With the recent rain adding to the snow melt floods have developed in the usual places such as across Leylands Road near The Spinney. Do take care and motorists SLOW DOWN, the splash back is flooding a nearby house and gardens, and pedestrians are trying to walk through. Managed to find some orphaned traffic cones last night to reduce the road width to try and slow traffic down as a temporary measure.
Footpaths are becoming increasing slippery where the snow has turned to ice and I used the last of my own to put some grit on the pavement at the corner of Leylands Road with Mill Road, where a steep slope makes it dangerous, as well as the slope on the Dunstall Farm Road corner with St Mary’s Road. I also reported the grit box on the Bumpy Bridge as empty – not sure it was ever filled but none has been used on the bridge itself which is quite slippery. Lets hope the thaw due at the weekend comes shortly.
Today’s snow made our Focus delivery extra challenging but also leaves the roads in a potentially perilous state so do take care and follow the basic rules of accelerating and braking gently (if possible using a higher gear to avoid wheel spin) and leaving plenty of space between vehicles. Whilst major routes will be gritted side roads will be hazardous particularly if there is a frost in the morning. Emergency salt supplies for community gritting have been provided in the past and some communities such as my own road have clubbed together to provide a salt bin for such circumstances – if you are interested in doing this contact the Town Council, further details on West Sussex County Council’s winter snow plan is here.
Well done to Chris in Maple Drive who fed up with waiting for the street drains outside his house to be unblocked, decided to take matters into his own hands and get down dirty and clear the drain himself. We shouldn’t need to take such action ourselves, although we can all do our bit by ensuring the grid outside our house is free from debris and by not pouring concrete, oil, paint or other inappropriate items down the drain as Chris found out had happened when he excavated it. I was able to help by taking the contents to the tip (three messy trips for my car boot!).
The County Council has the responsibility for clearing blocked drains, but not enough is being spent on road maintenance to ensure this happens frequently enough. Do report a suspected blocked drain on the Love West Sussex website. I reported the collapsed grid in Dumbrills Close several weeks ago although I was told the timescale for the repair was up to four months!!
After I raised a health and safety issue with loose wire on the steps leading from the Sydney West Recreation Ground to Forge Way, this was repaired the same day and an order has been placed to replace five of the sleepers. If you have an issue with local parks you can contact Mid Sussex District Council directly on parksopenspaces@midsussex.gov.uk, or get in touch.
Potholes are a daily annoyance to us, however until a pothole is at least 4cm deep or 10 cm wide it is not considered of sufficient priority for a repair to take place – you can report them here. The reason we have so many potholes and why the situation is getting worse is the lack of ongoing road maintenance, government funding to councils in England for road maintenance in 2021/22 was cut by £390 million on the previous year.
As West Sussex County Council’s Director of Highways acknowledged in 2020, there had been ‘a significant reduction’ in the Conservative Council’s highways budget over the last ten years. The £17 million earmarked for road investment by West Sussex County Council in 21/22 is a fraction of the funding required when the average frequency of road resurfacing is every 83 years, which means the situation will only get worse with irregular repairs increasing the likelihood of potholes developing.
The real culprit is Conservative cuts nationally to local government funding, Liberal Democrats say stop spending on grandiose new road schemes and instead spend the money on road maintenance. Even the Conservative candidate in the current Dunstall Ward by-election is appealing for more funding, the question is will our local MP Mims Davies and her government listen?
Hopes of the early adoption of a gigabit capable Full Fibre digital network have been dashed, as it seems it will still be some time before the service will be commercialised for small businesses and domestic residents. The announcement in 2020 that the District Council would “deliver gigabit speed broadband to more than 6,400 homes in Mid Sussex” has yet to materialise despite the Council announcing last May that the “network in Burgess Hill is now ready to use and will soon bring dramatically improved broadband connections to homes and businesses within the town”.
Although the bare bones of the network have been successfully delivered, and ‘dark fibre’ connections will be made available to provide broadband, network services and digital services, wider use is dependent upon operators assessing a business case to make the required investment to provide a service for small businesses and domestic consumers.
The Council now says the completion of the fibre link between Brighton and Burgess Hill, and for its Rural project, will be tested and completed in Spring 2022, and that connections will be available “based on suitable demand in each area from Autumn 2022.” Businesses and domestic consumers can register an interest at https://cni.coop/ and this is particularly important as the level of interest will be used to assess potential demand.
We are lucky in Burgess Hill to already have fibre broadband delivered by Virgin Media, however the new network has the potential to bring faster, cheaper broadband connections, not just in Burgess Hill but Haywards Heath and some surrounding rural areas. The Council needs to be careful not to over promise on the benefits to end users, as the ultimate service delivery is dependent upon its commercial partners, but I look forward to the expected benefits of this project being finally realised.
Parents at Sheddingdean Primary School have started a petition for a pedestrian crossing at the junction between Mill Road and Leylands Road. Crossing at peak times is a nightmare and speeding cars can also be an issue when traffic is lighter. This has been made worse with the advent of the Lidl store as well as increased traffic from housing development. The junction is a key crossing point for those visiting the new store, as well as school children and those walking to town, and can also be a nightmare for cars trying to exit from Mill Road or Freeks Lane at busy periods, so a traffic light controlled crossing would also benefit road users.
Cllr Stuart Condie, our local County Councillor is taking this forward with the County Council and the petition provides a valuable indicator of the strength of local opinion in support of the proposal. Sign the petition here.
The Town Council’s Speed Indicator Display (SID) is back in action after getting new batteries. Complaints about speeding traffic on Sussex Way were raised with me at the Town Council’s Councillor Surgery, and it has now been temporarily installed to monitor traffic speeds on Sussex Way and deter speeding. This is a problem for pedestrians trying to cross Sussex Way between Howard Avenue and Saxby Road and I have asked Liberal Democrat County Councillor Stuart Condie to look into improved road safety measures. The SID is available for use across Burgess Hill – contact the Town Council if you have any suggestions on where to place it in future.
I have asked the District Council to remove the fly tipped planks, which were left on the footpath between 183 and 185 Maple Drive. Fly tipping can be a single bin-bag of rubbish to large quantities of waste, but is illegal and costs us all money to remove as council tax payers. If you see someone fly tipping on public land, the Council will investigate and issue fixed penalty notices to offenders, email wastematters@midsussex.gov.uk with details and photographic evidence.
A few weeks ago I highlighted this fly tipped rubble below, which was dumped in the Cyprus Road car park, an all too often occurrence, if you see something suspicious don’t approach the culprits, but do try to get photographic evidence of anyone involved.
