Political opinion with Andrew Griffith MP Good to see reopening of Coldwaltham Post Office
It was good to celebrate the reopening of the Coldwaltham Post Office service with residents and its post mistress recently. So, it was with concern on Monday that I learned of plans to potentially close thousands of rural post offices in the government’s green paper on the future of the Post Office.
Any reduction in the number of branches the Post Office will support is likely to hit our small villages first and hard. Our local post offices don’t want subsidises, they want to be paid a fair rate for providing valued government and banking services.
Last week, West Sussex County Council delivered some welcome news for residents in Steyning, Bramber and Upper Beeding, confirming that work is ready to begin on building a new footbridge over the River Adur to replace the White Bridge.
I know just how important this bridge link is for local people, walkers and cyclists. It feels like a long time ago when I first met with local campaigners who were looking to develop a safe walking and cycling safer between the villages, and I was happy to back well thought out community-led projects like this. Hats off to the Steyning and District Community Partnership who led on the plans.
Also last week, I was deeply disappointed by Chichester District Council’s decision to approve 50 new houses in the village of Kirdford. Despite huge local opposition and it is flying in the face of Kirdford’s democratically produced neighbourhood plan, this inappropriate scale of development was pushed through by the Lib Dem Councillor dominated planning committee. I have stood with residents since 2021 to oppose this development which threatens the rural character of the village and will further stretch the village’s limited infrastructure. This is not housing that meets local need or for young people trying to get on the housing ladder. And it is a result of a failure to build in our large cities, where demand and infrastructure already exist.