Minutes – Community Affairs Committee – 12 March 2026
The agenda and papers for this meeting are available here: Agenda and papers – Community Affairs Committee – 12 March 2026
The minutes of this meeting are presented below.
You can also download a PDF copy of the minutes here: Minutes – Community Affairs Committee – 12 March 2026
COMMUNITY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Minutes
Date: 12 March 2026
Time: 5.30pm – 7.43pm
Location: The Council Chamber – The Council House • North Street • CHICHESTER • West Sussex • PO19 1LQ
PRESENT: Councillors Quail (SQ), Apel (CA), Chant (RC), Knight (SK), Kondabeka (JK), Moore (RM)
EX-OFFICIO: The Mayor, Councillor McHale (SMH)
IN ATTENDANCE: Councillors Vivian (JV), J. Gershater (JG)
ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Town Clerk, Deputy Town Clerk, Communities Officer, Pam Bushby (CDC) and Anton Mezzone (West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service), Representatives from Citizens Advice Arun & Chichester, Stonepillow, Chichester
Cinema, Chichester Boys Club, Sanctuary in Chichester and Chichester Cathedral.
CA2026/10 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
None had been received.
CA2026/11 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
No declarations were made.
CA2026/12 PUBLIC QUESTIONS
None had been received.
CA2026/13 MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
The committee approved and the Chairman signed as a correct record the minutes of the ordinary committee meeting held on the 4 December 2025.
CA2026/14 UPDATE ON ACTIONS FROM PREVIOUS MEETING
a) Invite Pam Bushby and Anton Mezzone to attend the March Committee meeting to update members on the Junior Citizens project – Communities Officer.
Completed.
Pam Bushby and Anton Mezzone gave an overview of the event which was designed for children in Year 6 to teach the fundamentals of good citizenship.
The event is fully funded and going ahead from 13th -24th April 2026, during school day times, at Goodwood racecourse. Over 900 children from Arun and Chichester will be attending and will learn skills for life to help them become good future citizens. Students will attend seven sessions which include sessions held by The Fire and Rescue Service, The Police, SECAM
Response Team, Network Rail and Southern Rail, Thoughtful, Waste Teams from the Councils and Jason Lemm from WSCC.
The price per child to participate is £14 with £9 paid by parents and the remaining £5 subsidised by the programme. All attendees will receive a workbook at the end of the event to reinforce the learning from the day and allow further follow up work in class.
The hope is that the scheme will continue and become an annual event and that it will branch out to local SEN schools.
Anton and Pam also spoke about the work they are currently undertaking to address roof running issues in the City, including interventions and mentoring programmes with identified and vulnerable children.
b) Include review of all venues nominated and their status on agenda for meeting on March 12th 2026 – Communities Officer
Completed.
To be discussed under agenda item CA2026/17
c) Include the item on the next property sub-committee agenda – Council Services and Support Manager
Completed – the Property Sub-Committee RESOLVED to apply for permanent planning permission for the statue at its meeting held on 10 February 2026 (Minute PROP2026/11 refers).
d) Approach the local Royal Naval Association to explore the possibility of initiating a crowdfunding campaign for casting the Murray-Nelson statue in bronze – Mayor
The Mayor has a meeting with the RNA on 25th April to discuss options on the Murray-Nelson statue.
Action – Working Group to review and discuss if the Council wish for the statue to be cast in bronze. Meeting to be held prior to the Mayor meeting with the RNA. would support the adoption of the statue once it has been cast in bronze.
e) Ensure grant recipients are notified of their allocations and provide guidance on the next steps for fund utilisation – Deputy Town Clerk
Completed.
f) Prepare a summary report of the grant allocations for public record and transparency – Council Services and Support Manager
To note this is currently published on the website.
CA2026/15 TO CONSIDER SUPPORTING THE ST RICHARDS FEAST COMMUNITY EVENT ON THE CATHEDRAL GREEN
Members received a presentation from Oliver Tubb from Chichester Cathedral regarding supporting with the cost of delivering SussexFest on Sunday 14th June 2026 from 11.00-4.00pm.
The event will be free, accessible and inclusive to the community and will focus on culture, heritage, arts and crafts and will promote the heritage of the area and the city.
Partners on the day to include Pallant House, Chichester Festival Theatre, the Weald and Downland Museum, Fishbourne Roman Palace as well as live music, community choirs, arts and crafts, local food and drink, and activities. 2,000-4,000 people are expected to attend.
All activities will be free, and it will be a family focused event in the heart of the city to support both residents, visitors, businesses and tourism. The event will be working with local transport providers such as Stagecoach to encourage sustainable transport. The event will cost £7,000 to put on and the Cathedral are seeking support from the City Council for up to 50% of the costs for running the event. The remaining costs will be secured via corporate sponsorship and public donations.
The event will be a multi-faith event with all welcome, although the cathedral congregation members will be encouraged to attend.
The committee RESOLVED to allocate £3,500 from the events budget to Chichester Cathedral to support delivery of the event.
CA2026/16 REPORTS FROM PREVIOUS GRANT RECIPIENTS
The committee noted receipt of reports from the following grant recipients. It was advised that CAB was not a grant recipient, but a Service Provider and there was a service level agreement between CAB and CCC which provides the Citizen’s Advice Worker to work the Council House.
CAB
Lucca Badioli (CAB Arun & Chichester CEO) gave an overview of the service that has been delivered at the Council House since July 2024. 367 clients have been seen in that time, and financial outcomes have totalled over £1.1 million.
CAB have noted that the working relationship with Chichester City Council has been great and the partnership has worked well. The advisors have remained the same throughout the term, which has helped in building relationships with both clients and partners. The advisors have time to build meaningful relationships with their clients and to undertake detailed casework and follow up work.
CAB thanked CCC for their support.
The committee asked if they felt that the level of financial gains was sustainable for future years – CAB feel this is replicable.
It was noted that demand is increasing, and extending the drop-in hours has helped.
Chichester Boys Club
Mike Turner (Chairman) thanked the City Council for their continuing funding, which has been greatly appreciated and supports them to continue to deliver their range of activities and to experiment with new activities such as, a new project to design, build
and maintain an electric car.
Councillors asked about their most popular activity at the Boys Club. Mike Turner advised that the club provides a huge range of activities for all age groups, from children to adults, so it is hard to pick a single activity, but the after school and youth
work is the most well supported.
Chichester Cinema
Anne-Marie Flynn (Executive Director) gave an overview of how the City Council funding had been spent, including health and safety improvements such as new handrails in the auditorium and installing hearing loop devices.
The funding had also helped to support their education and outreach work. In 2024 they ran 23 schools’ events, which increased to 26 events in 2025.
They have also run adult education events such as talks which are free for Members.
These events ran mostly on Saturday mornings, which were well supported in attendance and also highly rated in audience satisfaction surveys. Audiences have grown year on year.
Film Club was launched in October 2024 specifically to combat isolation young people between 15-25 years of age. This club as offered once a month screening, £3.50 for membership, £3.50 for a ticket which includes pizza.
Membership is growing (96 members), average attendance is growing slowly, and they are also coming to other films.
They are also offering work experience placements to university students.
The focus for the coming year is to continue Film Club, offering work experience, supporting the elderly and vulnerable community and their education work. They also want to take advantage of the changing demographics particularly are economically disadvantaged as to reach more families in need. Members were advised that they approached organisations such as the Housing Associations, Homestart, the Foodbank and the Boys Club and developed Family Flicks which was a family programme of films over Christmas for a subsidised price of £2.50 (200 tickets were supplied free of charge) along with free membership and they wish to continue to develop this.
Sanctuary Chichester
Gemma Driver (Trustee & Secretary to the Board) from Sanctuary in Chichester thanked the City Council for their support. It was noted that all of the funding is allocated to supporting refugees and asylum seekers in the city. Demand is
unpredictable, so core funding is hugely appreciated and important. They are currently supporting 461 individuals including in the hotel and across 126 households.
In 2025, volunteers worked with families to help in various ways. Over 2,929 hours of volunteering was provided, including 940 hours of language tutoring and support.
Other activities included the United Nations football team, which was supported at the University, a women’s group, a youth drop-in. Gemma noted that the largest cost is staff.
The biggest challenge is supporting families in home office accommodation once they have been granted leave to remain as they have only 28 days to find alternative accommodation. Sanctuary have supported people through this which is extremely
time consuming and some of the most important work that Sanctuary carry out.
Stonepillow
Chloe Neilson Hopkins (Trusts & Grants Manager) and Liam O’Hagan (Community Services Outreach Manager) thanks the City Council for their ongoing support and advised Councillors on the work they undertake in their Chichester Hub. Stonepillow
have supported 365 individuals at the Chichester hub in the past year, and these people made over 4,000 visits to the hub.
Those in need required support with issues such as housing, benefits, utilities and accessing various support services such as
computers, phone, laundry facilities, showers and hot meals.
Gemma advised Members that they have seen a rise in demand for housing advice, benefits advice and access to computers over the past year. Stonepillow have also developed and delivered digital workshops to help provide users with the skills they
need.
Liam summarised the Case Study which was included in report. He also mentioned that they have been doing outreach work with homeless community in the City to encourage them to access support and to reduce and to social behaviour.
CA2026/17 COMMUNITY ASSET REGISTER
The committee noted the update on assets added to the Community Asset Register and considered the outstanding properties.
Following further discussion, the committee RESOLVED to proceed with the listing requests for the Chichester City Arts Centre, St Georges Church and the 12th Chichester Scout Group to re-write and resubmit the Jam Café application and to re-submit the application for St Pauls for the community hall only.
CA2026/18 CAB REPORT
Members noted the monthly data for February.
The committee noted that a working group had begun considering the CAB trial and had requested further information in order to complete their report. The Committee RESOLVED that the working group should be allowed to complete its work and prepare the report for the full council meeting on Wednesday 29th April 2026
CA2026/19 GRANT CONSIDERATION
The committee considered reallocating the grant previously awarded to Chichester CAN and Nicola Garrard to Children’s Bookfest and Nicola Garrard and RESOLVED that the change be made as requested.
Action: The committee requested that a working group be formed to look at procedures when grants are returned.
CA2026/20 BUSINESS PLAN SUB-COMMITTEE
The committee REVIEWED the recommendations made by the Business Plan Sub-Committee at its meeting held on 9 February 2026:
- Minute 2026/5 (E-Ink Displays) refers – The sub-committee REQUESTED that a paper outlining the future of the event listings be prepared to allow the Community Affairs Committee to consider if they would continue to subscribe to the events feed if the e ink trial is discontinued. Project Manager to report.
- Minute 2026/6 (CAB Advisor Data Analysis) refers – They REQUESTED that the Community Affairs Committee assess the trial and prepare a recommendation for the future of the service to be presented to full council on 29 April 2026. Deputy Town Clerk to report.
After considering the background information on Chichester Living, the committee RESOLVED to continue to subscribe to the Chichester Living events listing service at a cost of £250 per month subject to an amendment to the MOU to define annual price increases to annual CPI.
CA2026/21 ITEMS TO BE INCLUDED ON THE NEXT AGENDA
- Grants procedures Working Group
CA2026/22 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Date of next ordinary meeting: Thursday 4th June 2026
Meeting closed at: 7:43PM