QUALITY OF LIFE TARGETED

Councillor Ann De Vecchi, Leader of the Council said "Our first priority for next year has been to fund the free bus travel scheme for pensioners. The extra cost of 535,000 has been the first call on our increased government grant. Advance publicity has already produced a steady stream of enquiries from car owners who are keen to try the local bus services now they will be free from April. We are also committed to improving access to our services from all sections of the community and will provide extra money to fund improvements in this area."

Keeping the environment clean and tidy is an important activity for us and feedback from resident's shows there is a clear desire to see more improvements in this area. We shall therefore allocate more resources for dealing with anti social activities from fly tippers and people who leave nuisance vehicles on the street, including more prosecutions of offenders.

We will also use existing resources and supplement them so that we can set up a team to issue fixed penalty fines for litter and dog fouling offences. Their work will be directed to specific campaigns across the district, building on the successful "Clean Streets" Newhaven trial campaign last Autumn.

These recommendations will be paid for from a combination of our ongoing programme of efficiency savings which will generate a minimum of 100,000 each year for the next three years and from a band D tax increase of 13 pence per week which is a 4.35% increase.

Council will consider these proposals on 22 February when it meets at Pelham House, St Andrews Lane, Lewes at 2.30pm.