Dear Resident,

A spring Newsletter, which will go out to all residents, is being prepared thanks to Brian Bird. Our monthly bulletins only go out to those who have given their e-mail address to the secretary and so you will get more and earlier information than the rest of the residents. Printed copies are always available at the coffee mornings, but if you have any neighbours who feel they are second-class citizens and would like to be informed, please ask them to send their e-mail addresses to info@westgatera.org.uk or visit the website www.westgatera.org.uk and complete the form. Colin has given the website a complete new look and I hope you will now find it easier to find everything you need to know about Westgate – if not please leave a message.

Buddy system

There are some residents who have asked to be kept informed but who do not have access to e-mail. We are trying to start a ‘Buddy’ system for them. The idea is that there will be an identified neighbour, who is on the e-mail list, who will print and deliver all messages for them. Here is a list, if you can look after someone (or more than one) on the list please let us know at Info@westgatera.org.uk

Committee

We have been very busy. The Traffic Advisory Group have met twice and the full committee have also met twice since the last bulletin. The reason for this is that Vectos the traffic consultants to Miller-Linden Homes, the developers of Whitehouse Farm, have sent out new ideas for dealing with the traffic arising from the new houses and industrial units. Even more recently the developers have published a masterplan which is a wadge of papers a good ½” thick not yet on the CDC planning website. The Council’s decision is likely to go to committee in April and residents have only until the 7^th to respond. We therefore urge you to write your individual response to Ms Jo Bell, Planning Officer, Chichester District Council, 1 East Pallant, Chichester PO19 1TY. As a guide you can view the Committee’s considered response at http://www.westgatera.org.uk/2016/03/29/committee-and-master-plan/.

Planters

Brian Raincock has been doing great work getting a gardening group organised to look after the planters and beds along the road (we are not allowed to touch the roundabout). Penny Tomlinson a new resident at number 11 has agreed to run the group and will be calling a meeting in due course. Before this, there is a meeting planned on April 11^th with the Chichester City Council (Colin, Penny and me) to discuss the matter further and hopefully get the go ahead to get started properly. Until then if you see something that is offending you, there is no reason why we should not do small jobs on the planters, but we hope to get a co-ordinated plan going. In due course, I think Penny will be asking for individuals or groups to adopt each planter. A number of people expressed their interest at the last Crate and Apple coffee morning (next one will be 2^nd April) but if you were not there or would like to contact her, her e-mail is pjmt@btinternet.com There is a list of all the planters and their identification on the website at http://www.westgatera.org.uk/2016/03/24/planter-survey/.

Tree Walk

Brian Hopkins, our tree warden, is organising a Westgate Tree walk for interested residents on Saturday 25^th June. Brian has kindly submitted a list of trees and you will find the result of our initial tree survey here: http://www.westgatera.org.uk/2016/03/12/westgates-landmark-trees/. A lot of this information comes from the CDC website which is rarely updated so the accuracy of this list cannot be confirmed currently. We know for example that planning permission has been granted to fell the horse chestnut on the corner of Parklands Road this Spring due to honey fungus infection. The June walk will be an opportunity for us to get to know our landmark trees better and update this survey of those that are protected. Meet at the Crate & Apple for coffee; the walk departs at 11am and will last about an hour.

The History of our Buildings

Thanks to the collaboration of several residents, our historical information about the buildings that line our streets is beginning to grow. If you have information on your dwelling or one of our more public buildings, and that you feel able to share, then do please contact us on our info@ email. You can monitor progress on this collection of buildings via this link: http://www.westgatera.org.uk/category/history-of-westgate/buildings/. Thank you for your collaboration!

The Brewery (formerly Henty) Field

The three Residents’ Associations who will benefit from the City Council decision last September to open the field behind Henty Gardens for community use – namely the Westgate, Parklands and Orchard Street RAs – have begun to coordinate planning for fine weather activities. The County Council has created a pathway through to the field from the Record Office Car Park on Orchard Street and the City has cleared and maintained a lot of the trees and mown the grass. One of our residents has cleared all the litter and a litter bin will be installed soon. A conversation has been held on site with our local CDC Community Officer about further equipment and ideas for summer activities. At the general meeting in November there were strong feeling that the field should remain a field and not become a manicured park, and we do know that none of the Councils are going to be willing to install play or exercise equipment due to the cost of maintenance and insurance against accident. You can keep up to date with ideas for this new open space here: http://www.westgatera.org.uk/category/environment/henty-field/.

Richard Brownfield, Chairman

31st March 2016