At tonight’s District Council budget meeting I highlighted that the original planning application for the Martlets redevelopment was made seven years ago, and Burgess Hill has still not seen any progress made on the planned redevelopment. Indeed even the current revision of this plan is currently likely to be unviable. Former local Conservative Councillor Pru Moore said a few years ago that the Martlets redevelopment was a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’, she was right but not in the way she meant it, it seems to be taking all our lifetimes before any work even commences.

In the meantime, residents are left with neglected empty shops and vacant plots, the Liberal Democrat proposal was to ask the District Council to give a clear commitment to improving the Town Centre, to enable the Council to take action to improve the street scene and make use of the vacant land from demolition of the Martlets Hall.It’s good to hear the District Council has finally agreed to a meeting with the Town Council to discuss what action could be taken and the Liberal Democrat amendment provided a £100,000 budget heading to pay for this – unfortunately defeated by the Conservatives.

The Town Council previously submitted a bid for £16,000 for a project to provide an urban garden on the Martlets Hall site, which was refused, and has already refitted several shops (Scrapless, Burgess Hill Pantry, The Repair Café, etc), and would like to see further proposals to refit and rent out other empty shops, and to improve the street scene with better lighting and improved street furniture.

The District Council ultimately needs to take responsibility for the development, as it owns the freehold of the Martlets Centre, and agreed the terms of its lease with New River Retail. We all want to bring back more shoppers to Burgess Hill Town Centre and this proposal would have shown a clear commitment by the District Council to take action to achieve this. Despite this defeat the Town Council will continue to work with the Conservative controlled District Council and I hope we can work more productively together in the future.

Astoundingly the Home Office is still maintaining that Ukrainians fleeing the invasion need to apply for a visa related to close family or specific work opportunities, effectively denying any legal route to refugees. Every other country in Europe has said it will take refugees without the need for a visa. Liberal Democrat MP’s have written to the Government urging them to change this callous policy and withdraw the wrong minded Nationality and Borders Bill which is currently going through Parliament because it would criminalise refugees coming to the UK to seek asylum. The UK has a proud history of providing sanctuary to those escaping war and persecution, just as we supported those fleeing Hitler and Stalin, so we should be supporting Ukrainians fleeing from Putin’s invasion.

‘Joni’s Fresh Fish’ trading in Church Walk from tomorrow Friday 18^th February.  Joni will be selling a whole range of fish and shellfish every Friday in Church Walk, from 8.30am to 3.30pm.  He currently trades in Horsham on Thursdays and its good to get him in the town, especially on a Friday.

At this morning’s meeting organised by local County Councillor Stuart Condie, Richard Speller from West Sussex County Council Highways shared possible community highway improvements for the Leylands Road area which, whilst focused on traffic lights for the Leylands Road/Mill Road junction, also included possible proposals to consolidate the two sets of traffic lights either side of the railway line at Wivelsfield Station, with traffic lights on the actual tunnel which would become single lane, allowing the pedestrian footpaths either side to be widened.

The meeting also looked at the need for improved crossing faculties at the roundabout with Valebridge Road, and at Janes Lane. No firm proposals have been made, this is at an early stage of looking at options and a chance to seek feedback from local residents. In particular the survey conducted by Sheddingdean Primary School as part of updating their school travel plan, and the petition launched by parents at the school are valuable indicators of public support for the Leylands Road/Mill Road junction. Do sign the petition (see a previous post) or feedback to local County Councillors.

Proposed parliamentary boundary changes for the next General Election mean that Mid Sussex is much more winnable for the Liberal Democrats – the final proposals are out for consultation at  https://www.bcereviews.org.uk/ . These take out Conservative leaning East Grinstead and adds Liberal Democrat leaning Hassocks and Hurstpierpoint to the new Mid Sussex Constituency.

This follows on from already finalised proposals to reduce the number of Mid Sussex District Council councillors from 54 to 48 which effectively loses the Conservatives six seats from their majority and makes the next District Council elections in 2023 more interesting. If you are interested in becoming a Liberal Democrat councillor find our more here.

The proposed changes to remove East Grinstead and add Hassocks/Hurstpierpoint makes sense, as the latter have much closer ties to Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath, for example the Brighton mainline and A273 in common.  The towns in the south of Mid Sussex shares common links with each other and Brighton, whilst East Grinstead has always been an outlier to the area looking more to surrounding areas of Kent and East Sussex with distinctly separate transport links. 

The proposals mean Ardingly & Balcombe and High Weald wards are also put into the new East Grinstead & Uckfield constituency, as well as East Grinstead itself, which is also logical as they are less linked to the southern part of Mid Sussex and their rural nature make them more akin to much of that new constituency.

The projected result below is using 2019 voting figures shows a Conservative vote of just 35% – and this is before taking account of the increasing success at local government level of the Liberal Democrats. Currently there are 16 Liberal Democrats on either Mid Sussex District Council or West Sussex County Council, and the party also controls Burgess Hill Town Council. There are no Labour councillors at any level in the seat, and the new constituency would be winnable for the Liberal Democrats if enough Labour supporters tactically back the Liberal Democrats to defeat MP Mims Davies.

See full figures at Electoral Calculus:

Mid Sussex Constituency (new boundary result using 2019 data):

Party	Predicted Votes	Predicted Share	Actual 2019 (old boundary)
CON	18,716	35.0%	53.3%
LIB	14,517	27.2%	24.3%
LAB	14,022	26.3%	17.9%
Green	3,851	7.2%	3.6%
OTH	2,002	3.7%	1.0%
Reform	303	0.6%	0.0%
CON Majority	4,199	7.9%	29.0%

Data from Electoral Calculus

This Saturday 12 Feb is market day in Burgess Hill Town Centre, 9am to 2pm, and the Town Council has organised a day full of fun for all the family. Even better a councillors surgery takes places in the Town Council Helppoint 10am-12am to meet yours truly!

From 11am – 2pm, the last stop of the Town Council’s Love Heart Trail and Quiz, the Help Point will house a completely FREE Valentines photobooth. Come along and get your picture taken in the booth and take away a print!

11am – 3pm you can listen to live music, featuring Danny Dangerously, Georgia Hazelgrove, James Brett, Futurism and more. The local performers will be based from the bandstand on Church Walk.

And from 10am – 4pm you can get your skates on with our free synthetic Ice Skating Rink. The rink will be located on Church Walk, in front of the Town Council Help Point.