Arun council leader shares last message before handing over reins to Conservatives

Dr Walsh (Lib Dem, Littlehampton East) is due to hand over the reins of leadership and control of the council to Shaun Gunner and the Conservatives at a meeting of the annual council this evening.

He took to social media to thank people for the common sense most have shown over the past 15 months when it came to social distancing, masks and lock-down.

He said: “I don’t want anybody to think we’re out of the pandemic yet.

“Although we’ve got fantastically good vaccination rates in the Arun district, there is still sadly this new Indian variant of the Covid-19 virus that’s around and we have to make sure that we do not let that get a grip in our community.

“I would urge everybody, as the lockdown eases, to make sure that you do still observe social distancing, you do wear masks when you are in public spaces – except when eating or drinking – and that you also observe the hygiene rules and don’t feel that lock-down is yet over.

“We’ve still got at least one more stage on the roadmap to go in the middle of June and we don’t want to do anything locally to upset or break that.”

The annual council meeting will start at 6pm and will be webcast. Log on to www.arun.gov.uk for a link.