When I heard that at the Fishersgate Together meeting on 17th June 2008 it had been announced that the Fishersgate based Children's Centre - due to open in the St Peter's Church building - had now been put back to March 2009 I was for the first time ready to give up.

This centre was due to open in March 2008, then June 2008, then September 2008 and then December 2008.

If the Fishersgate Children's Centre does not open until March then the Fishersgate Healthy Living Centre will have nowhere to operate from until then, as the two publicly funded centres are symbiotic. The BIG Lottery funding for the Healthy Living Centre is time limited, and that limit is March 31st 2009. The Healthy Living Centre grant was gained by Fishersgate Community Association in 2002, but due to problems with the builder of the new Community Centre - the details of the builder being successfully sued which took five and a half years are elsewhere - the Healthy Living Centre was left on hold. BIG were very kind and helpfull and allowed the funding to wait. In January 2007 FCA asked Big to allow Adur District Council to take over as lead organisation. BIG agreed, and ADC then wasted over a year!

It makes us all so mad to see the local government officers taking years to prove their inability to do the job they are paid for by the tax payers. Fishersgate deserves better than this monumental cock up!