Herald column – April 21st 2022
I hope everyone enjoyed the rare warm weather throughout the whole Easter weekend for once. In Southwick Square for our street surgery on Saturday it was wonderful to see so many young children out with their families excited by the Easter Egg hunt organised by the local shops. This was something my parents always organised for us around our garden and on Sunday we carried on the tradition with young nieces and nephews and their children as we held our own Easter Sunday family day.
Notwithstanding the obesity impact one of the worst features of Easter eggs remains the excessive packaging. This year at least more of the multiple plastic layers claimed to be recyclable but why do we need so much packaging at all? This reminded me of the Big Plastic Count coming up in the middle of May for everyone to take stock of exactly how much single use plastic we still come into contact with and speed up efforts to cut it significantly.
Another tradition which took a bit of a back seat during the height of the pandemic is the Worthing Scout and Guide Gang Show which has been bringing song, dance, music and laughter to families and theatregoers in Worthing for over 50 years. I am looking forward to seeing ‘Gee It’s a Wonderful Life’ later this week and tickets are still available from Wednesday 20th to Saturday 23rd. Don’t miss it – the singing is much better than in my days strutting the stage in short trousers and a woggle.
I have just posted an update on the latest news about Chesham House following our discussions with the RVS charity. They are still resisting our calls for a twelve month ‘breathing space’ to explore proposals for keeping the Lancing community hub open but instead have promised an intensive review to research all options and report back by the end of June. All the staff and volunteers have been invited to a meeting with managers later this week and local councillors and I will continue to play a key part in the negotiations.
We will certainly be pressing hard for the café to be reopened as soon as possible where there are plenty of volunteers who have offered to help out. I am sure it would be well supported and help to start a much-needed income steam again. It has also been suggested that it could also be used as a meeting place for the Ukrainian families who are starting to arrive in Adur, so come on RVS let’s get those doors open again.
