Cutting Tangmere and Oving's community warden 'short sighted'

Tony Dignum (Con, Chichester North) spoke during a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday (September 6) where it was agreed that a vacancy for a warden in Tangmere and Oving would not be filled and the position would be cut to save money.

Mr Dignum said the move was ‘an opportunistic and short-sighted measure which I cannot support’.

He added: “At a time of stress in the nation it’s untimely to be reducing such an important service as this.

“Police chiefs are worried about public order, theft and so on because of the pressures and strains brought on by the cost of living crisis.

“It gives the wrong signal in my view to be cutting the service at this point. We’ve got to find the money somewhere else.”

Chichester’s Community Warden Service has been running since 2005, made up of seven wardens and one senior warden.

The district council hosts the service on behalf of partners such as the various parishes, and funds half of the service costs and all of the senior warden costs.

Last November a review was launched, looking into that funding in an effort to come up with a fairer, more evenly split, model.

It was during that review that one of the Tangmere and Oving wardens resigned.

Roy Briscoe, cabinet member for community service & culture, said: “I don’t think there’s any dispute that the wardens provide a very valuable service to the district.

“This is just the case that one of the wardens has resigned at a time when we were reviewing the service.

“It’s an opportunity for us to save some money.

“We are facing difficult times and if we can save a bit of money here, it’s not going to majorly impact the service that is being delivered.”

Mr Briscoe told the meeting that the outcome of the review would see the council save £42,000.

Later this month, the full council will be asked to approve the use of £133,000 to cover 50 per cent of the total cost of the Community Warden Service for three years from April 1 2023.