Chichester: City, Devolution & Transport – Information Sharing Event

June 23, 2025Buses, Railway, Society events, TransportJohnH

An important opportunity to learn about plans for public transport in Chichester.
This is the Society’s annual public meeting, Tuesday 1st July at 1800 in the Assembly Room, as part of the Festival of Chichester.

The speakers are now confirmed:
– Matt Davey (Assistant Director of Highways, Transport & Planning for WSCC)
– William Knighton & Laura Rondon (Senior Public Affairs Managers for Network Rail)
– Paul Codd (Senior Stakeholder Manager for Govia (Southern Rail))
– James O’Neill (Commercial Director for Stagecoach South)
There will be opportunity for questions.

£5 tickets are available from the Novium Museum to cover the cost of the event and refreshments.
You can book online at festivalofchichester.co.uk/events, selecting Event CO8.
This will ensure you can be seated and receive refreshments.

DON’T LEAVE IT TOO LATE TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!
And tell your friends and neighbours!

Do also visit our stand at the Chichester Gala in Priory Park on Saturday 29 June, pitch no 26, near the West Main Gate / NW of the Guildhall, from 11am to 4:30pm
(beyond the Friends of Chartres, Ravenna, Valetta & Speyer and the Priory Park Society.)
A chance to meet your committee and other members, and there will also be activities for children.

Sir Mark Featherstone-Witty OBE,
Chair of the Chichester Society Executive Committee

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Chichester Action Group – Green Space Tidying

December 7, 2024Environment, WalkwaysFootpathsJohnH

The Chichester Action Group (CAG) kicked off earlier this year, hoping to make modest but useful differences to the city we all love. One of our ‘quick win’ ideas was tidying up unsightly areas where overgrown foliage goes well beyond ‘wilding’ to the point of visually marring parts of the urban landscape.
Our first blitz was in the strip of stone paving between the Oxmarket Gallery and the backs of the shops on East Street. The area had become so wild that it was an off-putting sight for those using the twitten beside M&S to access the Oxmarket and nearby car park. The condition of the space was also starting to attract litter and had the potential to become a magnet for miscreants.
So on a grey Saturday afternoon (November 14^th), a group of 11 volunteers – from both CAG and the Oxmarket – joined forces to return the area to a far more presentable state.
The job took barely 90 minutes but the results are striking:

The lane behind the Oxmarket gallery before November 14th

After

A week later we scored a second success, this time along the embankments of the Roman Walls in the city’s northwest quadrant. This summer we had noticed walking-tour guides telling visitors that this area “used to be beautiful” and we were keen to make sure that we could remove such comments from the script!
However, as the maintenance of this land is officially a council duty, the DIY approach used in cooperation with and eager support of our friends at the Oxmarket, wouldn’t work on these areas. Instead, Jane Langford on behalf of CAG, launched a concerted campaign to nag the district council [CDC] into action.
Despite an initial rebuff, Jane’s mixture of diplomacy and persistence eventually had the desired effect, aided by the intercession of certain local councillors to push CDC to act.
In the end, the CDC’s Parks and Gardens did a sterling job and the results are truly remarkable:

Northwest Walls - before — Northwest Walls – before

Northwest Walls access point before November 20^th.

After

More work remains to be completed on other sections of the walls but Jane’s groundwork of involving and cooperating with councillors and residents’ groups means that this should prove a springboard to encourage the CDC to continue with refreshing other ‘Green Spaces’ along the City Walls Walk and beyond.

So congratulations to all involved. Two different approaches both proved successful. And to the many passers-by who expressed their support when seeing the clearance in action, please do join us at the Chichester Action Group for more small but important ‘quick win’ efforts to get our beautiful city back to looking beautiful.

See more ideas for CAG to work on here, and to volunteer help please email cag@chichestersociety.org.uk

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Chi Soc visit to Tangmere Museum

November 21, 2024Society eventsTangmereJohnH

On 14 November a group of some thirty members paid a visit to Tangmere Military Aviation Museum.

Our host was David Coxon, former curator and now an Honorary Life Vice President of the Museum. Chi Soc members will have seen some of David’s articles about Tangmere in recent editions of our newsletter.
David started by giving us a talk about the Tangmere airbase and the origins of the museum, which opened to the public in 1982.

David did stress that despite all the aircraft and machinery in the museum, it is really about the personal histories of the airmen, many of whom gave their lives for the country.
After David’s introductory talk, we split into three groups to tour the museum.
I was in the group that was led by David.
We started by looking at the aircraft outside the museum, which included a Sea Harrier, a Phantom, and a Wessex helicopter.
We then went indoors and started in the Battle of Britain Hall, which included a display relating to Flt Lt James Nicholson, Fighter Command’s only Victoria Cross holder of the war. Other displays related to air aces such as Douglas Bader and Johnnie Johnson.
In the Tangmere Hall we saw displays relating to the Special Operations Executive and how Tangmere played a crucial role flying Lysanders to get agents secretly in and out of France.

The Merston Hall has a full-scale replica of a Lysander. In the Middle Hall is and exhibition celebrating the role of the many Czech and Polish pilots who supported the RAF during the war.
We then moved to the Merston and Meryl

Hansed Memorial Halls which house most of the actual aircraft in the collection, including the Hawker Hunter in which Neville Duke broke the world airspeed record in 1953.

However, what really stunned me was the enormous size of the Lightning, the museum’s largest aircraft, which seemed to be the size of a railway carriage, but with wings attached!
If you haven’t been, I can strongly recommend a visit to the museum.

Richard Childs

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YOUR IDEAS FOR OUR CITY – follow up

August 17, 2024Society eventsCommunity ActionJohnH

Your Ideas for our City - panel — Your Ideas for our City – panel – credit Jan Davis

Our public meeting on 17 June on the theme “Your Ideas for Our City” as part of the Festival of Chichester attracted over 150 participants.
We followed up with a questionnaire and then, on 8 August, sixteen of us met to discuss how to translate some of the ideas into action.
We decided to focus initially on small-scale achievable objectives such as litter, weeding and signage by forming one or more project groups to address specific issues, overseen by a Campaign Manager / Coordinator on the Society’s Executive Committee.
Team members would hope to recruit community volunteers to carry out the work by emailing Society members and local Residents Associations, as well as University and College student groups.
Direct community action might shame the local authorities into taking action themselves!

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Your Ideas for our City – Public Meeting June 17

July 1, 2024Society events, Society projectsJohnH

We were delighted to welcome over 130 attendees at our panel discussion in the Assembly Room as part of the ongoing Festival of Chichester.

It was on the exact 50th anniversary of the Town Meeting in Chichester Cathedral on Monday 17 June 1974 which was attended by some 1500 citizens outraged at the ongoing demolition of housing to create a dual carriageway ring road and commercial development within the city centre.

This prompted us to organise a similar – albeit smaller – event to discuss issues affecting the city today. It was a lively meeting, with lots of ideas from the panel and arising from Q&A session, followed by drinks and nibbles with opportunity for further discussion.

Panel members were:

Phil Hewitt (chair): Arts Editor of the Chichester Observer
Mark Elliott: Festival of Chichester Administrator
Simon Holland, Interim Dean of Chichester
Richard Plowman: Former Councillor and Mayor of Chichester, currently Chichester Town Crier.
Mark Mason: Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience)of the university of Chichester

We will produce a summary of the main ideas and issues raised, with a plan for follow up.

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YOUR IDEAS FOR OUR CITY!

May 22, 2024UncategorizedJohnH

Come to a discussion on the evening of Monday 17 June at the Assembly Room

All are warmly invited to this free public event which is open to everyone as part of the Festival of Chichester. Entry is strictly by a free ticket obtained from the Festival website or the Novium box office in Tower Street, since seating is limited.

The theme for the evening is Your Ideas for Our City, discussed by a panel chaired by Phil Hewitt, well-known arts editor at the Chichester Observer.
Panellists are
– Richard Plowman, former councillor and mayor of Chichester
(replaces Adrian Moss, Leader of Chichester District Council, unable to attend in pre-election “purdah”)
– Simon Holland, Chichester Cathedral Interim Dean
– Mark Elliott Festival of Chichester coordinator
– Dr Mark Mason, Chichester University Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience).

Discussion will cover many topics, some of which are mentioned on pages 18 and 19 of the newsletter’s March edition.

Come and have your say. Ideas from the panel and audience comments will be recorded.
The discussion will be followed by a drinks reception with snacks.

Chichester Society members may wish to make themselves known on arrival at the Assembly Room, so we can give you a special welcome and ask you to write comments or complaints about the city or indeed about your society! All remarks will be treated confidentially.

It’s on Monday 17 June from 7 to 9pm in the Assembly Room at the Council House on North Street. Bring your friends!

Do also consider some of the other events during the Festival of Chichester 15 June to 21 July

John Halliday and John Templeton, members of the Executive Committee

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50th Anniversary in 2023!

December 19, 2023UncategorizedJohnH

We are celebrating the birth of the Chichester Society in the autumn of 1973. It was born as protest against changes that were viewed as wrecking this city’s character. We honour David Goodman whose inspirational address was greeted by acclamation and a wish to preserve rather than destroy, illustrated by Somerstown’s demolition during the previous decade – whose demise we record in our December newsletter*.

The Chichester Society wants the best for this city: housing that is affordable, good public transport, a vibrant city centre; somewhere that is clean, tidy and respectful of our heritage, admired by residents and visitors alike. We welcome initiative and growth, especially when allied to youthful endeavour, which is why we’re pleased to publish a good-news article* on the University of Chichester’s success.

Our problems are not unique because the clash between urban growth and conservation is experienced across the country. But Chichester, squeezed between the Downs and Harbour, is experiencing wholly inappropriate development. This country invented the planning system as protection fromurban sprawl but the setting of our city is being rapidly destroyed. In recent years we have lost farmland separating the town from nearby villages such as Westhampnett, leaving only a gap, the Daffodil Field, between Summersdale and Lavant remaining. We have built hundreds of new dwellings encircling our city. We endure traffic levels that are unacceptable. If our Local Plan can be approved we can at least reduce new housing numbers to some extent.

We are fortunate to live in a town of charm and character. But the development threats whilst no new Local Plan is in place are being repeated on a damaging scale today as a result of Planning Appeals.
The case is clear – let’s argue for the best that good planning and architecture can provide.

*the December newsletter has been delivered to members, and will be available on this site in the spring. In the meantime do look at the 25th anniversary newsletter that describes the momentous events that provoked the start of the Chichester Society.

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Golden Anniversary Tree Planting

November 24, 2023UncategorizedJohnH

On Friday 24 November members met at 11am in Jubilee Park South near the New Park Centre to plant a tree to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Chichester Society, close to the tree planted in 2013 to mark the society’s 40th anniversary.

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Where has Chichester’s Civic Pride gone?

September 28, 2023Environment, Pavements, Trees, WalkwaysJohnH

If you get off a bus outside Chichester Cathedral, what do you see?
Dilapidated flower beds with a sign proudly displaying the fact that they belong to Chichester City Council. There’s also another weed-strewn flower bed nearby beside Phillip Jackson’s statue of St Richard. Why isn’t this flower bed maintained by the Cathedral’s works team?

Uncared-for trees on West Street leave littel room for buggies and pushchairs. Photo Brian Henhan

Let us return to our hapless bus passengers, residents or visitors to Chichester leaving their bus, who will have to squeeze (this is late July), beneath and between untrimmed over-hanging lime trees, negotiate rubbish on the ground. Across the road is another eye-sore, the once proud Army and Navy store (and later House of Fraser) now seemingly abandoned for the past four years waiting for its Guernsey-based owners to decide its future. If our bus passengers get as far as the Cross, they are just as likely to fall over one of the trip hazards on our pavements. When is our highway authority, West Sussex County Council (WSCC), going to do something about the parlous state of the paving?

We live in hope! Chichester District Council (CDC) has commissioned a Regeneration Strategy for Chichester, agreed at Full Council in mid-July – but this city is in dire need of action now! Could our City Council better maintain not only their flower beds but also pay for sweepers to keep pavements in front of the Cathedral clean? Cannot the interminable
discussions about paving in the city centre – and who pays for what – be concluded at long last by WSCC? And we must ask CDC to publish their Regeneration Strategy and deliver it as soon as possible. In the meantime, our ‘Councils’ should do their bit to improve the dilapidated state of our city centre now and not later. If they can’t do it perhaps we the
residents should form a work party to tidy the place up!

Peter Evans, Chairman

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Why can’t Chichester create a buzzy transport hub?

September 17, 2023Buses, RailwayBus & Rail Hub, Southern gatewayJohnH

Bill Sharp says some places have well designed rail/bus hubs which show what’s possible here.

Readers will know that the Society is concerned about plans to do away with Chichester Bus Station and replace it with stops scattered to some forlorn location or other. (See Newsletter 212, June 2022, pp 2-3). The Society is keen to see this idea unceremoniously dumped in favour of one of two possibilities.
As one option, we suggest the existing bus station could simply be refreshed. In most people’s eyes this building is, to say the least, down at heel. But it does have its admirers. The insightful blog Beauty of Transport states ‘Chichester bus station. The brickwork! The windows! The serifed lettering! The cantilevered balcony! I love it all.’

However, the Society is even keener on the idea of creating a new, fully-integrated bus/rail hub as part of the Southern Gateway re-development plans.

What might a combined bus & rail hub look like?
Here is one interpretation for a new transport hub at Chichester – see the June 2023 Newsletter for the full article showing other examples.

Idea for a combined Bus & Rail Hub — Image by Andrew Bain

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