Chichester District Council holds first socially distanced cabinet meeting

Referendums on both plans were delayed by 10 months due to the pandemic but were finally held on May 6.

At the first ‘face-to-face’ meeting of Chichester District Council’s cabinet for more than a year, members were told that more than 50 per cent of those who voted in the referendums were in favour of the plans.

They will now be put to the full council to be made part of the Development Plan for Chichester District (excluding the area within the South Downs National Park).

During the meeting on Tuesday (June 1), Susan Taylor, cabinet member for planning, said 305 people voted in favour of the Boxgrove plan and 2,206 in favour of the Selsey plan.

This represented 89 per cent and 79 per cent of all votes respectively.

The turn-out in Boxgrove was 42.2 per cent, with a 32.9 per cent turn-out in Selsey.

Mrs Taylor congratulated both areas on ‘what has been a very long journey’.

The meeting also saw the cabinet agree to use £50,000 from the Asset Replacement Programme to pay for the upgrading of the council’s Customer Relationship Management system.

The system, which is used to support the way customers and residents access council services, is seven years old and the meeting was told that it was becoming ‘increasingly expensive to maintain’.

The meeting was held at East Pallant House, with strict social distancing procedures in place.

Tables were placed two metres apart, separated by screens, with each person provided with hand sanitiser.

An unfortunate accident involving a paving slab in London kept chief executive officer Diane Shepherd from attending.

The meeting was told that she had broken two bones in her foot and was ‘booted up’ and waiting for an appointment for the fracture clinic.