At yesterday’s District Council meeting I raised the plight of Sheddingdean Community Association which is being wound up due to the understandable reluctance of the charity to take on a full repairing lease from the Council to extend its lease of Sheddingdean Community Centre.  I hope a lesson has been learnt in its premature action which has meant the loss of a valuable local community group and left the Council managing the hall itself.  Hall users will need to contact the Council directly from 18th November to hire the hall, its current services, most notably the Windmills Opportunity Playgroup, are unaffected. I highlighted this last night when the Council agreed a Community Management and Asset Transfer Policy urging that full discretion be given to provide fairer leases to community groups.

I urged the Council to take a more proactive role in dealing with the extended gap between the Martlets Hall demolition site, and any development taking place, and Liberal Democrats highlighted the concern of Burgess Hill residents in the lack of action when it is the Council as freeholder ultimately responsible for New River Retail developing the site.

I also highlighted the complacency of the Conservative Council in trumpeting the “low” level of fly-tipping in Mid Sussex, despite the reported figures going up by 50% in the first six months of this year and the failure to investigate evidence provided to it, with officers finally being trained this month to issue fixed penalty notices seven years after the policy was agreed by the Council!