An update on community activity:
Keepers Green: As many of you will know there have been some disruptions this week with the unexpected encampment of a small traveller community on Keeper’s Green, arriving on the afternoon of 26th July. We would like to extend our enormous gratitude to our close partners at Chichester District and West Sussex County Councils and the Sussex Police for their support in this situation. They have worked tirelessly to keep us informed and advise us of the best approach to take, to ensure that the matter could be handled with as much respect, calm and minimal disruption or damage as is possible.
A notice was served to the visitors on the afternoon of 27th July advising them that they must move on by midday on the 28th July. At this time the police are working hard to enforce that. We are also grateful for the supportive comments and actions of residents and are thankful for the collaborative approach. We will review appropriate measures to safeguard the park in the future, in partnership with councils and the police.
The CCDT App: We are so excited to have launched the CCDT app for residents of Roussillon Park, Keepers Green and Graylingwell Park. It provides discounts to the Chapel café and special offers to events; a guide to What’s On; local news and information; a space for sale and freecycling of unwanted items; listings of local supplies and trades; an opportunity to report any issues or damage around the site and a way to simply stay in touch. We have been so pleased with the number of people who have already downloaded it following leaflet drops and social media posts about it. If you are a resident in one of those three areas and have not received the information or are struggling with the download please don’t hesitate to contact us on info@chichestercdt.org.uk
The new Chichester Shed is about to be built! Chichester Community Development Trust (CCDT) has been successful in securing funding to create a brand new ‘Chichester Shed’ designed to be a purpose-built space where Chichester’s young people can find the support, entertainment, connections, and sense of belonging they need. The Chichester Shed will be a space where all people can come together with a focus on young people for out of school activities and for older isolated people for day-to-day activities to come together to learn, connect and share skills. Works are due to start next week to bring this aspiration to reality.
To be built as a single-storey timber framed space, the Chichester Shed will be constructed alongside the community garden on Keeper’s Green. Hoped to be completed around the end of this year, the space will both host existing youth activities already delivered in other CCDT spaces, as well as create somewhere for new activities to be delivered. These may include inter-generational making projects between the ‘shedders’ and young people; additional youth groups; support for neuro-diverse and young people facing anxiety; and activities delivered in partnership with fantastic youth support organisations in the city such as the Young People Shop, and Chichester Boys Club.
