Click Here to see and print the Petition Form. Please read the comments below, and if you agree, please sign - and please discuss it with your neighbours and friends and family - particularly if they are users of the Swimming and Sports Centre. This is a matter for ALL the East Arun Community, however young or old. The facilities and land under threat provide for the population of a considerable catchment area, broadly, but not totally, east of the Arun river.
When you've signed, please send the forms to the address at the bottom of the form - and of course let everyone know what you think, make additional comments on the Forum pages of this Site, or email them in using the Contact Form. ALTERNATIVELY you can pop into one of the Businesses listed on the What To Do tab above and sign there
In spite of the recommendations of the Leisure and Tourism Infrastructure Working Party (see the Post lower down below this one - it's very illuminating) there is an underlying feeling that the Arun District Council Cabinet Members and several key Council Officers are grimly determined to cash-in the Seafront Site and get their hands on its monetary value, however strongly the Electorate and Population object to this happening. There is a strong feeling in East Arun that the seafront and seafront road eastwards from Littlehampton Town has individual qualities that make the place special - to the point that a good number of recent arrivals have said it was one of the main factors in their decision to come here. And at the Working Party meeting is was clear that this quality was recognised and felt important enough to take a stand on by Councillors from West Arun too.
East Arun would like a new and larger Swimming and Sports Centre. And East Arun overwhelmingly doesn't want the Seafront between Littlehampton and Rustington to become a Worthing Seafront Clone. If a new Swimming and Sports Centre is only viable on a different site, East Arun resists re-development of the current site with housing, East Arun wants it to continue to serve Community and Visitor Recreation and Open Space requirements. If the current site proves viable for a new and larger Swimming and Sports Centre, then that would be a bonus.
Whenever this is pointed out to the Council (Officers or Cabinet) the response is that it's only a view held by a few stick-in-the-muds who are mostly elderly (like many of the Councillors themselves). But of course the reason that it's the over-fifties pointing this out is the same reason that many councillors are creaky - it's because they didn't have the free time when younger (some of the more middle-aged ones even admit it's exhausting to be a councillor and to try to set up a business at the same time). What the response doesn't recognise is that the 'olds' are often in touch and involved with the needs of two younger generations, and are representing their views too. Please use this Petition to show that the full spectrum of the whole community values the open connected feeling of the seafront at the west end of Littlehampton, putting its value as a Communal Asset for Now and the Future far higher than its pure monetary value; and to show that this is an ideal place for grouping parkland and open spaces and leisure buildings and facilities for the use of both residents and visitors to this seaside resort town; and that the Community does not want this land to pass from uses that benefit The Many every day of the year to Housing and Flats which would benefit The Few now and then, as many wouldn't be lived-in for much of the year.
When you've signed, please send the forms to the address at the bottom of the form - and of course let everyone know what you think, make additional comments on the Forum pages of this Site, or email them in using the Contact Form. ALTERNATIVELY you can pop into one of the Businesses listed on the What To Do tab above and sign there
In spite of the recommendations of the Leisure and Tourism Infrastructure Working Party (see the Post lower down below this one - it's very illuminating) there is an underlying feeling that the Arun District Council Cabinet Members and several key Council Officers are grimly determined to cash-in the Seafront Site and get their hands on its monetary value, however strongly the Electorate and Population object to this happening. There is a strong feeling in East Arun that the seafront and seafront road eastwards from Littlehampton Town has individual qualities that make the place special - to the point that a good number of recent arrivals have said it was one of the main factors in their decision to come here. And at the Working Party meeting is was clear that this quality was recognised and felt important enough to take a stand on by Councillors from West Arun too.
East Arun would like a new and larger Swimming and Sports Centre. And East Arun overwhelmingly doesn't want the Seafront between Littlehampton and Rustington to become a Worthing Seafront Clone. If a new Swimming and Sports Centre is only viable on a different site, East Arun resists re-development of the current site with housing, East Arun wants it to continue to serve Community and Visitor Recreation and Open Space requirements. If the current site proves viable for a new and larger Swimming and Sports Centre, then that would be a bonus.
Whenever this is pointed out to the Council (Officers or Cabinet) the response is that it's only a view held by a few stick-in-the-muds who are mostly elderly (like many of the Councillors themselves). But of course the reason that it's the over-fifties pointing this out is the same reason that many councillors are creaky - it's because they didn't have the free time when younger (some of the more middle-aged ones even admit it's exhausting to be a councillor and to try to set up a business at the same time). What the response doesn't recognise is that the 'olds' are often in touch and involved with the needs of two younger generations, and are representing their views too. Please use this Petition to show that the full spectrum of the whole community values the open connected feeling of the seafront at the west end of Littlehampton, putting its value as a Communal Asset for Now and the Future far higher than its pure monetary value; and to show that this is an ideal place for grouping parkland and open spaces and leisure buildings and facilities for the use of both residents and visitors to this seaside resort town; and that the Community does not want this land to pass from uses that benefit The Many every day of the year to Housing and Flats which would benefit The Few now and then, as many wouldn't be lived-in for much of the year.
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