Simon McDougall

LiberalDemocrat County and District Councillor Simon McDougall has joined forces with Local Conservative Member of Parliament Nick Gibb and other local councillors across the political spectrum to fight against development of 2,500 houses at Chalcraft lane. In a move that is unprecedented in this area they have agreed to fight the development on a non political basis so the community of Bersted has a very powerful voice working for them. Simon McDougall said” I am delighted to be working with Nick on this issue as I have done over the proposals for St Richard’s Hospital. Nick has called in the past for the end of yahboo politics and I have long held the belief that the Community benefits when politicians work together across the political divide. This issue is far more important than politics as the character of the whole area could be changed forever. This is a fight we can not afford to lose otherwise the begining of Bogchester will start. Our road network is not capable of taking this development and the site itself is prone to groundwater flooding during the winter months.  

The infrastructure needs for such a development are massive. New schools,doctor surgeries,dental surgeries along with major road development are the tip of the iceberg to make such a large scale development sustainable in the long term. The new Community College being built is only capable of holding a maximum of 1800 pupils. Despite me raising the issue of this development during the planning stages of the School my concerns fell on deaf ears. What’s really needed before more development is jobs for the long term and an A259 and A27 that can cope with the increase in traffic to cope with development of this site and housing proposals in Chichester. Development on this scale also highlights the need to keep St Richard’s hospital running at full capacity. 

Local Lib Dem councillor Simon McDougall has today criticised Conservative Councillors on Arun District Council of putting themselves before local residents. During the recent budget debate Simon McDougall put forward a proposal to freeze Councillors allowances for the coming financial year in recognition of the severe financial crisis that the British economy is in. Cllr McDougall said” I made the proposal after we had agreed to freeze allowances on West Sussex County Council and because in all conscience I could not accept an increase in my allowances when local residents are having such a hard time during the recession. A major part of our role is service to the community and 30% of our time is not paid to councillors in recognition of that fact. However I believe in the current circumstances we should be giving more of that time freely to meet the challenges head on we are facing our community .  

Bognor Regis Community College will benefit from a £1.5m new youth wing thanks to lottery funding on its new campus. It took Simon McDougall to highlight the fact that this vital building was absent from the original proposals.  It was Simon who put pressure on Tory-controlled West Sussex County Council to take action. He was very much the lone voice in the community calling for funding for this vital building. The Youth wing has an average attendance of 600 plus youths per month and on a Friday evening this can be as high as 130 Youths in one evening. I have been personally involved in youth matters for several years as a Management Committee Chairman and have seen at first hand the excellent work done by the Youth Service on a shoestring budget. The funding for this building will ensure a state of the art Youth Centre will be built on site by the Arena. With the high levels of deprivation in the area I am particularly pleased that my voice was heard and common sense prevailed.