Chairman responds

As chairman, I can assure everyone the council functions in a most open, democratic and professional way.

I have been a member of a county council, a district council, and now the parish council and in my view, Steyning is the most friendly and democratic body I have served on.

We make a great effort to advertise our meetings and to make members of the public welcome.

We put up notices around Steyning, advertise meetings agenda and minutes on out website and correspond regularly with many, many local residents over all sorts of issues and where relevant invite them to meetings.

We have achieved “Quality Council” status which is a national standard of excellence.

There is always a public contribution section of all meetings, where residents’ views can be put forward and the committee members will take these into account when subsequently making a decision.

As chairman of the parish council, I always go out of my way at monthly meetings to make everyone feel welcome and to encourage public participation in the questions from the floor section.

Steyning may be a parish council, but we punch above our weight in these days of the big society. For instance, we are undertaking several new projects at the moment, such as the library review, an older people’s services review, and we are looking at the provision of youth facilities in Steyning,

None of these is, strictly speaking, the function of a parish council, but because we all care so much about the town in which we live, my colleagues and I work hard for every corner of Steyning society.

Because we are independent members, we have no party political allegiances for the purpose of parish council meetings, and no one is under any sort of pressure or whip when casting our votes.

Please do join in, and please come and see for yourself how interesting our meetings are because they are so local in nature.

David Barling

chairman

Steyning Parish Council