Horsham District Council is hosting a free regional event for people and businesses of West Sussex and beyond to learn all about the benefits of electric vehicles (EVs) on Friday 24 May at their Parkside premises in Horsham from 9am to 2pm.

The event, Discover Electric, which is being organised by the Council in partnership with Let’s Experience Electric, is free to attend and open to everyone with an interest in switching to EVs and more sustainable motoring to help reduce carbon emissions on our roads.

The event will showcase a broad range of EVs with the opportunity to get behind the wheel and go for a test drive.

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From 2 April, Horsham District businesses with a climate-friendly project idea will be able to apply for up to £5,000 from Horsham District Council’s new Green LEAP Small Business Grant Scheme.

Green LEAP is an exciting addition to the Council’s popular ongoing LEAP grant scheme, with a fresh focus on supporting start-ups and small business to achieve their climate ambitions. Through Green LEAP, grants of up to £5,000 will be available to fund or part-fund climate-friendly business projects. Grants of up to £2,000 may be considered for other projects.

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West Sussex County Council News

New Chief Executive appointed

Leigh Whitehouse has been appointed as new Chief Executive.

Leigh will be joining from Surrey County Council where he is currently the interim Chief Executive, acting up from his substantive role of Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Resources.

Current Chief Executive, Becky Shaw, will continue in the post until Leigh is ready to join West Sussex.

Prioritising pothole repairs

As you will be well aware, we have experienced unprecedented levels of rain and named storm events over the autumn and winter months.

Over the past five months (October- Feb) we had more rain than we would normally have in a year, with February seeing the highest level of rain since records began.

Then in the first week of this month (March), we experienced a month’s worth of rain. These conditions are a big contributing factor in potholes forming so it is unsurprising that we are now seeing a large number of issues on the network, and we are experiencing very high numbers of customer reports.

Reports of defects this March have reached almost 7,400, and with over a week to go, we are on course to have one of the highest volume of new enquiries/reports ever recorded in one month.

In fact, in the past year, we have seen an overall record number of potholes and other safety defects being reported to us and we have also completed a record number of repairs.

We would like to reassure you we are doing all we can to manage the volume of enquiries and to address these increased numbers, to provide a road network we can all be proud of.

The county council has approved an additional £4 million as part of its revenue budget in 2024/25 to support highway maintenance activities and repairs, plus an additional £7 million of capital funding, which will increase our budget for carriageway resurfacing and treatments to over £20 million this coming year.

Right now, we are focussing on the high priority work of repairing safety defects, using additional resource, machinery and techniques to ensure longer lasting repairs.

Please keep reporting defects via our website and thank you for your patience whilst our teams prioritise and work through the backlog.

Get involved in a new initative to help nature recover in Sussex!

Here in Sussex we’re fortunate that our county is home to much iconic and wondrous wildlife, including some of the rarest natural habitats in the world. But nature is in trouble. One in six of our UK species is at risk of extinction, and urgent, locally coordinated efforts are needed to reverse this decline.

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are a new initiative being rolled-out across England to help with this. In Sussex there will be two strategies - one covering West Sussex and another for East Sussex and Brighton & Hove.

At the heart of every LNRS will be environmental issues that are most important to local people. If you live or work in Sussex you can have your say by taking the residents' survey below.

You can also visit Sussex Nature Recovery for more information and details of events including webinars, workshops, briefings and more

Here in Sussex we’re fortunate that our county is home to much iconic and wondrous wildlife, including some of the rarest natural habitats in the world. But nature is in trouble. One in six of our UK species is at risk of extinction, and urgent, locally coordinated efforts are needed to reverse this decline.

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are a new initiative being rolled-out across England to help with this. In Sussex there will be two strategies - one covering West Sussex and another for East Sussex and Brighton & Hove.

At the heart of every LNRS will be environmental issues that are most important to local people. If you live or work in Sussex you can have your say by taking the residents' survey below.

You can also visit Sussex Nature Recovery for more information and details of events including webinars, workshops, briefings and more.