IAN HART: Spare a thought for pupils...

WITH summer almost over, spare a thought for three Thomas A’ Becket Middle School pupils, Olivia Miller, Emily Bunce and Holly Dwyer who have pledged to wear shorts until November 30 whatever the weather, to raise funds for the new children’s A&E at Worthing Hospital.

In addition to wearing shorts, the girls have held a coffee morning, a netball tournament and two table top sales, and to date have raised £1,361.

Again, another example of some of our local youngsters thinking of others less fortunate than themselves, and wouldn’t it be nice if on their first day back in normal seasonal clothes, Saturday, December 1, they might be treated to coffee with the mayor in his parlour?

Been mis-sold PPI insurance?

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Me neither, so why do I get between three or four phone calls a week from people telling me I can get money back?

My generation, and the couple before, are the ones that depended on the good old landline, but with the advent of mobile phones, I’ve now reached a point in my life when everyone in my house has their own mobile, so use of the good old home phone is limited.

In the last quarter, we used the home phone for outgoing calls three times, and the overwhelming majority of the incoming calls are the aforementioned PPI merchants, people trying to sell me a new kitchen or conservatory or the news that I’ve been selected in a Reader’s Digest grand draw!

It could only happen here...The Worthing sewage spillage situation has now escalated with swimming in the sea being banned between Southwick and Ferring.

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But in a roundabout way, it does dispel an urban myth from my youth.

As a lad I was always under the impression sewage was pumped into the sea off East Worthing, which was the reason why it had that terrible stench and people very rarely went to the beach east past the Aquarena.

Clearly, I was misled all of those years ago, but still puzzled about the legendary smell?

Finally, apologies for sounding liked a cracked record but I still feel very strongly about this issue.

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I met up with a former mayor last week who is in total agreement with me over the naming of the new pool.

Like me, she thinks, honouring Worthing’s only swimming Olympian, Angela Barnwell, would be a fitting tribute to one of the greatest sportswomen this town has produced. Councillor Bryan Turner, can you change your mind before it’s too late?

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