Newsletter 23/06/23

23 June 2023

Please note: this news article is in our archive. Articles were correct at time of publication, but should not be relied on for accuracy after the passage of time.

TRO Consultation: Blackwell Farm Road Waiting Restrictions

West Sussex County Council proposes to make a permanent Traffic Regulation Order that will introduce various short lengths of new double yellow lines near the traffic island at the northern junction of Blackwell Farm Road with Elizabeth Crescent in East Grinstead.

Below is a link to the TRO Team’s consultation web page, containing plans showing the new restriction, the public notice, statement of reasons for proposing the Order, and the draft Order itself. I should be grateful if you could accept this message as the formal consultation on the proposed new Order. If you wish to make any comments or objections to the scheme, please make them to me by e-mail before 13 July 2023. (martin.moore@westsussex.gov.uk)

https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/traffic-regulation-orders/

TRO Consultation: East Grinstead Lingfield Road

West Sussex County Council proposes to make a permanent Traffic Regulation Order that will extend an existing length of double yellow line on the eastern side of Lingfield Road in East Grinstead so that it runs from the junction with Durkins Road northwards for a distance of approximately 20m.

https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/traffic-regulation-orders/

An Open Letter from the CEO, David Hinton – Southern Water

(Sent by CEO David Hinton to all major stakeholders)

I am writing to personally apologise for the drinking water supply shortages in Kent and Sussex, and to provide an update on the situation. In this letter, I will explain why this situation has arisen, how we are working to overcome it and to offer reassurance to our customers across the region.South East Water exists to provide the public drinking water service. Other companies will provide sewerage services to you. On 16 June, due to record levels of demand for drinking water over consecutive days, we announced that we would be introducing a Temporary Use Ban – more commonly known as a ‘hosepipe ban’ – to protect the water supply for all our customers in Kent and Sussex.

In exceptionally dry periods and when dealing with surges in usage, the most effective short-term strategy for ensuring supply is rapidly reducing demand. Restrictions put the brakes on non-essential usage, such as watering gardens with hosepipes, which use huge quantities of treated water. This is to ensure that water is only used for essential purposes, such as drinking, cooking and washing.

Despite our best efforts, the severe conditions in the run up to 16 June meant that some customers were affected by low pressure or no water. We are sincerely sorry to those affected and want to reassure impacted customers that they will be compensated in line with our Guaranteed Standards of Service (we are in the process of writing directly to those affected).

We are often asked: how we got to this point? The short answer is that there have been significant recent changes to supply and demand, driven by three key factors:

Changing consumption habits: Over the past three years the way in which drinking water is being used across the South East has changed considerably. The rise of working from home has increased drinking water demand in commuter towns by around 20 per cent over a very short period, testing our existing infrastructure.
Low rainfall: The severe lack of rainfall since April has increased demand for treated drinking water. Water butts are empty, lawns are drying out and farms have used their stored water supplies. Our reservoir and aquifer stocks of raw water, essential to our water supply but not ready to be used, are in a good position. However, demand for treated mains water, which takes time to process and deliver was greater than we could meet. Despite every available water treatment works and supply source operating 24/7 at maximum output, we could not treat water quickly enough to meet the pace of demand and therefore had to act.
Hot weather: Hot days often result in spikes in demand as customers stay hydrated, cool off or tend to their gardens. Over the past week we have needed to find water to supply the equivalent of an additional four towns the size of Maidstone or Eastbourne, every day.

What are we doing about this? To keep the taps flowing, we are currently prioritising projects across our system to increase the amount of water that we can supply, whilst implementing solutions at points in our network where water supply can be a challenge.

We are confident, with our customers’ help, that we can improve the reliability of the water supply in the short to medium-term. We are also developing our 2025-2030 plan, required by all water companies by our regulator, Ofwat. This will be critical in permanently addressing the issues we are currently seeing due to the changing conditions outlined above. To achieve this, we are proposing several initiatives to increase capacity, connectivity and resilience, including:

Building new reservoirs: If approved by the regulator, work on a new reservoir at Broad Oak near Canterbury will shortly commence, which should increase overall capacity in the long-term.
Increasing connectivity: We are making plans to improve connectivity between water supplies in sometimes hard-to-reach areas – diversifying supply and increasing resilience in tough conditions.
Increasing storage tanks: We are planning to increase localised drinking water storage tanks to bolster our network.
Addressing leaks: With more extreme weather – in winter as well as summer – we are investing nearly £40 million a year in resources to address leakage across our network as pipes come under increasing strain from extreme fluctuations in temperature.

We deeply regret falling short of our high standards and want to assure you that we are doing everything that we can to plan and build for the future – ensuring a reliable and uninterrupted water supply.

We have set up a feedback form for you to send us details of any concerns you have, which can be accessed here. If you have any further questions, we encourage you review our FAQs on the current situation here.

David Hinton
Chief Executive Officer
South East Water

Planning Decisions

GATCOM News Bulletin

18th August – Invitation for youth visit to Bayham Abbey and other Mid Sussex Sponsored Events

Included below:

Free visit to Bayham Abbey on 18^th August
Clarion Futures Free online Training Courses
Free Training – Hidden Sentence 2^nd August Burgess Hill

Free visit to Bayham Abbey on 18^th August

My name is Chania and I work with young people aged 11-25 as part of English Heritage’s youth engagement programme, Shout Out Loud. The Conservation in Heritage van will be arriving at Bayham Abbey on the 18th August, and I would love to organise a visit for a local youth group to the site on this day.

The day would be paid for and the group would get to take part in a heritage-based activity with the van.

Please let me know if this is something you think the young people you work with would be interested in, or if you know of another local youth organisation I could contact.

Chania Fox | Youth Participation Officer – South East & London (Shout Out Loud) | Curatorial Department

Mob: 07824 308 68

English Heritage
6th Floor, 100 Wood

Street, London

EC2V 7AN
www.english-heritage.org.uk

Clarion Futures Free online Training Courses

Just checking in and letting you know we have some brand new upcoming training, courses and workshops.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/clarion-futures-32710605561

You can book onto our Employability Workshops and the Confidence Box – Confidence Building Workshops here – virtually.

We also have an account with Staff Skills Training and have access to lots of new E-Learning courses. You can have a look through their catalogue here and let me know if there’s any you’d like to complete – https://staffskillstraining.co.uk/courses/all/

Whitney Henry – Employment Support Officer

Clarion Futures Jobs & Training

Mid Sussex and Brighton & Hove

Mob: 07704 665814

Email: Whitney.henry@clarionhg.com

Free Training – Hidden Sentence 2^nd August Burgess Hill

Sussex Prisoners’ Families Free Training “Hidden Sentence” for professionals supporting anyone with a loved one in prison or facing the criminal justice system. Wednesday 2^nd August @ Kings Church, Burgess Hill RH15 9LR.

To book your place go to: Hidden Sentence Training Tickets, Wed 2 Aug 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

Join us for this eye-opening look at the issues facing prisoners and their families. We can also offer shorter, workshop-style events and online training.

Hidden Sentence Training increases awareness of issues facing prisoners’ families and identifies ways to support them.

The course will explore the ways in which families are affected by imprisonment:

Understand the impact of imprisonment on prisoners’ families

Improve your understanding of the prison system

Understand the support needs of prisoners’ families

Understand the needs and wishes of prisoners’ families

Understand how to improve the coordination of services to provide more effective support for those affected by the imprisonment of a family member

Understand how to improve your own practice in supporting prisoners’ families

info@sussexprisonersfamilies.org.uk or call 01273 499843 for more info.