Parking
WSCC and MSDC are proposing Controlled Parking Zones in Haywards Heath. In return for an annual fee residents would get "parking priority on residential streets near their homes." Bless. Paying for the privilege of parking outside your own house!

They are soon to canvas views in Lindfield, Cuckfield and, yes, Burgess Hill. The inventive ways our council has of taxing us. How long before the sin of putting the wrong rubbish in the wrong recycling box is penalised here also, as one council in England is currently in the process of doing?

Naive
Periodically, the government has a gun amnesty; where you can surrender weapons at your local police station, which will then be sent to the crusher. Now, in a publicity boosting wheeze the police have a "knife amnesty". Chief Constable of Sussex, Nigel Yeo, says: "This initiative is one of a range of measures we are taking to ensure that we keep a tight grip on knife crime." So you can now hand in those illegally held weapons.

Hey, wait a minute. Don't they serve a purpose? They are not guns, with the sole purpose of killing and maiming. Am I supposed to give up using cutlery? Are the police to arrest a chef, carrying about the tools of his trade?

If I were a criminal, would I hand over my knife? No. Is it true that a police officer recently murdered went out to confront someone in the street with her own kitchen knife? If so, when law abiding people are criminalized for carrying a Swiss Army Knife, there seems to be a double standard.

No criminal will surrender their weapon; only law abiding people. Knife amnesties are as gullible a concept as when the police plead on television to some murderer to give themselves up "because they must be finding it hard living with themselves."

Just wait until next year. In spite of the knife amnesty, knife crime will have increased hugely.

Expenses
How would you like a say on the councillors' expenses? Well, there are two vacancies on the remuneration panel! Although the councillors would argue with the Leader who described the work as to decide "how much councillors should be paid." As all councillors will tell you, they are not paid at all. Yeah, right! All applicants need apply before 5pm on Thursday 1 June. Contact David Pollington on 01444 477225 or email DavidP@midsussex.gov.uk.