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.
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!!
The news that Aspire Sussex has gone into administration is a concern, its sudden bankruptcy has led to courses closing with learners potentially out of pocket and tutors left without a job. The precarious financial situation of Aspire has been known for some years and giving up Marle Place was itself an indicator of the problems it faced, but the cost of living crisis was the final straw. It is a predictable consequence of adult and community learning services being cut to the bone and unfortunately a sign of things to come as the Conservative Government rolls out cuts in funding for other service at a time when inflation is causing havoc not just to individual budgets but to those of businesses, charities and local authorities.
Aspire was the main provider of adult education in the county and it is particularly a concern that services for basic living skills for vulnerable people have been suspended. Liberal Democrats on the County Council are pressing for full scrutiny of the re-provision of the service which was in any cases due to be re-tendered in 2023 and it is important courses that provide a springboard for adults without formal qualifications are re-provided as soon as possible.
Liberal Democrat leader on West Sussex County Council, Kirsty Lord said: “The closure of any organisation providing a much a much-needed public service, like adult education, is always of great concern but it is deeply worrying against the current landscape of chronic labour and skills shortages in West Sussex. Many public service organisations, dependent on public funding, operate on a financial knife-edge. We urgently need to see the outcome of that review and understand how West Sussex County Council intends to replace the provision now lost following Aspire Sussex’s closure.”
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?
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.
Thanks to everyone who supported the Liberal Democrats in yesterday’s County Council elections, it seems again the Tories have been wiped out, at least in Burgess Hill! Existing Burgess Hill and Hassocks Cllr Kirsty Lord increased her majority from just 20 votes to 1,634 votes, and our new Liberal Democrat Councillor for Burgess Hill East is Richard Cherry; and for Burgess Hill North, Stuart Condie, both gaining seats from the Conservatives. This caps a day which has already seen the announcement of massive support for the Liberal Democrat Town Council’s proposal to build a new arts and entertainment venue, with plans for the Beehive receiving a thumbs up by 2,616 residents – 94% of those participating, and 88% supporting the application for a loan. Well done Burgess Hill!
Nationally Liberal Democrats held their own against the other parties. However, to put the results into context, reviewing the share of the vote, Liberal Democrats gained 17% of the projected national vote, with 36% for the apparently dominant Conservatives. Progressives have a majority in this country but our electoral system actives favours the Conservatives unless opposition parties work together.
Mid Sussex District Council tonight agreed a budget which means total council tax for the average band D tax payer is increasing by 4.9% or £92, and is now over £2,000 for some parishes in Mid Sussex! However most of this is levied by the County Council and Police Authority and the element for Liberal Democrat controlled Burgess Hill Town Council did not increase at all.
Whilst I support the District Council precept this year as Covid has put big holes in the budget, particularly relating to the cost of our leisure centres, where it agreed to use £500,000 from reserves to pay towards a shortfall in running costs, the Council’s share comprises just 9% of the total precept, but the total cost levied by all authorities is equivalent to a third of what the average employed person living in Mid Sussex pays in income tax.
I put forward an amendment to highlight the gross unfairness of Council Tax and the need for reform, and to urge the leader of the Council to write to the government making the case for reform.
Unfortunately the Conservatives voted against it despite their national so called levelling up agenda and it was defeated.
Low earners pay a much greater proportion of their income as council tax which can often be more than they pay in income tax yet not necessarily qualify for any discount – although you should always check your entitlement for council tax benefit if you are on low income or for the various discounts that exist. It is also possible to request payment over 12 months rather than the standard 10
Council tax bands in England are still based on property values in 1991 –30 years ago. Since then the average house price in the South East has risen by over five times. The most valuable property (band H) attracts just three times as much tax as the least valuable, despite being worth at least eight times as much. Because there is no further increment after H, a person in a £600,000 house pays the same as a person in a £5 million house.
There are growing disparities between those who have maintained their incomes during lockdown, and those less fortunate who have suffered financially or are in the squeezed middle or “not quite poor” who don’t qualify for any benefit. It is younger people, those who are just starting out that it hits the hardest, paying a much greater proportion of their income.
The unfairness will only continue to get worse as time elapses, solutions such as revaluation, adding more tiers at the higher end or replacing with a more progressive tax system are all viable options. Yet for Mid Sussex Conservatives their main objection to the proposal was encapsulated by Cllr Webster – “on the clear basis of fairness I can’t support this at all”!