Leaders of West Sussex councils association could be replaced as shared arrangements collapse

The county’s parish and town councils subscribe to WSALC, which in turn is supplied services such as training, guidance, advice and support along with neighbours Surrey and East Sussex by the umbrella organisation Surrey and Sussex Association of Local Councils (SSALC).

A value for money exercise, conducted by WSALC’s board, has led it to propose buying services from Hampshire’s ALC instead citing cost savings.

This has led to a chain of events that has effectively splintered SSALC.

At its virtual AGM today, there will be a resolution tabled to replace WSALC’s board chairman Terry Oliver and vice-chairman Mike Beal.

Other resolutions propose that WSALC does not purchase services from Hampshire and instead works with East Sussex’s ALC to re-establish a Sussex association to receive joint governance arrangements through a single service.

Martin Beaton, chairman at Aldingbourne Parish Council, described ‘anger’ at the board for ‘effectively pulling out of SSALC’ on the basis of the value for money exercise and felt it had ‘not been particularly transparent in the way that it has operated’.

He also criticised the content of the value for money exercise itself for not containing a clear comparison on costs between what Hampshire is offering and what SSALC offered.

He added: “There’s never been any clarity about what was the problem they were trying to solve in the first place. What was so wrong with the current arrangement that they decided to do something different without consulting the parishes?”

Douglas Denham St Pinnock, chairman of West Hoathly Parish Council, said: “It’s now about damage limitation and trying to restore the peaceful and successful structure we enjoyed before.