Overdevelopment among voters' concerns in Adur

Concerns about overdevelopment, beach cleanliness and business success are some of the issues at the forefront of voters' minds in Shoreham-by Sea, Southwick and Lancing.

Residents in those areas will vote for their West Sussex County Council representatives as well as half the councillors on Adur District Council on 7 May.

Between them, the two authorities are responsible for all the local services that affect everyone's lives, from schools and social care to roads, waste, public safety and economic success.

In East Street, in Shoreham-by-Sea, BBC South East spoke to residents for a snapshot of the issues that matter to them.

Friends Emilie Feniuk and Melanie Tingle said "massive overdevelopment" was their biggest concern.

Emilie, whose children are at secondary school, said: "I know for a lot of people getting a secondary school place in the town they live in wasn't achievable.

"They get sent to Worthing or schools that weren't even on their preferences."

Melanie agreed, saying: "They haven't got the infrastructure for the number of homes - or the healthcare and everything else.

"The traffic flow from all these developments is a nightmare through the high street as it is, so that's only getting worse."

Rubbish on the beach where they like to go with their families was also a bugbear.

Melanie said: "A lot of people are visiting the beach, some to fish, but they're discarding a lot of plastic on the beach."

Emilie added: "It's particularly bad in summer. I think the bin collections aren't regular enough so the foxes, the seagulls, get into everything people have left so then the rubbish is sprawled out all down the beach. That's frustrating. "

Ellie Redman has recently moved into a new apartment and said parking is her main concern.

"I was very lucky to get a parking space but it took three weeks for my permit to come through so I got £500 worth of parking charges before that," she said.

She said building new homes without enough parking spaces was unrealistic as people needed to commute to work.

"I commute to Gatwick every day so I need a car," she said.

"Trains work fine here but they're not for everybody, people need cars so more parking would be ideal and less parking charges."

Paul White said "I think the main issue is the amount of tax that people are paying and not seeing very much in return for it."

He said he wanted to see health and social care services working better.

"People at the moment are being held in hospital because there's no social beds for them so there's a good degree of bed blocking in lots of areas, including Sussex," he said.

Paul said an apparent lack of opportunities for young people also concerned him and he would like to see councils do more to create jobs.

"Apprenticeships, training schemes… even things like Saturday jobs are very thin on the ground now so I think there's quite a lot that could be done about it, but you don't really hear about any plans or any commitment towards those things," he said.

Clive Cary runs businesses and works at The Pad men's clothing store in East Street.

"Whoever you speak to around here, it's becoming increasingly hard to make money and for businesses to function," he said.

"People say they love their local shops and we try and keep our prices as reasonable as we can, but it's increasingly hard for us to function, partly because of the costs and no help with business rates."

He said councils could help with boosting footfall but said there were "no easy answers" while the national economy is struggling.

Clive said he was feeling increasingly like politicians were "just tinkering" instead of addressing large-scale problems.

He didn't vote in the 2024 general election for the first time in his adult life.

"I have no clue who I'm going to vote for. No one's convinced me I don't know if anyone can. I'm just so uncertain," he said.

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