include children aged five or over, children with additional and/or complex needs, brother and sister groups, and those from an ethnic minority background. A campaign video can be found on YouTube, and residents of West Sussex and the South East who would like to find out more should call 0300 330 9470 or www.adoptionsoutheast.org.uk Are you looking for a job that makes a difference? The Aldingbourne Trust supports people with learning disabilities and/or Autism to reach their potential make good life choices. They have various positions currently available as both Support Workers at our supported living projects, across Bognor Regis or as part of the team that create a ‘Great Day out’ at our fantastic Country Centre based near Fontwell. www.aldingbournetrust.org or email recruitment@aldingbourne.org. 4Sight Vision Support provides support and specialist information to blind and sight impaired residents throughout West Sussex. They are supporting National Eye Health Week 19th-25th September. To find out more, or how 4Sight Vision Support can support you or someone you know living with sight loss, call 01243 828555 or visit www.4sight.org.uk.

Charity & Community News

The Worthing Twinning Association (WTA) was due to visit our French twin town of Les Sables d’Olonne in the Vendée between 23rd and 28th of August to officially sign a new charter between the twin towns following their re-organisation. Les Sables d’Olonne, pictured above, is known worldwide as the home port of the Vendée Round the World yacht race which starts again this month. WTA members will take part in a parade and run a stall selling typical local and English products. They will also give out promotional material for Worthing - sadly only in English. Members of the WTA meet regularly and have an informal programme of monthly social events including French and German films (with English subtitles!). New members are most welcome. Contact secretary Pam Bennett on 01903 232196 pambettett8@btinternet.com. The new-look Portland Road, in the heart of Worthing has been unveiled as a vibrant and welcoming public space to encourage people to visit, with comfortable seating areas, improved lighting, additional cycle racks and landscape planting. The development has been managed by Worthing Borough Council but funded by West Sussex County Council and Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership. Project Centre designed and led the project scheme, with the build by local contractor Landbuild Ltd. Worthing Borough Council has won its High Court challenge against plans to build 475 homes in the Goring Gap. Mrs Justice Lang found for the Council against the government and developer Persimmon Homes when she quashed a decision by a public inquiry inspector to give the scheme at Chatsmore Farm the go ahead. She ruled that the inspector had not given enough weight to the impact such a large development would have on the setting of the South Downs

National Park and the view within. The judge did not question the Local Plan’s designation of Chatsmore as a Green Gap and ruled the inspector did not give adequate consideration to its policies to protect open spaces. A Worthing Olympian swimmer who repre© Florian Pépellin Creative Commons sented Great Britain when she was just 16 years-old has been honoured with the unveiling of a blue plaque. Angela Barnwell was just 11 years old when she took up swimming seriously with Worthing Swimming Club at the former swimming baths at Heene Road. She quickly turned into one of the nation’s most promising sporting talents and was soon selected at just 16 years old to race for Great Britain at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. There she made the 100 metres freestyle final and became the fastest woman swimmer in Britain into the bargain.