WHISPERING SMITH: No surprise that the C word has a bad name

No surprise there really, I suppose – disloyal to their staff and treacherous to our Littlehampton community. Even the politicians we elected to Parliament and to the local councils were powerless to stop the closure of The Arcade’s Crown Post Office and so it goes quietly on Sunday, March 23.

This is a good example of how not to put any faith in the word ‘consultation’. Those who offer it do so as a smokescreen to satisfy themselves their actions are fully justified. They asked, you told them and they ignored you anyway.

DO SWANS play with the wind? I don’t know, but it looked like the three I observed on the River Arun during a recent stormy afternoon were having a ball.

I saw them fly downstream towards the river’s mouth, beating those big wings against a fierce southerly and barely moving. Towards the pier they seemed to give up, turned tails to the big wind and shot back up the river at high rate of knots, with hardly a flick of their wings.

Smart birds, I thought, but a few minutes later they came back downstream and repeated the whole process. So, you tell me, does John Swan play with the wind?

I am convinced that gulls do, after watching them for a long time dancing on the high breaking inshore waves, feeding or playing? Whatever, they seemed to be enjoying themselves and were in good voice to boot.

I hear you, I really do spend too much time down by the river, but there is always something interesting there.

SAD to see the flag over the lifeboat station flying at half-staff last week, as a mark of respect and acknowledgement of the passing of Peter Cheney who, over the years, was so closely associated with the station. ‘Home is the sailor, home from the sea, and the hunter home from the hill’.

THE BLACK WINDMILL cinema may be getting a shade lighter with a promised service, mainly staffed by volunteers, from the end of January. If you would like to become a volunteer, and your help is needed, email [email protected] for an application form. It’s now 315 days since our cinema closed.