Arun Lib Dem and District Council Leader Cllr Dr James Walsh provides an update on the council's progress over the last 12-18 months.

The council's progress includes:

• An increase in public satisfaction with Arun District Council in its annual survey (77% satisfaction for the last year, up from 64% under the previous administration)
• Keeping the finances within budget for the current financial year, despite the pandemic
• Changing the council to an all inclusive committee governance structure from next May, away from the closed cabinet system of the previous Conservative administrations
• Delivering a £3.4m major public realm facelift for Littlehampton High Street & Beach Road
• Ensuring a £1.2m revamp of the Place St Maur seafront-to-town link in Bognor Regis, including new water features, events space and new lighting
• Saving and revitalising the Sunken Gardens in central Bognor Regis
• Planning for a new disabled access to Bognor Regis beach
• Delivering 90 new council homes within two years, up from the 30 delivered over the previous 10 years
• Extending super fast fibre broadband to 130 sites across the district to enable greater business and domestic speeds
• Alongside WSCC, using Section 106 developer contributions to deliver the Lyminster by-pass and A259 duelling at Littlehampton
• Delivering a contract for Electric Vehicle charging points across Arun District Council car parks
• Maintaining a superb refuse, recycling and green waste collection across Arun throughout the pandemic
• Housing 50+ street homeless during the early pandemic, and rehousing the majority since then
• Coordinating £30m of Business Support Grants including retail, hospitality and leisure, £1.5 m of Discretionary Grants to Local Businesses, and £680k of Council Tax hardship rent relief holidays to council small business tenants
• Challenging central government over the previous administrations' unsatisfactory Local Plan and the increasingly unrealistic housing targets currently swamping our coastal strip
• Creating a funded climate emergency response plan