Selsey Town clerk announces her retirement

Gill has worked at the town council for nearly 11 years and before that worked at Selsey Regeneration Ltd for three years.

Although she said she was ‘retiring’, Gill said she was sure she would remain heavily involved in the community.

Becky White is taking over the role having worked at the town council for more than a year as the operations manager.

Gill has been involved with a multitude of events while with the council and she even got married in her place of work in 2013.

Then aged 60, she married her long-term partner Simon Walsh, 53, at the town hall.

“We’re making history,” said Gill at the time.

“I’ll be the first town clerk to get married in the town hall. There’s been quite a few weddings over the last two or three years, and I have to be on duty at every wedding.

“I have attended quite a lot of weddings here in an official capacity, so I feel comfortable here now.”

Saying ‘goodbye’ in an article in Selsey Life Magazine, Gill said: “When I joined Selsey Town Council back in 2005 I had been managing the Selsey Business and Community Resource Centre for Selsey Regeneration Ltd for three years and so at least I knew some of the idiosyncrasies and the characters that make Selsey such a wonderful place to live and, fortunately for me, work.

“At that time there were two of us in the office and two outside operatives.

“We were in the process of extending the town hall complex to upgrade the facilities. Once the works were completed we had a proper reception area and so increased our staffing level by one.

“The next big project was the building of the Selsey Centre, the community leisure centre Selsey had been promised for years.

“With the opening of the Selsey Centre in 2007 we had a new team of three running it.

“It is hard to remember a time without the centre and, with so much going on there, you wonder where all those activities and groups met before.”

Gill also pointed to the amalgamating of the Chichester District Council help point into the town council reception in 2010, the appointment of a town co-ordinator and the opening of SelseyWorks as milestones during her time.

She pointed to the number of awards in the South and South East in Bloom competition as a reflection of ‘all the hard work undertaken by the team’ and volunteers.

Gill also spoke about the many different projects undertaken, from enhancing play areas, the BMX track and skate park to organising events to supporting local community groups.

She counted the start-up of the Selsey Festival alongside Sue Graves as one of her ‘biggest achievements’, and wished her replacement, Becky White, well in the role.

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