Welcome to our April 2025 newsletter!
Your local Green team has been busy campaigning in two upcoming by-election areas over the last few weeks:
24 April – Marine ward (Bognor Regis) for Arun District Council. Green candidate: John Erskine.
1 May – Midhurst (Chichester) for Chichester District Council and West Sussex County Council. Green candidates: Adrian Morris and Philip Maber.
Our excellent candidates and volunteers have been working hard, delivering leaflets and speaking to local people about their concerns. With just a short time left before the votes – could you join us? This is a fun way to get more involved with your local party, and meet other members too.
With the postponement of the county council elections, and the future shape of our local democracy still to be decided, it’s more important than ever to have Green voices heard. We’re expecting more councillors to stand down over the next few months, and the Greens are prepared to step up and be a positive local voice.
Can you help us?
If you can spare a couple of hours to join us, please get in touch for more details:
Volunteering isn’t always for everyone, but a regular or one-off donation could also make a huge difference. We don’t have billionaire backers and dodgy business relationships to call on for our resources! Your local party relies on supporters just like you. Thank you for anything you can give.
Update from our District councillors
Carol Birch, one of our Green councillors and Chair of Arun’s Housing and Wellbeing Committee says there is great news for local social housing. Arun has successfully been given a provisional award of £3.3m, which with additional £4.5m, will be used to upgrade the least efficient homes in the current housing stock. The money will come from the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund. This programme provides grants to social housing providers to help make properties warmer, reduce carbon emissions and tackle fuel poverty – by installing insulation, alternative heating systems and solar PV panels on roofs. These steps will improve the household’s thermal comfort (a term that describes the temperature, air flow, and humidity, amongst other factors, in a property so that residents are neither too hot or too cold throughout the year), whilst saving money on energy bills. As we move into spring and summer, it’s also good to see that this work will help keep homes cooler in the hotter months too. Whilst this is great news, it also illustrates the enormous effort that would be needed to improve all housing across the country. So as Rampion 2 also gets the go ahead, our priority should be to use our energy wisely.
Beach clean and social meet-up
Local members join the regular litter pick on Littlehampton beach on the last Sunday of every month. This is followed by a coffee and a chat in The Beach Cafe, Sea Road, Littlehampton (opposite The Wave leisure centre).
The next meet will be: Sunday 27 April
To join the beach clean, please meet at 9.30am by the final beach hut before the cafe. All the grabbers, gloves and bags are kindly provided by the Beach (as part of Surfers Against Sewage), and a member of their team usually leads the clean. Afterwards, we’ll be in or outside the cafe, from around 11am.
We’d love to see you – please sign-up here so we know to look out for you:
Members updates
Each month we hold an online policy discussion on a topic close to Green hearts. These are an opportunity to consider an important area in more detail, in a relaxed and respectful setting. Tonight Friday 18 April our topic is: being a town / parish councillor. We will be talking about this important role in our local communities, the support the Green party can give councillors, and answering any questions you might have about standing.
Our next branch meeting will be on Wednesday 14 May, 7pm on Zoom. All members are welcome to join us, and non-members can also be admitted by prior arrangement. We look forward to seeing you there.
Linda Lancaster, a good friend of Arun & Chichester Green Party, very sadly died recently. A ceremony celebrating her life was held on 9 April, attended by many Green Party activists and friends who wanted to share their sadness and show their respect for this remarkable and compassionate person.
Despite battling chronic illnesses for several decades, Linda was a trooper, who adopted wholeheartedly many humanitarian and environmental causes and went out of her way to consistently campaign for a better world – for animals (she was a vegan), for the environment, for refugees, for peace and against racism. Linda was usually on the frontline of marches and sit-ins, with a legendary ability to diffuse tense situations and win people over with her gentle charm and feisty wit. She helped out with leafleting and canvassing for several local Green constituencies and stood as a paper candidate in her own home area, Felpham East. She was also presented with an award for her activism at the Greens’ Xmas celebration in Barnham last December. She will be remembered with huge affection and admiration by many.
Can we help you? Want to join us? Have skills to share?
Keep in touch with your local Chichester and Arun Greens
Join the party: join.greenparty.org.uk
Ask a question: contact@chichesterarun.greenparty.org.uk
Keep up to date: Find us on Facebook, You Tube, TikTok, Threads and BlueSky
Help us grow: We rely on one off donations or regular standing orders to help us cover the cost of our local campaign work. All support is very gratefully received. Please always include your last name and postcode as a reference, so we know who to thank.