We all rely on electricity every day for various things, but for some, a power cut can be particularly distressing and difficult, for example, if you rely on electricity for medical equipment or have a young baby in the family.

That’s why Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) offer extra help and support during a power cut. Registering for the Priority Services is free and helps them to help you when you need it most.

This service offers: 

◦    A dedicated 24-hour priority services phone number

◦    Priority updates during a power cut

◦    The option to nominate someone for SSE to contact on your behalf

◦    Information in the format you need, for example, Braille or audio CD

To find out more and to see if you are eligible to register, please call 0800 294 3259 or visit the website: https://www.ssepd.co.uk/PriorityServices/

Southern Electric Power Distribution has established this fund to support local communities as they prepare for future emergency weather events. They offer grants of up to £20,000 to support community resilience projects in their network areas.

The fund will support projects that:

·  Protect the welfare of vulnerable customers during a significant power outage or emergency weather event. 

·  Enhance community facilities and services that may be used or instigated in the event of a significant power outage or emergency weather event.

·  Improve communication during an emergency situation, to keep communities informed or aid contact between local groups and response services.

To find out more, please call 0141 224 7191 or visit the website: https://www.ssepd.co.uk/resiliencefund/

Amble just beat out Bognor Regis as winner of the best coastal high street in the Great British High Street Competition 2015.

In the end there were only 700 votes in it; the judges called it one of the toughest categories and stated that all three competitors 'impressed us with their innovative approach and passion for their high streets'.

There was great sportsmanship between Bognor and Amble, with Bognor Regis Town Centre Management offering their congratulations on Twitter as soon as the results were announced and Amble responding, 'Many thanks, Bognor. It was a pleasure to compete with such lovely rivals'.

So a big well done to Bognor, for all their hard work, and better luck next year!

For full details of all the category winners, and to find out how to enter next year, go to http://thegreatbritishhighstreet.co.uk/high-street-of-the-year-award.

We have started tree planting this month and a total of 295 trees will be planted around the county. 24% of these are privately funded by residents as we receive a high volume of requests for new trees to be planted each year.

All the trees we plant are large containerised ‘extra-heavy standards’, between 3 and 4 metres in height. Large trees such as this are more expensive but result in considerably fewer cases of vandalism. This makes them the most cost-effective way to get young trees established.

Improvements to Love West Sussex

We have been making some changes to the Love West Sussex online form to help customers report problems to us. The list of categories has been reduced to make it less confusing and we have added pop-up messages and questions to help customers provide the information we need.

Valuable feedback on these changes has already been received from a group of customers which we are working towards implementing to improve the process further.

Town and Parish Councils are encouraged to report all faults to us on Love West Sussex and feed back any comments or suggestions for improvement.