The government has now responded to the petition to rebuild the Littlehampton Hospital, which was only demolished with a guarantee that a new facility would be built. Littlehampton hospital was built on land donated to the town by the Duke of Norfolk and built with money given by the people of the town. I believe that morally, the hospital belonged to us as townsfolk and that the NHS has a duty to build a new Hospital. The Governments response;-

Decisions about local NHS services are now taken at a local level.  It is the responsibility of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), in partnership with Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) and other local stakeholders, to plan, develop and improve services for local people. NHS South East Coast, the regional SHA, advises that West Sussex PCT is developing its business case in relation to the planned new NHS facility in Littlehampton.  The SHA is working with the PCT to take the scheme forward appropriately.  More information can be obtained from the SHA, whose contact details are available on its website at www.southeastcoast.nhs.uk.  

The Littlehampton Liberal Democrats have created a website for our campaign on local NHS services at www.littlehampton4nhs.org.uk

Don’t forget about the free charity music festival that is to be held on Littlehampton seafront on the 23rd August 2008. There will be 18 local bands on two stages. This kind of initiative needs to be supported by the whole community, for free tickets and info, visit www.lapebbles.co.uk

We held our first Littlehampton Branch meeting in twelve years last Wednesday (23rd July), and I was impressed by the enthusiasm of the Liberal Democrat councillors in Littlehampton as well as our activists towards solving local issues. There is a real sense of community action, and if you want to join us…..come aboard!

If any of you are able to attend any of the North Littlehampton Community Planning weekend tomorrow and Saturday, I would recommend it. It will be held at the Wickbourne Centre tomorrow between 2pm and 7pm and Saturday between 11am and 4pm and you can drop-in at your leisure. This really is Littlehampton’s chance to have a say on issues that it is possible to change. This town has had a poor deal for decades now, with poorly planned housing estates with no amenities or jobs for Littlehampton residents and this is our chance to have a good deal for the town. Please come along and have your say.

There have been so many responses to our ‘Littlehampton Residents Survey’ that we are actually overwhelmed with work, so if anyone reading this wants to help us, please GET IN TOUCH! Also, if you returned a survey thank you, but we’ll take a while getting in touch.

Delivering FOCUS in Ham ward today, I’ve noticed how many empty properties there are. It’s quite shocking and reminds me of when I was delivering in the North Beaumont in 1993-5, and every-other house had been repossessed. I think the upcoming recession is going to be deeper than even I imagined it was going to be, which is sad and going to cause a lot of pain.

Gordy didn’t thing that the ‘boom’ was a boom, he thought it was his ‘stability’ and that he’d beaten the natural economic cycle, well we’re all going to pay for Gordy’s ego now.

It’s interesting to see the latest polls http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/guide/ we’re up a bit on when the 10pence tax thing was going on, which is weird!! 

David Davis – I have never had much time for him before and I disagree with most of what he says but I have to admire the bloke for giving-up an almost certain job in the next Conservative government to fight for what he (and many other good people) believe passionately in, good luck to him!  

European Treaty – I am a pro-european but the Irish have rejected it, so in my opinion, the Lisbon treaty should be abandoned and we should struggle on as we have done for the past four years, but further expansion of the EU should be out of the question now.

Things just seem to be getting worse and worse for poor old Gordy, I bet he wished he’d called a general election back in October! I’ve never seen a national leader go so quickly from ‘hero to zero’. Of course, poll ratings are not his only problem, the Labour party is near to insolvency and the senior officers of the party could be personally liable.

I have a solution to their problems make Tony Blair pay off the debt! after all, it seems that he’s the only person in the country to have personally benefited from Newlabour and he’s not short of a bob or two, while the rest of us work 60 hours a week just to pay our electricity bills. I know if I was a member of the Labour party, I would feel quite bitter about Bliar walking-off and leaving it all like that!

Poor old Gordy. He’s waited twenty years to get where he’s at and it’s all gone wrong! Gordy thinks that he can run the country like a 1930’s Tory toff; behind the scenes and out of the glare of the public and cameras. Times have changed Gordy! If you want advice from a southern working-class liberal, STAY IN OFFICE and hopefully you’ll destroy the Labour party before you destroy Britain! 

It looks like Britain is about to go from New Labour to Blue Labour. Cameron has been shaped in the Bliar mould, vacuous with smiles and Britain it seems, laps it up. You reap what you sew like you did with Bliar!

I noticed today that the street sign outside the old Wick T Farm depot spells Arundel Road, ‘Arundle’ I wonder if anyone else has noticed that?