West Sussex County Council have given notification of planned Burgess Hill road closures relating to railway work: 

Junction Road between its junction with Cants Lane and its junction with Ravenswood Road is temporarily prohibited from 23:00 hours on Saturday 20 March 2010 until 04:00hours on Monday 22^nd March 2010.  This closure is necessary to allow essential engineering works to be carried out on the railway crossing.

Leylands Road at Wivelsfield Station where the railway bridge crosses the carriageway is temporarily prohibited between 07.00hours and 19.00hours on Sunday 18^th April 2010.  This closure is necessary to allow urgent repairs to be made to the bridge parapets. 

Mid Sussex District Council’s parking strategy is out for consultation until 31/03/10 (see http://www.midsussex.gov.uk/page.cfm?Pageid=6316&CID=169 ) where everyone can have their say by completing the survey form.

Parking is a vital issue affecting the economic well being of Burgess Hill, and Mid Sussex District Council must decide whether it wishes to treat parking as a cash cow to be milked, (the current misguided policy given parking demand has fallen as prices have risen), or as an integral part of its role in encouraging thriving town centres and sustainable travel.  This is even more relevant given the competition from out of town supermarkets like Tesco which benefits from free  parking and none of the responsibilities or community interest of a town centre retailer.

The recent price rises in parking charges forced through by the Conservative administration on the District Council have forced more traffic onto residential roads surrounding the town centre.  Commuter parking around railway stations such as Noel Rise is also a problem - we need a car park at Wivelsfield Station.  The District Council needs to pay more attention to car park maintenance, inadequate snow clearance, poor drainage and the need for parking machines that give change, and the standard of public toilets needs upgrading.  Secure parking for bicycles should also be provided.

Add your support to a better deal on parking by completing the District Council’s survey as above. 

As a prelude to an expected application to significantly expand the floor area of Burgess Hill’s  Tesco store,  an application is currently being considered by Mid Sussex DC for a retail kiosk located in the store’s car park, which would be occupied by Timpson’s – for “key cutting, shoe repairs, engraving and dry cleaning”.  Although only a 23 sq metre “pod” it does represent a potentially worrying expansion of the range of services offered at the site, which when combined with the expected application for a significant expansion of floor space at the store, could raise concerns at a possible threat to a healthy town centre in Burgess Hill.

Tesco’s design and access statement in its current application smugly announces under a heading of community involvement that no public consultation has taken place over the current application, but that “the proposal has, however, been subject to consultation at board level within Tesco and Timpson.”  It would be interesting to know how many of their board members belong to the local community!

The kiosk application is being considered by Burgess Hill Town Council Planning Committee tonight and will be decided by Mid Sussex DC in the next month or so – for details of the application see http://dc.midsussex.gov.uk/PublicAccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=KY90DMKT7O000  (planning reference 10/00484/FUL).

A Conservative MP has killed off an all party parliamentary bill designed to limit the power of international financiers to sue the poorest third world countries for “distressed” debt repayments.  These vulture funds seek to make profits from the debts of poor countries by buying these up at a cheap price, and then trying to recover the full amount, often by suing through international legal action, including in British courts.  The result is money released by international debt relief is going into the pockets of wealthy investors operating from tax havens, rather than being spent on health and education.

The diversion of debt relief funding by vulture funds has been widely condemned, and the blocking of moves last week to stop this, has raised suspicions, with the Conservatives being accused of “duplicity” by pretending to back the legislation and then sabotaging it at the last minute.  I have joined the campaign to call on the Conservatives to reveal which MP scuppered the legislation and confirm whether they still back the campaign.

Find out more about the stop the vultures campaign at:        http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/End%20the%20Vulture%20Culture+2893.twl 

Formal proposals by Tesco to expand its Burgess Hill store are imminently expected, with the company holding consultation sessions, the latest with a trailer in Church Walk, outside the Post Office, on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 March, to display their plans for a proposed extension to the store on Jane Murray Way.    The expanded store would no doubt sell more non-food items, which could bring it directly into competition with a wider range of shops, and therefore potentially threaten the health of Burgess Hill town centre.  Tesco is no doubt aware that there could be concerns that the development would impact negatively on local shops, reducing their viability and diversity.

A key issue is the impact report Tesco has to provide as part of the planning application, and which Mid Sussex District Council must ensure it robustly challenges, particularly given some similar Tesco expansions around the country have seen higher than estimated impacts on nearby smaller stores.  Applications outside existing town centres comes under the national guidance given in PPS 6 Planning for Town Centres, which states applications should demonstrate that there is a need for the development, that it is of an appropriate scale, that a more central site is not appropriate, and that there are no unacceptable impacts on existing centres, as well as the site being accessible.

Burgess Hill has a healthy town centre with a range of shops that provide a good shopping range for residents and visitors alike, and it is important any future out of town development does not detract from that.  There has yet been no evidence demonstrated that a need is not being fulfilled by the current retail offerings within the town for the goods Tesco would propose to sell.  The imminent closure of Curry’s in the town centre already shows electrical goods may be sufficiently supplied, and the impact of the current Tesco store can be linked with the reduction in town centre supermarkets, from four to two in recent years.

Sustainability is a key issue and out of town supermarkets where visits are almost solely by car are not sustainable, particularly if traffic is drawn away from the town centre where viable public transport alternatives exist.  Any application must include targets for encouraging non car use, and Mid Sussex DC must be prepared to challenge any proposals that lead to increased traffic generation as being against policies on encouraging more sustainable planning outcomes.

Independent and specialist retailers within Burgess Hill town centre provide a valuable service and support the local community, and provide the chance to shop around a range of comparison shops, to use local retailers who can give advice and have a local reputation to protect.

As an election approaches many parents are becoming increasing alarmed at Conservative plans for schools, which would involve scrapping any local control or planning of our education system, they would abolish local education authorities, and force all state schools to convert to independent academies.  Under Conservative proposals parents would be denied a ballot on whether their school would change to the controversial academy model -such schools would be unaccountable, either to parents or the local community, and would get wide ranging freedoms to spend government money without democratic oversight.  Struggling schools would lose the support that local education authorities can provide and be left to sink or swim whilst parents and pupils were left in limbo. 

At a time when one in six children in England has been refused a place at their preferred secondary school, the Conservative plans would remove any local planning of education provision, and turn school admissions into a free for all where those in the know were the winners.  Parents want a good local school they can send their child to, not the illusion of choice where they have to make do with second best.

Liberal Democrats would like to see an equal playing field for all schools, with a key role for local authorities in planning and co-ordinating education provision to identify and ensure gaps are met.  Schools should be seen as part of the local community not divorced from the parents and local community they serve and need democratic oversight to ensure there is a level playing field over issues such as admissions policies.  

By Mark Pack | Published 4th March 2010 - 10:20 am

Good news: the Conservative MP for Mid-Sussex has more than halved the number of outside jobs he does in addition to being an MP.

Bad news: he’s still doing three, paying over £350,000 per year in total.

(Back in December 2005, he had seven outside jobs, but payment for them did not have to be disclosed.)

Certainly can’t be said the jobs are badly paid. They bring in for him over £220,000 which, allowing for tax, means a gross pay of over £350,000 (as his MP salary will have taken up tax allowances and put him in in the top tax band).

He gets that for working approaching a day and a half a week on average. Even in Mid-Sussex, that’s a pretty good rate of pay … but given how extremely busy many MPs are, there’s an obvious question about how he finds the time to do the outside jobs – or indeed whether it’s right for an MP to work on that scale and for that level of pay in addition to being an MP.

There certainly are benefits to MPs having outside knowledge and experience and that can extend to them fulfilling roles like trustee of a local charity. However, the number of hours and scale of pay in Nicholas Soames’s case are of quite another order.

He has had to repay £1,345.55 following the Legg inquiry and was one of the 19 Conservative MPs to have voted against MPs having to declare the details of their outside earnings in 2009.

Fitting the pattern identified by Mark Thompson that MPs in safer seats are more likely to have controversial expense claims, Nicholas Soames’s constituency has been in Conservative hands since 1910, though that is something Serena Tierney is working hard to change.

Note: Nicholas Soames’s pay and hours varies a little during the year, but during the second half of 2009 worked out at an annualised rate of £36,581.78 for Aegis, £25,894.22 for MMC and £100,000 for Intrepid Capital Partners. This is the net income he earns from the jobs, so the gross salary (the figure usually quoted when talking about salaries) is higher than this. On the basis that his income tax allowances are used up via his MP’s salary already, to receive that net income when paying 40% tax on it, the gross income has to be over £350,000. The number of hours was equivalent to annual total of 506 hours, or 10.5 hours a week for a 48 week working year.

Watch out if you receive an election leaflet from the Conservatives, it could be funded by Lord Ashcroft, his £5.1 million worth of donations to the Conservatives was made whilst he was a non tax payer.  As Vice Chairman of the Conservatives he wields enormous power over Conservative policy and it seems there could have been a conspiracy of silence to stop any awkward questions being asked, where politicians such as William Hague would have preferred to keep quiet in case they upset him.  Whilst non doms contribute donations to all parties, Lord Ashcroft is different not only because of the size of his donations, but because he is a member of a British legislative body, and holds a major position of influence in the Conservative Party, whilst avoiding paying the tax that he committed himself to pay.

Now it appears even the Conservatives campaign bills are being paid by Ashcroft’s Belize based companies, not only are they being funded overseas but this way they are avoiding paying VAT – this relates to privately ordered opinion polls paid to help Conservative targeting of marginal parliamentary seats.  Liberal Democrats’ Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, said: “This is quite serious. We are now not talking just about Ashcroft’s non-dom status, but about systematic tax avoidance in funding Conservative party activities such as polling. How far were the Conservatives aware that Ashcroft did not pay VAT, as would have been incurred by any normal polling activity?”

Lord Ashcroft has a huge influence on Conservative Party policy and tactics, although not an elected politician, or a member of the Tory frontbench, he has travelled with Hague on a range of foreign trips recently, such as to Washington, Cuba, China and Panama, prompting speculation that he will get a job under a possible Conservative government. Concerns have been raised that Ashcroft may have used the visits with Hague as a way in to carry out business in those countries.

Liberal Democrats nationally have called for Gordon Brown to make greater use of Fairtrade products in government departments, and for the UK to take the lead in international development by making London 2012 a “Fair trade Olympics”.

The Fairtrade mark gives an important guarantee that the food and clothes that we buy are produced in a way that doesn’t harm the communities we are trading with, and is linked to sustainability because the small farmers it helps are often those pursuing the most sustainable methods of production. We need to make sure that Fairtrade Fortnight isn’t an isolated event, and that people keep buying fair trade products even when these events are over.

Locally Burgess Hill has been a fair trade town since 2006 and was overall winner of the 2009 fair trade fortnight events - see http://www.fairtradeburgesshill.ik.com/  and make your pledge to swop something you buy for a fair trade product at http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/thebigswap/.  See the full programme for the fortnight in the article dated February 6th below.

Most of the palm oil used is sourced from Malaysia and Indonesia, where it’s grown on land that was previously forest. This threatens a wide range of species, including orang-utans, tigers, elephants and rhinos, and displaces local communities that rely on the same forests for food and shelter. See  below a response to a quick email fired off to Mars, why not find a product in your own kitchen where you can contact the manufacturer and ask what they are doing to transfer production away from non sustainable palm oil.  For further information see http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/palm-oil

Palm Oil (KG)Tue, February 23, 2010 1:44:29 PM

We have already started to buy sustainable palm oil in the UK and by the end of 2010 we aim to source up to 20% of our European volumes as CSPO.  We are working together with all our suppliers to ensure greater availability of sustainably sourced palm oil.   In the UK alone we use 13 different palm based products, 12 of which are currently unavailable to source as CSPO.  We continue to look at ways to reduce our usage of palm oil and aim to have reduced our European palm oil volumes by over 25% from 2008 to 2010.  Once again, thank you for contacting Mars.

Yours sincerely

Karen Glendennan
Consumer Care Team
0845 045 0042

Motorists are urged to take extra care on the roads, as night time temperatures are forecast to continue to remain below freezing.

West Sussex County Council have advised that their gritters will be treating roads where possible.  However, because of the pressures on salt supplies nationally, the County Council will only be able to treat A and B roads.  Drivers are being warned to take extreme care as fewer roads will be salted than normal.  For advice on driving in severe weather see http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/advice/snow.html .

Because salt supplies are still controlled by the Government under the “Salt Cell ” arrangement the County Council needs to restrict its use of gritters, despite having larger than normal salt supplies at the start of the winter.  Therefore motorists are being urged to drive with caution during icy weather given fewer roads than normal will be gritted.

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Sussex Police have delivered a bombshell 65% reduction in opening hours for Burgess Hill Police Station only weeks after the local Chief Inspector gave a presentation to the Town Council outlining changes in shift patterns during which he ruled out reduced opening hours at the station.  It appears decisions have been made without local consultation by Sussex Police HQ using the smokescreen of “Operation Quest” which is a national initiative meant to bring increases in operational effectiveness by achieving efficiency savings, not reducing front line services. 

Irrespective of the merits of the changes it bodes ill that such decisions are made without local consultation or even the local police given reasonable notice of the proposed changes.  Apparently Mid Sussex is piloting this scheme for a period of some three months and the decision on Burgess Hill was based on a survey of the numbers of visitors to the station but Sussex Police decided on the cutback without apparent consultation or explanation.  Staff should still be available at the police station outside of the opening hours to make appointments - contact Burgess Hill Police Station on the general police number 0845 6070999.

Previous Front Office Opening Hours:
1000 to 2000 Monday to Friday, 1000 1800 Saturdays

 Current Opening Hours as of 08/02/10
Mon 10:00 - 14:00
Tue 14:00 - 18:00
Wed 10:00 - 14:00
Thur 14:00 - 18:00
Fri 10:00 - 14:00
Sat 10:00 - 14:00

Burgess Hill Fairtrade have announced an exciting program of events for the 2nd Annual Burgess Hill Fairtrade & Freedom Festival which gets underway on Sunday 28th February with George Alagiah, the leading broadcaster for the BBC news, will be hosting a panel debate in the Martlets Hall on the subject of Fairtrade and trade justice. Entrance to this event is free but space is limited.

Burgess Hill Fairtrade then have a big festival weekend which runs from Friday 5th March to Sunday 7th March with all the events again in the Martlets hall. The booking line is open on 01444 242888

 and comprises:

Friday 5th March Acoustic Fairtrade

This features Phil Beer (one half of acoustic duo Show of Hands) hopefully with Miranda Sykes; 3 Daft Monkeys and Rob Halligan & Gareth Davies Jones

Doors open 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start. Tickets £14.00.  This will apparently be “an amazing evening of real passion, protest and frenetic rhythm”.

Saturday 6th March Fairtrade Fair

Burgess Hill Fairtrade have 20 stalls lined up offering a wide variety of fairtrade and fairly traded goods, gifts and food to buy and sample. There are several information stalls and this will be a great opportunity to learn more about fairtrade and the organisations that support this work.  10.00am to 3.00pm.  Entrance is free.

Saturday 6th March Grand Ceilidh

“Back by popular demand is ceilidh band ASHA. Last year they took dancers through a storming evening of fantastic dancing. This is great entertainment and it is really worth booking early for this event.”

Doors open 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start.  Tickets are £9.00 each (or £8.00 each when you buy 4 or more).  Food is available separately.

Sunday 7th March Folk, Fairtrade & Freedom

This is our 4th benefit gig for Fairtrade & Stop The Traffik as we seek to raise money to help the campaign against the modern slave trade.

Chris Wood (BBC 2 Folk Singer of the year 2009); Martin Carthy, Norma Waterson (one quarter of Waterson Carthy) and Chris Parkinson; and Julie Hall. Both Chris Wood and Julie Hall are SEFAN members.  “This is a line up of artists that will rarely if ever be repeated again. It will be a blend of the lyrical, powerful and searching music and all for such good causes.”

See also  www.burgesshillfreedomfestival.com

Shopping trolley’s continue to escape from our local shops, whilst Waitrose trolley’s are probably the most frequent escapees, Lidl are apparently the least collectable – in terms of getting the shop to collect them, although Tesco also seems to be particularly slow – a trolley outside 75 Maple Drive has been stuck there for over a month and at least twice reported to Tesco (try phoning the Tesco Store direct on 0845 6779093) or Burgess Hill Town Council will phone it through on your behalf if you contact them on 247726.  Tesco apparently have plans to expand the store but should pay more attention to their community responsibilities if they want to show any commitment to our area.

Last Monday’s Town Council agreed a second year of no increase on the rate precept with the use of balances and a £30,000 predicted surplus on the current years budget.  Whilst there has been some slack in the system it is also important that expenditure on maintaining and improving facilities in the town takes place.

See the full agenda at:

http://www.burgesshill.gov.uk/sites/www.burgesshill.gov.uk/files/COUNCIL_AGENDA_-_25_January_2010.pdf

Mid Sussex Core Strategy

Concern was expressed at the Town Council meeting about the possible affect of the District Council’s decision to defer finalisation of the Core Strategy which will govern future planning policy in the area.  In particular delay in identifying a five year housing supply brings the risk developers may use the opportunity to bring forward their own proposals in the planning vacuum.  Furthermore a whole raft of planning policies are attached to the Core Strategy such as ensuring developers pay their fair share for local infrastructure when new developments are built.  Delay means the risk of potential piecemeal development, without the necessary investment in community facilities.

Should the Town Council have a Mayor rather than a Chairman – public to be consulted

Council agreed to consult residents on the possibility of changing from a Chairman of the Council to a Mayor, on the basis this would help raise the profile of the town and increase civic pride.  .   Currently the Council has a Chairman who presides over meetings as opposed to the Leader whose political party commands the majority in the council.  Many councillors expressed concern at the likely cost of nearly £1,000 for new chains of office in the current climate although the possibility of sponsorship towards this was discussed.  It was agreed residents would be consulted before a decision was made.

Severe Weather report back

Councillors congratulated the Town Council on its response to the recent prolonged period of snow and ice, the unprecedented cold spell led to severe problems on the town’s roads and pavements.   The Town Council was able to show community leadership and harness local contractors and volunteers to help with the problems caused by the bad weather.  West Sussex County Council was able to supply some grit until the government redirected supplies when stocks ran low.  Clearly there are lessons to be learnt, all councils need to act together and invoke emergency planning to divert resources to the problem.

More attention needed for pedestrians in severe weather

During the height of the bad weather many local roads were almost impassable by vehicles and residents were forced onto slippery and snow bound pavements to get essential supplies.  The County Council is responsible for gritting the roads and pavements but has no resources to do the latter; the District Council claims it is responsible for gritting the car parks (but not Waitrose or the station car parks) and this leaves the Town Council to organise resources to fill the gaps.

Clearly therefore lessons need to be learnt about sharing resources – for example ensuring grit stocks are in place to enable local pavements and residential roads with steep inclines get more attention.   All authorities need to work together and the District Council needs to pull its weight rather than claiming it is not responsible.

The benefit takes place on Saturday 30th January at St Paul’s Catholic College. Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7.00pm start. Tickets have been priced at £5.00 (but obviously we would like people to donate more). Tickets are available from the College, The Help Point in the Council Offices and Oakmeeds College.

http://trees365.blogspot.com/2010/01/trees365-16365-burgess-hill.html