Community Governance Review

All frequently asked questions and latest information will be shown on this page

At a Meeting of the Wealden District Council Audit, Finance and Governance Committee on Wednesday 27 July it was agreed that a Community Governance Review of Westham Parish Council go ahead.

Westham Parish Council is made up of four wards that work well and complement each other. There is Westham, Hankham, Stone Cross and a new ward of Dittons which is towards Golden Jubilee Way. The Parish borders Polegate, Pevensey and Hailsham.

A petition was received by Wealden District Council from 483 electors in 2019 asking for a separate Parish Council for Stone Cross and Hankham.

The review will now be carried out by Wealden DC during the next few weeks with a final decision on whether to split Westham Parish Council made by the end of this year.

There are many questions to be answered and when the Parish Council has answers they will appear here.

In regard to the present Governance review you may find the following facts to be of interest.

UPDATED INFORMATION

A consultation by the current Parish Council was held just before lockdown with the residents of Stone Cross regarding the future of ADUR PARK.  The Parish Pump magazine asked residents what they would like to see in Adur Park.

This included:

An all weather, all access track around the perimeter of the park – this has now progressed to the tender stage for quotations with  the work carried out next Spring.

New childrens play equipment – planning for this  is now underway with quotations being sort from major play equipment suppliers. This could happen in the next few months.

A new Council community centre with facilities – this is included in this Councils  planning. The next step is to move the Parish Office out of Stone Cross School into premises that can be used by the community.

A Multi Use Games Area – the base for this is there and quotations will be sought 

All these projects can be funded through grants and CIL funding.

At the 2019 May Local Elections Westham Parish Council had 3 wards areas – 

DITTONS = 2 SEATS (TO THE WEST)

STONE CROSS = 6 SEATS (AT THE CENTRE)

WESTHAM = 5 SEATS (TO THE EAST)

At the election there were NO CANDIDATES FOR DITTONS

There were only 3 CANDIDATES FOR STONE CROSS

There was an election in Westham and 5 candidates were duly elected for the 5 seats

Following the election, the three candidates for Stone Cross who were ‘elected unopposed’ failed to take up their seats on the Parish Council.

Westham Parish Council then co-opted a total of eight Parish Councillors i.e., 2 for Dittons and 6 for Stone Cross (which covers Hankham) to fill the vacancies.

Due to the fact that only five Councillors were ‘elected’ (at Westham) the Parish Council lost its Power of Competence. Please see Wealden DC website election results.

Anyone may wish to judge for themselves whether or not Stone Cross was “under-represented”.

Anyone on the electoral roll within the Dittons / Stone Cross / Westham areas could have stood for election in any of those wards but the opportunity was not taken.

There were six seats in Stone Cross (Including Hankham) and two seats in the neighbouring ward of Dittons. This makes a total of eight seats on a Parish Council with 13 seats.