Burgess Hill Uncovered Blog

Tesco Expansion Turned Down, More Retail Units To Come?

2012-01-03T19:59:00.006Z

During a chaotic December, you may have missed the news that Tesco have officially withdrawn their application to extend their store by 50%. This followed a report which indicated that Tesco's plans would likely have a detrimental impact on Burgess Hill Town Centre.

The cynics among us may think it could be more a case of New River Retail and MSDC being told by Sainsbury that they won't come to Burgess Hill Town Centre if they have to compete with an even bigger Tesco. Thus a report is produced to essentially tell Tesco NO! A good 18 months after the plans were first revealed.

A week later the local newspapers reported that developers Location 3 Properties have "Entered into conditional contracts to acquire the freehold and long leasehold interests on a site fronting Jane Murray Way, in Burgess Hill.

Two major retails have been penciled in to occupy the 55,000 sq ft space with Location 3 properties claiming to have submitted a planning application to Mid Sussex District Council in November 2011. A browse through the MSDC planning portal website however shows no search results for the application. If an application has been submitted and gets approval, around 100 new jobs would be created.

It seems a DIY store is a certainty to be built, along with hopefully a good electrial superstore. If not, a Toys 'R' Us would go down a treat!

In your author's humble opinion, all of this seems very convenient with the timings, Tesco doesn't get its extension which would have included a bigger offering of electrial items, and then a week later a company announces that it will be bringing in some retail units essentially next door, which could very well include electricals. Hmmmmmm.

What do you think readers?

Burgess Hill Christmas Parking Lacks Christmas Spirit.

2011-11-29T18:20:00.010Z

Last week we received a copy of the email that Burgess Hill resident Chris French sent to the Mid Sussex Times regarding Mid Sussex District Council's amazingly generous offer of £1 for all day parking in the two least popular car parks in town on Saturdays.

Chris was questioning whether £1 was really a good deal considering most people only need to shop for a few hours which would cost £1 anyway. He raised the question of why £1 for all day parking didn't apply to the Multi-Storey Car Park at the Martlets and the ones in Cyprus Road and Church Road which prove much more convenient for shoppers. Thirdly he suggests that MSDC should have made parking free on Saturdays in all the MSDC controlled car parks.

Thankfully the Middy chose to print Chris' letter along with a reply from MSDC's John De Mierre....
The Town Councils and District Council want to support businesses and residents, and allowing all-day parking in the long-stay car parks means that shoppers can do so at their leisure for just £1. We all need to shop locally and keep the district's economy strong.

Clearly a rather pathetic response, not at all addressing the questions raised by Chris French. I guess John De Mierre couldn't give any answers as he didn't have any which would sound logical, so he avoided them all together.

Lets face it, the council didn't bother making it free parking or extending it to the car parks closer to the shops as they wouldn't be able to ticket cars that stay parked too long. If anything, their '£1 all day parking scheme' will make the Council extra money as the Car Parks in Station Road and Queens Cresent are barely used. Its funny that Mr De Mierre says that We ALL need to shop locally to keep the economy strong, yet the Council really haven't done anywhere near enough to entice shoppers both locally and from out of town to want to visit Burgess Hill. Local shops rely on strong Christmas trade to keep them afloat. We're always hearing about these tough economic conditions, yet the council only seem to have made a move which will benefit them and not the local traders or shoppers.

Bravo Mid Sussex District Council. You really do care.

Have a look -- Google 'Free Christmas Parking' and you will find many Council's which are bothering to support local shops.

Oh Dear! Mayor to switch on Christmas Lights

2011-11-20T15:31:00.011Z

Burgess Hill's Mayor, Christopher Thomas-Atkin (the one we didn't get to choose) clearly thinks alot of himself, for on December 1st at 6pm its been decided that he is the best person to be switching on the Burgess Hill Christmas lights in order to draw local residents into the town centre.

Christopher Thomas-Atkin's role these days is to promote the town, whereas the juicy work is handled by Andrew Barrett-Miles as the council leader.

Can someone please explain how the Mayor switching on the lights is a good way to draw people into town for this festive event? Burgess Hill is not a tiny little town anymore. Such an event needs some sort of a celebrity to be switching on the Christmas lights.

How difficult is it to pick up the phone or to send an email to potential candidates? At the very least some squad players from Brighton and Hove Albion with a few of the Gully's Girls could have been lined up.

Kings Lynne with a population only around 25% bigger than Burgess Hill are having both Letitia Dean AND the X Factor's Johnny Robinson turning on their lights. We get the Mayor.

So, its a choice between the Simpsons on Channel 4 at 6pm on Thursday 1st December or to go into town to watch the Mayor turn on some lights.

Mid Sussex District Council's Community Toilet Scheme

2011-11-16T20:05:00.005Z

There are good ideas, bad ideas and then there are the totally crap ideas (Pun intended)

Last year Mid Sussex District Council discussed the possibilty of giving discounts to businesses in East Grinstead if they made their staff toilets available to customers.

Clearly the council believed this to be a brilliant idea as they've now extended it across the whole of the district. It's the 'Community Toilet Scheme'

The council think that in these 'Tough Economic Times' if a shop in Burgess Hil Town Centre lets customers use their toilet facilities, it could lead to more sales.

For example, pop into Burgess Appliances to use their toilet and pick up a washing machine on your way out. Do they think that's really going to happen? Really?

Why would the council want to use rate payers money to encourage shops to make their toilets available for public use when the people of Burgess Hill are very much well provided for already? Public toilets next to the library, the fine facilities in the MarketPlace Shopping centre. The council are even going to offer cafes a financial insentive to make their existing customer toilets available for public use!

Surely shoppers in town would feel a little awkward about going into a local business, using the toilet and NOT buying anything in return? As above though, why would shoppers need to when there are plenty of public toilets available anyway. Arrrrrrrgh!

Our council tax could be put to better use when the funds at MSDC are being severly cut by central government.

Is there any willingness from shops in Burgess Hill to want to take part? Will the efforts required even be worth the saving on their business rates? Owners would have to ensure their toilets are always kept clean. The need to keep a very close eye on who is coming and going out the back. It could pose a rather big risk to the staff and their stockrooms! Who knows what sort of weirdos would love to take advantage of going 'behind the scenes' in our local shops.

Unsurprisingly its our favourite councillor Pru Moore quoted in the council's press release.....
“The scheme has the potential to benefit both the public and the local businesses taking part. Local shops are able to increase the number of people visiting their premises, giving them the potential to increase revenue and the public will have a greater choice and standard of toilet facilities.”

Thanks for that Pru. What will you come up with next? Shutting down another leisure facility perhaps that doesn't affect you.

District Council spending more on leisure in Haywards Heath than Burgess Hill?

2011-10-06T17:09:00.005+01:00

Have you ever thought that Haywards Heath is getting more public money spent on leisure facilities than Burgess Hill?

In recent times Victoria Park has received an enhanced Skate Park, plans are in place to fit a fancy new splash pool for the kids and not so long ago some extra outdoor exercise equipment has been installed to complement the gear already in the park.

St Johns Park doesn't have even one piece of exercise equipment, let alone being able to benefit from additional pieces! Why are the people of Haywards Heath allowed a helping hand in getting fit for free yet not the Burgess Hill residents? This is an outrage (said in the voice of Tony Harrison from the Mighty Boosh)

Below is a picture of the MSDC cabinet members and our wonderful MP 'enjoying the new equipment' in Victoria park.
For copyright purposes (and for a bit of a laugh) I have photoshopped the heads of the EastEnders cast onto Pru Moore, Big Nic Soames, Jonathan Ash-Edwards and Gary Wall.
You can see the original photo and news story here

Now, is the reason for Haywards Heath possibly benefiting in leisure expenditure over Burgess Hill down to the members of the MSDC Cabinet having a Haywards Heath bias?

Lets take a closer look at the people that compose the Mid Sussex District Council Cabinet.
Leader: Gary Wall - Hawards Heath,
Head of Finance: Jonathan Ash-Edwards - Haywards Heath
Economic Development: John de Mierre - Haywards Heath
Planning and Regeneration: Gary Marsh - Balcombe (close to Haywards Heath)
Health and Community: Christopher Snowling - Lindfield (Right next to Haywards Heath)
Leisure and Sustainability: Pru Moore - Burgess Hill

6 cabinet members, only 1 from Burgess Hill. Says it all really doesn't it?
(Poor East Grinstead by the way)

There is a comment facility below. Local councillors do read this blog. How about you communicate with the people you represent for once and reply.

If there are no replies, then we shall take it that there is indeed a favouritism on the council with Haywards Heath receiving more money than Burgess Hill.

Prove this blogger wrong!

Burgess Hill Conservatives FUDGE the numbers

2011-07-13T18:10:00.004+01:00

It's always very exciting when one of the political parties posts one of their newsletters through the door of the Burgess Hill Uncovered offices. The June edition of the Conservatives 'intouch' publication was full of them blowing their own trumpet following their clean sweep in the Victoria Ward, which of course included the election of ANSTY's Emily White (what were you thinking voters?)

There was the usual "We'll work hard for everyone, blah blah blah" nonsense as well as....
"It's very important that Councillors remain in touch with the local area"

Well here's a CRAZY idea for your Victoria Ward councillors, how about you spend a few minutes a week maintaining a blog between yourselves and let us know what you are all up to, and what's happening in our town. The latest on the Orion cinema perhaps and what you're doing for the people to ensure that Sainsbury stays away.

Now, the main reason for this blog entry, and this really does take the cake...

WOW! The Conservatives hold every seat on the town council. Incredible! Those that don't closely follow local politics would read this as being factual.

Here's some more 'facts' for you: All girls are silly, Haywards Heath is better than Burgess Hill, Councillors always act in the best interests of the public.

You're welcome!

Stand aside Publicity Pru, It's all about Mandy now!

2011-07-13T17:33:00.006+01:00

There has been a change in the media whore stakes since the May elections. The new poster child for the Conservatives appears to be Mandy Thomas-Atkin.

'Publicity' Pru Moore must be devastated, Since becoming the cabinet member for leisure and sustainabilty, barely a week would go by without Pru's face being thrust upon us, but now it seems that Mandy has pulled rank in her role as MSDC Chairman and will be taking on the publicity duties.

Here are just some of the photos in which Mandy has appeared in recent weeks:

I think we'll invite Mandy round to the Burgess Hill Uncovered Offices for the grand opening of a toilet seat.

It's rather boring seeing 'high profile' councillors pictured in the local press at various events. Does anyone actually care that they attend? Why not get in some pretty girls(and boys) instead? What's with all those stupid chains that councillors wear around their necks? It's a rather dated thing, are we supposed to think that they are royalty and treat them accordingly?

With Mandy's husband Chris conveniently being the Chairman of Burgess Hill Town Council, expect to see this 'power couple' pop up all over the local media over the next 12 months *yawn*

Can we have Pru Moore back please?

Burgess Hill's Cinema Will Be Knocked Down

2011-07-12T19:52:00.005+01:00

The Orion Cinema in Burgess Hill is not long for this world. Soon it will disappear (probably)

Since Cllr Gary Marsh broke the news that Mid Sussex District Council have been in talks with Sainsbury regarding the land at Cyprus Road Car Park, not a single councillor has come forward to calm the fears that the Burgess Hill residents could be about to lose one of its very few prized entertainment venues.

We have many newly elected councillors, you'd have thought they'd jump at the opportunity to prove their worth to the local community by vowing to do all they can to try and stop the cinema being knocked down. The Save the Orion Cinema Facebook Page has over 2,500 members, it wouldn't take much effort for a councillor to join up and post a message on the wall.

Why haven't they come forward? Perhaps its already a done deal and thus they don't want to come out in support of the people, knowing whatever they say will be in vein. Additionally, with the council being very blue, it would be unwise for fellow Conservatives to rock the boat by speaking against their own party.

The general consensus seems to be that Burgess Hill does not need another supermarket. So why are talks with Sainsbury taking place? How is it in the public interest? We elect councillors to serve us, to speak up for us. Seemingly this is not happening.

Worryingly, some people on Facebook seem to think that the Orion can just refuse to sell. If only it were that simple!

Since MSDC own the land, they could make a very attractive financial offer for the Orion to give up their lease, and as we know, money does talk. If the Orion do refuse, then MSDC can probably envoke some sort of compulsary purchase order. A number of Facebook group members have shared their observations that the Cinema is quite empty during their visits, others have pointed out that they've not visited the venue in years. Its these comments that make it seem that a financial payoff could be happily accepted. That is unless Mr Orion Cinema is very rich.

What grates the most is how Cllr Gary Marsh from Balcombe is involved in talks regarding the future of Burgess Hill. What should he care if the cinema disappears? He doesn't live in the town.
When the issues are town specific, it should be the town councils that have the final ruling, and NOT MSDC.

All in all, its a confusing time for local residents, the lack of news isn't helping. Cllr Marsh drops a bombshell, yet no follow-up to explain the state of play, and silence from the councillors that should be fighting our corner.

Maybe there is nothing to worry about at all. I doubt it.

Get your Nectar cards ready.

2011 Mid Sussex District Council Election Results

2011-05-06T22:30:00.007+01:00

After 6 whole hours from the first Ward result being revealed to the last on the MSDC website, finally we know the make-up of the Mid Sussex District Council for the next 4 years following the local elections on Thursday.

In 2007, Conservatives had 31 seats, Liberal Democrats 21, Labour 1, Independent 1.
If you are a fan of the Liberal Democrats, look away NOW!

In 2011 the results are as follows:
Conservatives - 45 seats
Liberal Democrats 8 seats
Labour 1 seat.

Words can not describe just how much the Lib Dems have screwed this up. They had so much ammo to use against the Conservatives and their 4 years of wastefulness. They didn't pull the trigger enough times and were made to pay the price. Yes their current national reputation doesn't help but at local level questions have to be asked of the main party leaders and the parliamentary candidate Serena Tierney. Where on earth was she during this election? She should have been in the papers putting the boot in. She didn't. How embarassing too that the Lib Dems couldn't even get enough candidates to stand in the wards. Was this because certain people in the Lib Dem's aren't liked and thus people don't want to stand? How much of an effort was made by the Lib Dems to recruit new candidates? How well did they utilise the various forms of social media to gain votes for the election?

The Lib Dems are one big joke, and I feel very sorry for the honest candidates that lost out on a seat because the top people in the party failed them. They not only failed their candidates, but they failed the public too.

Will we get any answers? Probably not. The top guys kept their seats, what should they care.

Oh, and thank you to the voters of Burgess Hill. Congratulations on voting in Emily White (Ansty) and Ginny Heard (Buxted) onto the District Council. I'm sure you can rely on these two Conservative Councillors to demonstrate their excellent local knowledge when you approach them with your problems if you live in either the Victoria Ward or Franklands.

Additionally, congratulations to Anne Jones, her gamble paid off, she narrowly beat out Janice Henwood to get a seat representing the Meeds Ward. I really do like Anne Jones. She's an excellent councillor.

And finally, Publicity Pru retained her seat in Leylands Ward. Will she still be on the Cabinet though? My guess is No. Whoever the council leader is will realise what a joke she is and keep her as far away from a top job as possible. She provides Burgess Hill Uncovered with too much content! Which will be a shame for us.

Now we wait for the Town Council results to be posted on the internet. But what does it matter anyway? (Result Now In: http://burgesshilluncovered.co.uk/council/2011-midsussex-burgesshill-election-results.html)

There is a comment facility below, it would be nice if readers could use it on this sad night for local politics.

2011 Burgess Hill Local Election Predictions

2011-05-04T19:19:00.003+01:00

Congratulations to the Conservative town council candidate Steve Hansford and the current Lib Dem town councillor Robert Eggleston. They are the only two that had the testicles to visit the Burgess Hill Uncovered offices whilst out canvassing for tomorrow's elections.

There are nine different people seeking to be elected in this ward, yet only two came to visit. The others must have looked at the names on the electoral roll and thought better of it.

It was nice of Mandy Thomas-Atkin not to bother. In 2007 when she canvassed, she said "Vote for us, I promise we won't disappear after the elections" Guess what readers, she got elected and duly disappeared. I won't be making the mistake of voting for her again. I hope that her husband misses out too. He strikes me as someone that thinks he's on a higher level than everyone else. Let's get some more real people elected this time shall we, oh, and make them LOCAL people too, not like Emily White, who Burgess Hill Uncovered have done their little bit to let people know not to vote for her at all. You can read our page with the aim to lose her some votes here

Publicity Pru Moore Vs Simon Hicks
The highlight of the election for Burgess Hill Uncovered is the prospect of seeing Pru Moore losing her place on the MSDC Cabinet as she is up against our favourite councillor Mr Simon Hicks! You may have noticed Simon leaving comments on this blog now and again. He is of course a blogger himself which means everyone in the Leylands Ward should be out in record numbers tomorrow to ensure Publicty Pru is defeated, but how will the Mid Sussex Times cope without her? They'll have lots of column inches available that were previously set aside for Pru's photos and stupid quotes!

I hope that the Lib Dem Leylands Ward team have been campaigning hard, it would be a fantastic victory if they can pull it off. 2007 results show it's a ward with similar number of supporters for both parties so anything is possible.

If there is a victory party taking place, hopefully Burgess Hill Uncovered are on the guestlist. Afterall we have written on our Facebook Page that voters should snub Publicity Pru in favour of Simon. Every little helps!

Election Result Predictions
For Burgess Hill Town Council I think that the Lib Dems are in with a sniff of getting a majority, despite having a lack of candidates in some wards. In the Dunstall and Franklands' Wards they are only putting up one candidate in each against a full quota of Conservatives. Let it be known however that the Conservatives also failed to gain full representation in every ward, they are short of candidates in the Leylands and St Andrews wards.

The parties had their chance to recruit the Burgess Hill Uncovered team to stand as candidates but we weren't wanted, very odd. It could only be that the local party leaders feared that us renegades would come in and ended up running the show!

Having looked over the candidates and reviewed the voting of 2007. I believe that it will end up being 9 seats each. However, independent candidate Tony Balsdon could scupper things depending on how hard he's worked to win votes again this year. If Tony does win a seat, I think it will be at the expense of a Liberal Democrat which would result in the numbers being exactly the same as they were in 2007!

As for the Mid Sussex Distict Council elections, I can't see anything other than a Conservative victory, and they'll probably increase on the 31 seats won in 2007.

It's going to be another grim 4 years of Gary Wall and his chums running the area as they see fit with his cosy cabinet making all the decisions which makes a mockery of democracy!

Finally, Anne Jones
When Anne Jones defected to the Conservatives I said that it was political suicide. In 2007 she was elected as a Lib Dem candidate in the Leylands Ward. Residents in this area are split between the two parties. However, for 2011, Anne is standing for election in the Meeds Ward. The people here are major Lib Dem voters. Will Anne's reputation and her work in campaigning against the special needs school be enough for voters to look past that she's a Conservative candidate? I'm not so sure as Janice Henwood has also come across from St Andrews Ward and she also worked hard against the plans for the special school and she's standing for the Lib Dems, and I can't see Kathleen Dumbovic missing out.

Bye Bye Anne?

Video - Surviving Oakmeeds Community College

2011-04-30T18:32:00.005+01:00

During my weekly browse for Burgess Hill related videos on YouTube, I found the following effort by some Oakmeeds Pupils for an English class project.

It's an advisory video on how you must behave in school to avoid getting into trouble from your teachers.....

I was rather concerned by the scene 'Don't annoy your teacher'
(3 mins 43secs in) Are we to assume that annoyed teachers at Oakmeeds lash out at the pupils?

A Round-Up of Burgess Hill News

2011-03-10T19:30:00.008Z

Hello my loyal blog readers.

Lots has been happening over the past week. Here are the highlights:

Annual Town Meeting
On Tuesday it was the annual town meeting. For security purposes and the fact that there was a big night of European football on TV, I opted not to attend. According to Simon Hicks' blog it was a well attended meeting with plenty discussed. No reports of any violence, so the Friends of the Green Cicle Network must have been on their best behaviour (if they bothered to attend at all!)

Website Comments and Emails are Booming
Since the website facelift in February, visitors to Burgess Hill Uncovered have really been making great use of the comments facility on our news items it's great to get instant feedback on what we write and to see what other people's opinions are. Additionaly, the introduction of the new contact form has seen a constant stream of emails arrive in the BHU inbox. We're getting quite a few 'tip-offs' from members of the public that we'll be following up. It's all very exciting.

Facebook Fans Pass 500
It's delightful to see that our Burgess Hill Uncovered Facebook Page has quietly amassed over 500 fans. It's another great way of updating the locals of website updates and news of what's happening in the town. I'm in no doubt that our presence on Facebook is the reason for significantly increased traffic to Burgess Hill Uncovered.

Fairtrade Festival Market Review
Last weekend the BHU team headed to the Martlets Hall for the Fairtrade Festival Market, we were hoping to find some chocolate on offer this year, did Robert Eggleston come up with the goods? Find out here in our pictorial report

Oakmeeds Cashless Catering
Have you read our report on the Oakmeeds Cashless Catering System that keeps failing? Someone at the college thought it was a wonderful idea for pupils to access their prepaid accounts by using a fingerprint scanner. The new system was supposed to cut down the queueing time, however pupils report it's taking twice as long and that break and lunchtimes are having to be extended so that the kids actually get to eat!

And finally.....
Have you seen the 'Hitler Moves To Burgess Hill' series of videos? Part one has received over 1200 views in a short period of time and has proved a hit with our Facebook fans. Of course, with Hitler being the main focus of the video it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea.

My personal favourite of the series so far is 'Hitler has his first dinner in his new Burgess Hill Home' Enjoy!(Warning: contains text of an adult nature)

I was unaware that the culprit was back in town. We must track him down soon.

Friends of The Green Circle Network Vs The Town Council

2011-03-04T11:28:00.004Z

Exciting times in Burgess Hill, for a feud is developing!

The Reason
Burgess Hill Town Council have released plans for how they see potential development in the town over the next 20 years. It involves the construction of 4,000 new homes in the north and east of Burgess Hill. These new dewellings could raise as much as £40 million from the developers in order to improve the town's services. New sporting facilities, civic buildings, vastly improved bus infrastructure and most importantly, drastically revamping the town centre in order to accommodate some big name retailers.

This sounds all well and good, based on what seems to be a solid financial plan which is more than can be said for the sorry state of affairs when the district council hooked up with Thornfield properties.

The opposition
There are a group of people that have publicly declared their dislike for the plans. This group are The Friends of Burgess Hill Green Circle Network. They have a lovely website - http://www.bh-green-circle.org.uk/ on which you can find out what they're all about.

The Green Circle aren't happy with the number of new homes that this grand scheme will require and that they will be built mainly on greenbelt land.

They think that Burgess Hill may only need to accept 2,000 new homes to meet their quota for the district.

Additionally, the group point out that the completion of the Green Circle will only cost thousands and not millions of pounds like other parts of the project will require, thus they see no need for all the extra houses.

What makes them think that the Green Circle will be top of the list when it comes to allocating the funds? It could be that the Green Circle money is near the bottom of the list, and that all 4,000 new homes will be needed for them to get what they want!

The Council Fight Back
The Council wrote to the Green Circle Committee. The letter says that by rejecting the plans, the Green Circle may never be completed. The council have said that by asking it's members to vote 'No' to the plans, the Green Circle group is being unfair on the bulk of residents that want to benefit from a revitalised Burgess Hill. The letter also points out that the chairmain of the Friends Group went on record as giving a thumbs up for 8,000 homes back in August 2010!

Basically, the message was, don't bite the hand that feeds you.

You can read the full letter yourself via Simon Hicks' wonderful blog

Annual Town Meeting = The Big Fight?
This coming Tuesday (8th March) is the annual town meeting at Cyprus Hall, the action kicks off at 19:30. Can we expect a large contingent of members from the Friends of the Green Circle to attend and cause a heated debate? I'd like to think so!

Snow Equipment For Refuse Collectors To Be Explored

2011-02-24T17:15:00.007Z

More digging on the Mid Sussex District Council website threw up this lovely bit of information from the January 19th meeting of the full council.

The wonderful 'Publicity Pru' Moore addressed her fellow councillors on the subject of the refuse collections during the snowfall in late 2010.

'The Cabinet Member for Leisure and Sustainability informed Council that during the latest extreme weather the waste and recycling service had been affected. She did not wish to give excuses, but.....'

Needless to say the excuses are long and boring, you are free to read them in the minutes from the meeting here

There was an interesting snippit of information from the report which is encouraging for the future: 'The use of snow socks for the freighters and crampons for the staff would be explored.'

About time too! But why is the use of this equipment only going to be explored? Just invest! Its pathetic that snow hits the district and everything stops, it costs the council money.

Serco themseleves are probably to blame for this one, if the council are paying for a collection service, then the company should have the right equipment to cope in all conditions.

Addressing the volume of calls from the public regarding the bin collections:
'She said that 2375 calls had been received, not all had been complaints, which was significantly less than when there was snow in January 2010 when 2727 calls had been received'

Those of you with a mathmatical brain will realise that the reduction in calls was 12.9%, how on earth is that significantly less? I asked the Burgess Hill Uncovered office cleaner for her opinion on this one and she thinks 40% or above would be classed as significantly less, certainly not 12.9%!

It seems to me like Pru Moore is taking her fellow councillors for a bunch of fools, surely they can do statistics. Why couldn't Pru just say 'There were less complaints in December compared to January"? BHU would respect Pru a little more if she were honest.

Clueless Councillors not acting in interest of Burgess Hill Residents

2011-02-23T20:38:00.005Z

I was doing some digging on the District Council Website last night and was reading the minutes from the January 5th meeting of the Mid Sussex Better Lives Advisory Group.

In the meeting they discussed possible ideas of what can be built on the land next to the Triangle Leisure Centre. You can read the full Burgess Hill Uncovered report on the issue here

Basically, the councillors discussing what's best for the residents needs included many councillors that don't live in Burgess Hill.

Even more worring when the minutes reveal that councillors think an indoor Bowling Green, a climbing wall, indoor tennis, graffiti wall, a wave machine, BMX facility, a velodrome, an artificial skiing facility are all good ideas for the land.

How is that in the public interest? It seems like the councillors couldn't give a toss and were just suggesting things for a laugh.

Its simple, Burgess Hill is crying out for a 10 Pin Bowling Alley, modern Multiplex Cinema or an Ice Rink.

The Bowling Alley is probably the best solution as people of all ages and abilities could make use it it, including the disabled.

It's yet another example of councillors being totally out of touch with the residents whos views they are elected to represent.

The minutes also reveal that the panel would rather do nothing with the site until the future of the town centre is sorted out. Right, so that's only going to take another 5-10 years. Total disregard for the younger generation and families that need a new facility right now.

BHU members to join 2011 local election race?

2011-02-22T15:11:00.008Z

We're just 10 weeks away from the local elections. Thursday May 5th is the date that the people of Burgess Hill will flock to the polling stations in order to seal the town's fate for another 4 years.

It promises to be a very close run affair, the most exciting ever perhaps. With big changes once again being trumpeted for the town, which party will gain control and have the most influence over developments?

Currently, the make-up of the Town Council is as follows.
Conservatives 9, Liberal Democrats 8, Independent 1.

The District Council has 53 members, consisting of....
Conservatives 31, Liberal Democrats 21, Independent 1.

As for Burgess Hill councillors on the District Council, the numbers are...
Conservatives 6, Liberal Democrats 6,

The Snub
With the statistics pointing toward a tight election, its a huge surprise that neither the Lib Dems or the Conservatives have contacted the Burgess Hill Uncovered offices, requesting for us to consider running in the elections in order to seal their party's victory.

How to win an election in the 21st Century
Think what we can bring to the table. We have an established website, A growing Facebook page on which we can directly communicate with the locals in an instant, this very blog , and of course our creative flair for making internet videos.

It's 2011, not 1991, leaflet deliveries and harsassing the constituents on their doorstep isn't the only way to go about winning an election anymore. All avenues to gain more votes should be exploited.

The problems that the parties face (and I'm generalising here) is that most party members are OLD and don't have a clue about new media technology.

Speaking of old, why don't the local party leaders look to recruit young people in order to freshen things up? They should embrace a more modern way of thinking and ideas that may appeal to the younger generation. It seems to be the same set of councillors term after term. Are a number of these councillors now completely out of touch with today's electorate?

The Independent Route
It's tempting to enter the local political arena as a group of independents. Victory may not be achievable, but it would certainly split the vote and keep the other parties on their toes!
Hmmmmmm.......

Video - Traffic Congestion On Chanctonbury Road Revealed!

2011-02-21T19:46:00.008Z

So West Sussex County Council carried out a traffic survey when deciding whether to allow themselves to build the new special needs school on the same plot of land occupied by London Meed and Oakmeeds.

The public complained that Chanctonbury Road was already congested by the weekday school run and that an additional school would make matters even worse.

Clearly WSCC didn't deem the situation to be a problem as the constuction of the school is to go ahead.

We here at Burgess Hill Uncovered saw it as our public duty to drive along Chantonbury Road on Friday afternoon and film the traffic situation to once and for all prove if there is a significant problem or not.

Place your bets now.......

There's already been discussion about the video on our rapidly growing Facebook Page One member pointed out that we didn't encounter a bus. It was a shame really, as that would have been the icing on the cake for our damning video.

West Sussex County Council have made a HUGE error.

What do you think good reader?

Refreshed Burgess Hill Uncovered Website Launched

2011-02-05T08:12:00.006Z

It's finally complete! After hours and hours and hours of slaving away, the now 27% wider!! Burgess Hill Uncovered website has finally gone live.

Here's a screen shot.....

Isn't she beautiful?

What's new

Now 27% wider
Navigation links added across the top for Shops, Businesses and Videos
New side navigation menus to help you find content more easily and quickly
Facebook Page Widget
Events section now has an events calendar - We're seeking your event submissions
Comments System in operation for all future news reports
A dynamic contact form for users to email BHU directly from the website
All pages re-coded with new CSS styling and PHP scripting to allow for fast global updates

The website refresh is just the start of things to come.
Very quickly you will see new content and features appearing on BHU that we've been holding back for some time, waiting for the right moment to make an impact, that time is now.

Exciting times ahead. Just you wait and see!

Burgess Hill Website Revamp Nearly Complete

2011-02-03T03:13:00.004Z

Readers. We are almost there! The recoding and reorganisation of Burgess Hill Uncovered is nearly complete. How long until you see the changes? It's very possible that Friday will be THE day. It has been the most boring and hard slog of anything I've ever done regarding websites. Typically, since the project began, there have been so many pieces of news that have passed us by that we shall endevour to comment on as soon as the new version of the website is online.

In the mean time. Please do check out our Brighton and Hove Albion website if you like the kind of work that we do. Thank you.

Burgess Hill Fairtrade Anthem Released

2011-01-21T20:26:00.006Z

Oh my!

Exciting times here at the Burgess Hill Uncovered offices as an email came through with a link to the Burgess Hill Fairtrade Festival Website. On the loading of the page, music pumped out of computer's 5.1 surround sound system. At first I thought I'd been given a link to a church website, but no, it turned out to be the Fairtrade song that the whole community will be getting together to sing on Saturday 12th March at 5:30pm at the Market Place Shopping Centre.

Apparently the song was a joint effort by school pupils from across Burgess Hill. Surprising really as it doesn't sound anything like the modern music that most children listen to these days if the hit parade is anything to go by.

Naturally I played the song to the BHU office cleaner, and I can tell you that she had a huge smile a mile wide on her face.

The lyrics to the song are included on the webpage so that you can sing along and learn them over the next 7 weeks. I shall personally ensure that all the staff here at BHU memorise the song word perfect in time for the big performance.

This is being billed as 'Burgess Hill does the Choir' So I assume that residents can all be expecting personal visits from Gareth Malone and then some practice sessions before March 12th?

All together now: We toil hard in the burning sun, and hope our crop will grow........

Link to Burgess Hill Fairtrade Anthem:
http://www.burgesshillfreedomfestival.com/Fairtrade/Burgess_Hill_Does_The_Choir.html

Over-Ambitious Webmaster extends completion date

2011-01-19T01:44:00.003Z

Hello Readers

I have totally underestimated how long it would take to implement the changes across the entire Burgess Hill Uncovered website. I'd forgotten that BHU has content spanning 7 years, and that means there are hundreds of pages to convert. Progress is about 33% complete, so it's going to be at least another week until the site is ready to be uploaded. Sorry about that.
The wait will be worth it though.

All quiet at the BHU offices???

2011-01-11T19:38:00.005Z

Hello Readers

Things may have gone quiet on Burgess Hill Uncovered recently, but there is a good reason for this......

The website is undergoing some coding changes and a mass reorganisation of content, it will have a slightly new look too. Basically Burgess Hill Uncovered will look more modern and should prove to be a more pleasant browsing experience for our ever-growing army of visitors.

Speaking of which, we've actually stepped up our social media efforts and have quickly grown the amount of members from 60 to 230 on our Facebook 'fan' page (Have you joined yet) We post links on our Facebook page to alert our members of any new content on the main website and this very blog, we've seen an nice increase in visitors as a result, in fact, the blog is doing its highest numbers yet.

The updates should be complete within the next seven days. Things are about to get interesting....

Arrogant Tesco boss expects expansion green light.

2011-01-03T15:53:00.004Z

I really hope that Tesco's application to increase the size of their store by 50% is rejected on the basis of their arrogance.

The Mid Sussex Times reported this week that Tesco had collected over 1,000 signatures from an instore petition which they will use in an attempt to convince Mid Sussex District Council that they should be granted planning permission.

It's all very well Tesco collecting 1000 signatures, but how many customers chose not to sign the petition? For every one person that signed, another 10 customers may have declined, but of course we'd not get to hear about that. Additionally, what percentage of those that did sign actually live in the town? People from surrounding towns and villages come to Burgess Hill to shop at Tesco but don't use the town centre shops, thus the future of smaller local traders is of no concern to them.

What really takes the biscuit is the quote from Jonathan Simpson of Tesco.
He said "I'm delighted to have seen so much support for our plans and hope that Mid Sussex District Council makes the right decision for Burgess Hill"

And the right decision is the one that sees Tesco's profits soar and puts local traders out of business, further killing the town centre? Yeah, good one Jonathan.

On a related note, how much of a fool will council leader Gary Wall look if MSDC do allow the Tesco expansion, considering he's been telling us all in recent weeks that between the council and NewRiver Retail, the town centre is going to be improved.

It doesn't take a genius to work out which way the decision will go.

Teen Girl Punched in Haywards Heath?

2010-12-29T20:52:00.004Z

I was sorting through some old newspaper cuttings earlier. I found a story that I meant to share with you earlier in the year. It's a Haywards Heath piece of news, but worth blogging about anyway...

Teenager Mugged
A terrified TEENAGER was PUNCHED in the face and robbed in Haywards Heath as she was walking to school.....

....the attacker then threatened to punch the 12-year-old girl before finally wrenching the bag from her grasp and running off

So, it wasn't a teenager, it was a twelve-year-old, and the girl was not punched as the opening paragraph claimed, merely threatened.

Were the staff at the local paper writing the news with their eyes closed that week?

Bulldozers are the solution for the Martlets

2010-12-28T19:44:00.007Z

Councillor Gary Marsh and NewRiver Retail have once again appeared in the Mid Sussex Times this week. Everyone in Burgess Hill should be jumping for joy, as the Martlets will have money spent on it. In fact, thats a promise. wooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

Reality Check
What we all need right now is a nice dose of reality, and I'm here to deliver it. NewRiver Retail should spend their money on some bulldozers, as it is the ONLY way that it can improve the shopping experience for the town's residents.

Is anyone else sick of the faux positive spin that is being put on the future of the town centre by the council and the new owners?

Unless some bulldozers come in and reduce the town centre to a pile of rubble and start again with a blank canvas, then I can assure you that any money thrown at the town centre to improve upon its current state will be a total waste.

The current layout just does not work. The town centre is crying out for some big name retailers, however, companies like 'Next', 'HMV', 'BHS' will not be able to set up shop in town when there is a chronic lack of space for larger retail units and the warehouses required for them to operate.

Tough economic climate to blame?
It's regularly reported that local traders are struggling due to the 'tough current economic climate' In Burgess Hill I don't think that this is the case at all. There are many homeowners in Burgess Hill. Those with mortgages are currently enjoying record low interest rates. I believe families have just as much money as usual to spend, but choose not to spend it in the pathetic town centre that serves Burgess Hill.

If you need food you go to Tesco, if you need anything else you turn to Crawley, Brighton or the internet.

The Solution
Personally, I'd knock down the MarketPlace shopping 'mall' and construct a proper two storey shopping centre to house all of the smaller retailers.

The landowners should then flatten the row of charity shops and flats in Church Walk along with New York Nails, Stems, the Man Shop. These businesses should be moved to the new shopping centre and use the space vacated to install three large retail units for some of the big name companies in the retail sector.

This blog post has just saved the council and NewRiver Retail hundreds of thousands of pounds in consultation fees.
I have single-handedly come up with the solution for the town centre.

You are all very much welcome!

Special School Approval - Were the public screwed?

2010-12-18T12:20:00.001Z

By now, I'd hope that you readers are aware that West Sussex County Council approved their own plans to build a new special school on land currently occupied by Oakmeeds Community College.

The local print media have been holding back on writing any strong articles on the news, with only a few small bits and pieces from the Middy when a member of the public has written in to let their annoyance over the decision be known to the readership.

In this week's Middy there was a letter printed from David Hinkley in which he claims the planning application was a 'done deal' from the start and that the petitions and the points raised against the development were not given enough weight by West Sussex Councty Council when they met to make a ruling over whether to give the new school the green light.

Mr Hinkley quite rightly questioned the whole democratic process and suggested that central goverment put rules into place to stop a council approving a planning application which is opposed by a majority without fair consideration.

Mr Hinkley informs readers that he was at the planning meeting when the decision was made. David and his fellow opponents got to speak at the meeting to raise some points and presented a detailed traffic survey that had been privately financed by those opposed to the plans. Mr Hinkley revealed that the council IGNORED the report!

The whole thing does stink, it really does. It seems that the public opposed to the planning application would have needed to have hired a rather large legal team to even have had the most remote chance of preventing the council from approving their own plans.

This doesn't have to be the end of the matter. Time to purchase chains and padlocks and head for the Oak trees the night before the bulldozers are due.

MSDC say we should be excited about Martlets future.

2010-12-17T19:17:00.007Z

I think the council take us all for a bunch of mugs in Burgess Hill.
In their eyes we're a town where the residents have no ability to process information intelligently. The council come out with their various statements, painting a rosey picture for the town and we're to believe it.

An example is in this weeks Mid Sussex Leader.
There was a piece about the new owners of the Martlets shopping precinct. The company now in charge are NewRiver Retail.

District Councillor Gary Marsh was quoted as saying what wonderful news it is for shoppers and the people of Burgess Hill, how the council cannot wait to work with the new owners on 'further revitalising' the town centre and to be able to improve upon the current retail offering.

We've heard it all before folks. NOTHING is going to change anytime soon. Look at how well the council did when working alongside Thornfield Properties, giving residents false hope over the masterplans. Burgess Hill was going to change for the better. As for 'further revitalisation' the quality of the town centre has been in terminal decline for years. You need to START to revitalise it before you look at further revitalisation.

It's all talk and no action.

We are 5 months away from the local elections, and this is a Conservative party councillor being quoted in a local paper, falsely spreading good news in order to make the residents think that the Conservative run council are doing a fantastic job.

Legendary Councillor Paddy Henry Passes Away

2010-12-16T23:26:00.004Z

I was shocked when my copy of the Mid Sussex Times arrived at the Burgess Hill Uncovered offices today. The lead story was reporting the death of Mid Sussex District Councillor Paddy Henry. He died at the age of 69 following a battle with cancer.

To me, Paddy Henry was the lone Labour councillor who always acted in the interest of the public. Never afraid to speak out whenever he saw things happening at MSDC that he didn't like.

He was quite a legend in my eyes for his actions, an inspiration in fact.

If you'd like to read a personal account of Paddy, then may I direct you to this tribute written by a close friend that has been published on the Nursing Times website.

Although I'm sure his fellow councillors will miss him on a personal level, I can't help but feel they'll be relieved that less of their poor decisions and actions will be brought to the public's attention in the future.

Thinking about it, a great deal of the Middy's big feature pieces that have centered around Paddy's revelations this year will be missing in the future.

The public need a new local hero on the council to spill the beans.

Burgess Hill Christmas Event In False Cancellation Farce

2010-12-11T22:28:00.006Z

The Citizen newspaper arrived at the Burgess Hill Uncovered offices on Thursday morning.
Imagine my shock and surprise dear reader when I saw some pictures taken in Burgess Hill of some people looking rather festive. In fact, they were taken from the Town's Christmas thingy.

Nothing strange about that you may be thinking...... However. Last Thursday (2nd December) I read on a local website that due to the snow, the Christmas Fair was being cancelled and was going to be rearranged for today (Sat 11th December)

I'm rather annoyed about the very false information that was written, as it robbed me of a good piece of content for the website. Annoyingly I can't remember which website incorrectly reported the event cancellation, I fear that it was the official Town Council Website actually.
Does anyone want to own up?

This blog entry is also for the benefit of Mr G.S. It will save him emailing me to moan that I've once again missed out covering a local event

Snow sees Burgess Hill grind to a hault

2010-12-02T20:34:00.004Z

Hello Readers.

Today was my first trip out on foot since my operation. Ideally I would have stayed at home convalescing until the 2018 World Cup Finals in England, but with snow on the ground, I was curious to see how the town was coping.

Surprisingly St Johns Park was rather empty, plenty of untouched snow although families were enjoying sliding down the slope where the outdoor swimming pool used to be. Yet again the public forgot about all the snow in the tennis courts, the location in which a snow penis was sculptured in January. Its the perfect arena for crafting things, I'm possibly one of the only people in this town clever enough to utilise it.

Anyway, enough of the perfect spots for enjoying the snow, you'll all be wanting to know about the route into the town centre. The path through St Johns Park and up the side of Lower Church Road had been gritted, although the footpath by the church was a hazard. Thankfully the pedestrianised area of the Martlets had been treated and there were two walk ways cleared in the snow for entry to shops on either side. The council shouldn't have bothered though as only about a third of the shops were open. It's crazy how everything stops when we have a large amount of snow. If significant snowfall becomes a regular occurance and not just once every three years or so, then the councils and national transport departments are going to need adequate plans in place.

Among the shops closed in town were Truffles the bakery and Argos, yet the mighty Lidl and the second hand computer game shop were open for business as usual.

It was a shame to see Burgess Hill Library shut too, I wanted to get a book out on how to clear the snow.

At Waitrose car park it was encouraging to see that a passage had been cleared in order to aid the shoppers. We didn't check out any other car parks but my source in Haywards Heath revealed that the MSDC car park by Marks and Spencer had been treated with a pathetic attempt at making it usable whilst the car park round the corner at Tesco Express had received no sort of attention. Well done Mid Sussex District Council!

If you'd like to moan about the lack of snow clearance in and around Burgess Hill, then I highly recommend this Facebook group 'West Sussex Council Council - Have your say' It's full of moaners like my good self.

I could witter on some more, but I won't.
Good Bye. x

Burgess Hill Webmaster Survives Near Death Experience!

2010-11-20T20:00:00.003Z

Hello readers, as I write this to you, I am now a lesser man.

Last week I fell ill, and being a typical male, I ignored the pain and continued on as normal. The next day I had to conceed that I had a probem and was dumped off at the Princess Royal Hospital by the BHU cleaner. 7 hours later and full of Morphine I was taken to Royal Sussex County by Ambulance, another 11 hours wait and my appendix were finally removed.

Sadly, due to the time wasted in getting one of Burgess Hill's most prominent residents into the operating theatre, I was in a bad way and was unable to have fancy keyhole surgery, instead I had a 3 inch open incision so that the medical team could wash out all the muck that my appendix had loving spread throughout my abdomen, apparently some of my bowel was affected too. Exciting times!

Don't be concerned though readers, I'm pleased to report that I'm very much on the mend, my staples were removed yesterday, my brain is no longer like jelly and the exhaustion has gone.

Never again will I pass off appendicitis as a minor medical issue, especially if it involved an open incision on removal. It's so painful to move post op.

Anyway, this was just an update to explain my absence and that I'll be back to blogging again as usual. Publicity Pru has provided me with some material that I just can't ignore!

Man's Arm Impaled on Park Bench

2010-11-08T19:40:00.003Z

Disaster during a trip to St Johns Park.

I spotted a broken park bench....

I wish that I'd reported it, for on my way back from town, an innocent chap had impaled his arm on the broken support.

He's now going to sue the council for thousands of pounds and probably go on holiday to Las Vegas to watch Celine Dion perform at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

If you're not foolish, then you'll have realised that this incident didn't actually happen, although I do wonder how long it will be until someone spots the money making opportunity in this dangerous bench. The council might want to get a move on and fix it.

As for who broke it, I blame the pensioners. Why not!

Burgess Hill Commercial Property To Rent

2010-11-05T19:05:00.003Z

Following on from our feature on the empty retail premises that is proving to be a blot on the Burgess Hill Landscape, we decided that it would be novel to highlight the issue further in a video where we claim to be interested in renting the building as the new Burgess Hill Uncovered offices.

Here is our effort:

Oakmeeds' Misleading Promotional Video

2010-11-02T19:10:00.007Z

I've been scouring YouTube again and have discovered a gem.

A pupil from Oakmeeds has made a promotional video for his school and it's not too bad actually, however it's in urgent need of an edit.

You see, 26 seconds into the video there is a spot with one of the P.E teachers (although by the looks of him, you could be forgiven for mistaking him for a pupil) Anyway, in his part, he boasts about Oakmeeds' huge lucious expansive area of grass. It's a big selling point for the school.

The video fails to inform the viewer that this expansive area of grass is about to be swallowed up by a new school complete with playground and caged all-weather sports pitch.

Here's the video....

From the video we learn that the Oakmeeds P.E department now offer Lacrosse, Ultimate frisbee and that they have a rounders team. What kind of a sport is Ultimate Frisbee? When I was at Oakmeeds, we weren't presented with activites such as Ultimate Frisbee in order to encourage participation.

Additionally, I almost vomited when I spotted that the year sevens, the lowest on the secondary school food chain, now have their own picnic area!

There is also a choir that sing popular music as apposed to traditional hymns.

All that's needed now is for the teachers to wear red blazers and then the school can be renamed Butlins.

Long Overdue Event Update Saves Local Website

2010-10-28T21:16:00.004+01:00

I hope Mr G.S is happy now. I was sorting through some offline webpages for Burgess Hill Uncovered and discovered that I had an unfinished report on the 2008 Summer Festival Parade. I spent 10 minutes trying to think of some novel comments for the photos and uploaded the page. Hopefully this will mean that Mr G.S gives me another six months grace before he again suggests that BHU ceases to exist.

This blog entry needs padding out, it's a bit too short for my liking. So here's a treat for you. It's a photo I randomly took in St Johns Park some years ago. It features a woman that likes to accessorise with the colour yellow.

If you'd like to appear on the blog, all you have to do is walk through St Johns Park with some striking fashion choices. Our camera hidden in the statue of stability will do the rest.

Burgess Hill Town Centre In Terminal Decline

2010-10-26T18:49:00.005+01:00

Since the Waitrose car park went over to the dark side, you have no option but to pay the expensive car parking charges set by Mid Sussex District Council.

With the council also looking to introduce controlled parking zones in and around the town, you can forget about parking in the side roads.

What affect is this having on the town centre at the moment and how much worse will it get?

Here's a video highlighting just how dire the town centre is right now. Are the parking charges really to blame?

A rather good video I thought, I'm almost sad that I didn't make it myself.

Please don't abolish the district council!

2010-10-26T14:17:00.005+01:00

So a lady by the name of Barbara Woods has told the Mid Sussex Times that she thinks Mid Sussex District Council should be axed and all power handed over to town and parish councils.

Barbara thinks this is a good idea because it 'could' save money. 'Could' is not the same as 'will' in my book.

Ms Woods is a market research data analyst and may well have some valid insight, but to Burgess Hill Uncovered she is an ENEMY!

If she starts spreading her ideas far and wide and gets the right people listening, then Mid Sussex District Council could very well disappear. If that happens then she'd be killing off a good proportion of the BHU blog that you readers love so much. I'd be forced to report on Strawberry Tea Dances and the latest recitals at the Burgess Hill Keyboard club.

The District Council has to remain at all costs (just not the sort of £300k Big Culture Show costs)!

Children's Slides For Sale

2010-10-23T20:04:00.003+01:00

Only kidding. I'm not selling metal slides for children, although I wish I was.

What a perfect crime. Go around the local parks of Mid Sussex during daytime, simply unbolt the slide, chuck it in the back of a van and off you go. Who would possibly think that you are stealing the slide? If anyone were to question you, just claim you're a council contractor, taking the slide away for maintenance, or say that it is being replaced with a better model.
Once you have the slide in your possession, off you go to a scrap yard and exchange it for some money. Easy!

Thankfully, the theives did not steal any slides from Burgess Hill, this is because the thieves probably live in the town and didn't wish to upset the local children.

Both the Leader newspaper and the Mid Sussex Times featured the story this week.
My favourite councillor Publicity Pru managed to not only have some quotes printed but was also in a photo, pictured with some posh mothers in Lindfield.

Of the thefts, Publicity Pru said "Stealing from young children is a despicable act and those responsible should be ashamed of themselves"

Ashamed? Laughing all the way to the bank more like.

Dog poo isn't the most foul thing in Mid Sussex

2010-10-21T20:53:00.006+01:00

Councillor Pru Moore talks sh*t, no really, she does! Well, at least she did in the October 7th edition of the Mid Sussex Times.

The Middy ran a story about how the MSDC employed Park Rangers are being paid to go and look for Dog Poo in the district's various parks. Dog walkers in the most fouled spots will be given poo bags and told to ensure that they clean up after their dogs. The park rangers will also be going into schools in order to tell the kids to ensure they clean up their dog's poo.

Publicity Pru was of course on hand to give some quotes on this dirty issue. (Do the Middy have her on speed dial? Or does Pru phone them each time she thinks of a story to get herself featured?) Anyway, Pru spoke about how dog poo "is the most disgusting form of litter on our streets" and "It is deeply unpleasant for our residents" No Pru, I can think of something even more deeply unpleasant, and that's our public toilets. You can sidestep dog poo on the street, but when you are busting for a wee or even a poo of your own, you have to use the foul facilitities that MSDC dish up for us.

In my opinion ,the Park rangers should be sent to do daily checks of our public toilets.

I would put money on it being scientifically proven that you are more likely to get ill from using poorly cleaned public toilets than from treading in a bit of poo.

I suspect that our toilets are neglected as the councillors are too busy having Civic dinners or giving quotes to the media and never have the need to use the public facilities themselves.

What's a Civic Dinner? And Why?

2010-10-20T22:02:00.008+01:00

A Civic Dinner? For VIP's???? During the Burgess Hill Bonfire Night???
What a load of nonsense.

This is Burgess Hill, not Haywards Heath, we are not a stuck up town. Why would our wonderful Town council chairman Christopher Thomas-Atkin choose to spend his own money on a 'Civic' dinner? If these guests weren't of the calibur of Noel Edmonds, Peter Andre and Willie Thorne, then such a dinner is a waste. Who was the chairman really trying to impress? Last time I checked, Burgess Hill isn't bidding for a major sporting event.

Some may be baffled by this particular blog entry, but I am playing catch-up since I escaped the country. I almost choked on my lemon curd and cream covered scone when I read about the cute little dinner hosted by the town council chairman.

One woman that managed to get her usual column inches was Publicity Pru (Moore). Of the Bonfire Night she said "It was a terrific spectacle and our visitors were very impressed at the standard and visual impact of the event. The chairman was very pleased to have such high-profile visitors witness what great things Burgess Hill can accomplish"

These VIP's must have been Katie Price and Jodie Marsh if Pru was speaking so highly of them. Perhaps they gave her tips on how to get more media attention.

Burgess Hill's Premier Blogger Returns To Country

2010-10-18T21:42:00.007+01:00

Hello Loyal Readers

After the distressing complaint email received a few weeks back, there was only one thing to do........ leave the country.
I jumped on a plane and got as far as Scotland.

Whilst there I saw this...

and this...

For those of you that don't know your Scotland, I visited Loch Lomond and Whitelee Windfarm - Europes biggest windfarm in fact.

Quite frankly, Scotland is superb. They even sell Golly Wogs in gift shops.

Anyway, I returned to Burgess Hill, full of renewed vigour, it lasted all of 5 minutes before I realised that I was back in Sussex and not in the lovely village of Eaglesham.

Sadly, a check of my emails has revealed that I've still not been headhunted by the Mid Sussex Times. This is of course good news for you loyal readers as the normal blogging service will resume, I just need to find a victim.

BHU in Email Complaint Shocker!

2010-10-03T22:24:00.006+01:00

Readers, my weekend has been soured.

I awoke on Sunday morning, still on a sugar induced high thanks to consuming half a tub of Gormet Jellys Beans. My mood was quickly sunk when I checked the Burgess Hill Uncovered emails. Sent at 10:07 this morning, BHU received its first COMPLAINT email in a long while....

How selfish of me, I completely forgot that I am bound by law to serve the people of Burgess Hill. I've let everyone down. How could I not have taken a camera to an event in our town for the best part of three years. My laziness has led to G----- S------ emailing me on his first visit to the website. I feel so terrible that I have disappointed him. Of course, he is right, if I'm not updating the website, then I should not be doing it at all. I can't remember the last time I wrote a blog entry or filed a news report. In fact, I shall be removing Burgess Hill Uncovered from the World Wide Web this week. I have failed you all.

Just who on earth does G----- S------- think he is?
My guess is that he's a miserable, self-important (insert expletive of choice here)

That is all.

SHOCK - Personal details of Special Needs School objectors released by WSCC

2010-09-24T21:11:00.009+01:00

Thanks to Simon Hicks providing me with a link, I have been able to finally take a look at some of the documentation relating to the proposed construction of the Special Needs School on the grounds of Oakmeeds Community College.

What I found rather suprising was that among the various planning documents and letters from various departments, West Sussex County Council have chosen to upload every objection letter and email from members of the public. Also attached are the full names and addresses of each sender. In a case where an email has been sent in, the council have added that person's address in pencil.

How many of those people objecting to the plans would have chosen to write to the council if they knew that their letters were going to be made publicly available for everyone to read?

The reason I pose this question is because having read some of the letters, I have found quite a few to have been rather 'hammed up'. Of course there is nothing wrong in trying to drive home to the council that building the school at Oakmeeds is a big mistake, but they aren't the sort of letters that you'd be too happy for people that know of you to be reading.

Additionally, some letters contain personal views regarding special needs children and also opinions on how other school children in the area would treat those with a handicap. There are also a few digs about Oakmeeds Community College from parents of current pupils at the school. Lets hope that the headmaster doesn't read those particular letters!

Are WSCC wrong to have published the objection letters with full names and addresses of each author?

Sport England reject Burgess Hill Special School Proposals

2010-09-23T11:46:00.005+01:00

Just a little update to reveal that Sport England have registered a formal objection regarding the changes proposed to the Oakmeeds playing fields. This is great news for all those against the building of a special needs school on the site. Sport England have said it's a lack of information that has led them to registering an objection for now as they don't think that it complies with their Playing Field Policy. A glimmer of hope?

Non News - Supermarkets to revitalise Town Centres

2010-09-21T15:09:00.005+01:00

With roughly 8 months to go until the next round of local elections, it's time for the Conservatives to start spreading some positive vibes in order to fool the electorate into thinking they are always doing their best for the district. They'll be hoping to reel in enough suckers so that they can control the Mid Sussex District Council for another term and further waste public money.

Last Thursday's edition of the Mid Sussex Times perhaps marked the start of this charm offensive. The front page of the newspaper contained a story about how big named supermarkets are interested in setting up shop in our town centres, bucking the trend of choosing sites on the outskirts of town.

So just how exactly is this going to happen? Where is there room in Haywards Heath on South Road for a supermarket? How would it cope with the extra traffic in an already busy area?
Haywards Heath already has an Iceland, Co-Op, a generous food section in Marks and Spencer, and Sainsbury is only 5 minutes down the road.

The same goes for Burgess Hill, the town centre has Iceland, Lidl and of course Waitrose. Technically, you could have an Asda in the Cyprus Road Car Park, but how will the traffic flow be managed in the pathetically small one-way system?

Both towns would need massive changes in layout in order to accommodate big supermarkets in the town centre, and this just will not happen, there is not the money for it. The council itself has said that it will have to look at many smaller developments from a number of different companies instead of getting into bed with just one.

To me, this is a non news story, serving only to let the public know that the council are thinking about doing something. Expect more of these weak press releases from the council in the months to come.

Do you readers see a way of how to fit big supermarkets into the town centres without needing to overhaul the complete landscape? Please do leave a comment if you know how it can be done, I'd love to be proven wrong on this one.

District Council to sell off Burgess Hill Playground

2010-09-20T22:36:00.005+01:00

It's amazing what you can find out by reading the minutes from District Council meetings.

The following information appeared to have slipped the attention of the local media, that is until BHU found out!

(You can read our formal report on the news story in the news section of the Burgess Hill Uncovered Website)

Mid Sussex District Council will opt to SELL the lease on the land currently occupied by the Chanctonbury Road Playground to West Sussex County Council and snub the chance to re-site the playground on a patch of land on the edge of London Meed Primary School.

The site of the existing playground is required by WSCC in order to build the new special school which clearly will be given planning approval very soon.

Now, the reason given by MSDC for turning down the chance to re-site the new playground is that it would pose a serious security threat to the school!

This is THE school run by West Sussex County Council, the same WSCC that are offering up the plot of land for a new playground. Would WSCC really offer for the playground to be moved if they thought they'd be risking the secuity of their own school?????? Something doesn't add up here. Is this just a weak excuse by MSDC so that they can bank the money?

It's hardly fair on local children that they lose a free leisure facility. Ah of course, MSDC are full of old people that don't think of the younger generation. It all makes sense now.

Disclaimer: To my knowledge, the information above is correct. If I have made an error, please comment below.

Tesco submit development application to MSDC

2010-09-13T17:43:00.006+01:00

Supermarket giant Tesco have formally sent in their application to Mid Sussex District Council in hope of being able to increase the size of its store in Burgess Hill.

Tesco had carried out a pre-application consultation with local residents and official bodies and now hope to get the green light from MSDC by December 1st. Anyone wishing to oppose the plans have until September 29th to do so.

If you enjoy reading documents, then here is a list of all the PDF files available publically which detail Tesco's consultation findings, development plans and their application.
http://62.189.207.187/pap_msdclive/searchresult.asp?appnumber=10/02755/FUL

The death of the town centre is coming, but its OK, as no one shops there for non food items, Tesco says so, therefore it must be true.

What's going on at WSCC?

2010-09-12T16:26:00.004+01:00

Last week whilst out driving in Burgess Hill, I heard on the radio about how Mark Hammond, the Chief Executive of West Sussex Council had been suspended, there was no other information revealed at the time. Having now read this weeks edition of the Mid Sussex times, it was interesting to discover that Mark was SACKED by the leader of the council Louise Goldsmith, she's a Conservative. Apparently the procedure used to get rid of Mr Hammond was not by the book. I'm sure more information will come out in public over the coming weeks, but you have to believe that the Lib Dems will be enjoying the supposed improper procedure by a member of a rival party.

Was Mr Hammond doing a really bad job? I always thought West Sussex County Council ran like a well-oiled machine?

Unusual to have unrest at WSCC. Its usually MSDC where it all kicks off!

I know some of you political types are avid readers of the blog, do you care to share some information?

Haywards Heath put Burgess Hill to shame.

2010-09-08T23:36:00.006+01:00

Readers, I may just have to move away to Haywards Heath. They do things better there, no really, they do.

On Saturday, it's their town day. Taking place in Victoria Park from 12 noon they have a HUGE amount going on. For a full list of whats on offer, you can take a look at the timetable on that rubbish copycat Haywards Heath Uncovered website

The highlights include Dancing, live music, sports demonstrations, martial arts, miniature railway, fairground rides, fireworks AND the Eco Fair, poached from Burgess Hill.

I am DELIGHTED that Haywards Heath are putting on such a heavyweight event, it may lead to the Burgess Hill Town council taking back control of our local event, the Summer and Christmas Town days that we have are old and STALE, it's been rinse and repeat for the past SIX YEARS.

The event needs to come back to St Johns Park. Sod all this 'ooooo we can't do it there because someone might get hit by a cricket ball' It was never a problem in the past. It was moved in part as greedy out of town traders on the festival committee wanted it in Church Walk in order to try to get more business to their crappy cafe that closed down as it was crap. It was moved as the new people running the festival committee wanted to make a change so they could say 'We did that'

Sometimes I get sad when I realise that I live in Burgess Hill. Today is one of those days that I am sad.

Egglestone triumphs in By-Election

2010-08-27T11:09:00.004+01:00

Sad news readers, I won't be being bribed for my vote next year in way of a fair trade chocolate brownie as Robert Egglestone triumphed with 662 votes versus John Merrill's 453 in yesterday's by-election in the Victoria Ward. 28% of residents exercised their right to vote (could be bothered to leave the house)

As much as I wanted to see John Merrill win, the Lib Dems did put out very impressive and hard-hitting literature which clearly influenced enough people to vote for Robert.

Were the Conservatives too confident and thus felt they didn't need to make much of an effort to win the seat?

Well, we only have to wait until May next year to see if they will try harder, for in 2011, both the town council and district council seats will be up for grabs. It could turn out to be a very short reign for Robert.

The Make-Up of the Burgess Hill Town Council is ---
Conservatives - 9
Liberal Democrats - 8
Independent - 1

Thrilling times ahead for fans of local politics.
Prepare for lots of dirt slinging from the parties.

Victoria Ward Polling Update

2010-08-26T13:48:00.005+01:00

Today's the day. Its the by-election in the Victoria Ward for the vacant seat on Burgess Hill Town Council.

Its 'Mr Fair Trade' Robert Eggleston representing the Lib Dems against the Conservatives' latest acquisition, John Merrill.

As a fortunate inhabitant of the Victoria Ward I have a very tough choice to make, or is it really that tough at all?

Firstly, I've never known anything like it with regards to election literature to be delivered to the BHU offices over the past month. Both parties are really going for it, especially the Lib Dems.
This by-election certainly hasn't been kind to the environment. A tree or two would have been sacrificed, couldn't they have just done it all online? Even the elderly know how to use the internet these days

Robert Egglestone
Robert Egglestone and the Lib Dems have fought such an aggressive campaign, John Merrill's efforts have been much more understated.

Egglestone's literature boasts of his skills and achievements, it's rather a turn off to be honest. Another leaflet shows Robert tackling issues in the Victoria Ward, this is unusual as he's not actually a councillor.

I think I'll start going round Burgess Hill with a bucket of water, putting out fires and see if the local fire service will give me a job.

John Merrill
John Merrill's campaign is basically: 'Hello, you all probably remember me, 16 years a town councillor, former chairman of the town council, Unlike Egglestone I live in the Victoria Ward. Vote for me, my record speaks for itself'
Well, that's not quite how he put it, but that's how I would have done, it would have been short and sweet and saved a lot of paper!

What we have is a man who is tried and tested in the job, and another that is doing all he can to claw himself onto the council.

Who I'm Voting For
If you've not worked it out by now good reader, I shall be voting for John Merrill. I don't care for either party at the moment, but John always did a good job previously even he was on the Lib Dem's side, so he deserves another crack.

If Mr Egglestone is reading this.......then Robert, you MAY have won my vote if your Fair Trade event at the Martlets had chocolate brownies on offer. I'm fickle and a man, a nice chocolate brownie would have left a good impression on me. However Robert if you don't win, I'm sure you'll have another crack in 8 months time, that means you have a chance to supply Brownies at your next Fair Trade event.

But Who Will Win?
I'm voting Merrill, the older generation will probably also vote for Merrill, but the poor weather today means that many won't want to leave the house. The Lib Dem literature will have impressed many, even though I see plenty of holes in their claims and 'brilliant' ideas. Will the majority of voters have been fooled? Probably.

Egglestone to win, but only just.

Are you Brighton?

2010-08-07T20:30:00.005+01:00

Hello Readers

Things at the BHU offices have been rather quiet of late, the reason is that we've been beavering away on revamping the website of one of our other projects - wearebrighton.com Seeing that you are reading a blog about Burgess Hill, then there must be a fair chance that you are a Brighton and Hove Albion supporter or perhaps loosely follow their results.

It means that We Are Brighton may be of interest to you. Please do take a look, I can particularly recommend the Albion Moan-In podcast .

Right, that's enough of the plugging, normal service on Burgess Hill Uncovered can now resume.

Ducks are an endangered species

2010-07-15T22:30:00.005+01:00

Confusion ahead this Saturday.

Taking place from 12pm-4pm is the 5th Burgess Hill Scout Group's annual Duck Fair at Janes Lane.

However, also taking place from 12pm-4pm is the West End Meadows Fun Day, an event organised by the town council. (information here)

This has to be a big blow for the Scouts. The Duck Fair is a fundraiser for the group, and their efforts may be compromised by the town council putting on a big event on the same day, at exactly the same time.

Was there any communication between the two groups? With big family events being rare in Burgess Hill, it's criminal that there are two taking place at the same time.

Why has this happened?

Ask your MP to keep the hunting ban in place - ha ha ha

2010-07-11T11:05:00.006+01:00

In the letters page of the Mid Sussex Times this week, there was a joint piece from the RSPCA and the League Against Cruel Sports.

They were asking people to contact their local MP and ask for them to vote to protect the Hunting Act.

Asking Nicholas Soames to vote against the hunting of foxes would be like asking Adolf Hitler to be nice to the Jews.

Another political defection and a by-election.

2010-07-09T18:20:00.004+01:00

This morning a leaflet dropped through my letter box from those fine people known as the Conservative Party.

As a resident of the exclusive Victoria ward I have a tough choice coming up, and that's who to vote for in the town council by-election.

Sadly, sitting Conservative councillor Barbara Selby passed away following a losing battle to cancer. According to the Conservative literature, the party wanted to keep the seat vacant until the 2011 town council elections, but the Lib Dems wanted the by-election to go ahead.

It's surprising that it's taking place. Through the media we're often told how the town councillors from both parties work so well together and do the best for the town, so why the urgency to have one extra councillor in place for all of 10 months?

What I found extremely shocking from the leaflet is how it featured former Lib Dem Town Councillor John Merrill. He was a councillor for a number of years, then left the Lib Dems and sought to be elected to the town council as an independent. Sadly the voters appear to vote for the party and not the person, and John missed out.

So John Merrill is now back on the political scene, flying the flag for the Conservative party, he's even been made chairman of Burgess Hill WEST. Is Burgess Hill really that big that the Conservatives need chairman for different areas?

What I'd really like to know is why over the past 4 years or so have so many Lib Dem councillors in Burgess Hill switched to the Conservatives or chosen to go independent? What is so bad about being a member of the Lib Dems at local level?
There has to be some sort of internal problem, doesn't there? If so, why doesn't someone higher up in the Lib Dem foodchain solve any unrest?

If you readers have any ideas, then please leave a comment below.

Gimmie 5 Olympic Open Day 2010

2010-07-02T21:04:00.003+01:00

Gimmie 5 Olympic Open Day 2010? More like GIMMICK 5!

Readers, Mid Sussex District Council are at it again, only this time, Freedom Leisure, the company that run the sports centres in the district have also put their name to this pathetic idea.

I learnt of this event from the Summer editon of the Mid Sussex Matters magazine that dropped through the BHU office letterbox this week.

There are 5 Olympic rings, and it just so happens that there are three sports centres and two civic halls in Mid Sussex, that's a total of 5! To keep the 5 theme going, you can go to one of the sports centres and take part in 5 events, for 5 minutes.

It gets even worse with the pushing of the five gimmick. The activities include taking 5 shots at a basketball hoop, completing a 5 shot rally in badminton, perform 5 seat drops on a trampoline and a 5 minute drama presentation.

This event is supposed to encourage people to participate in sport. However, who is really going to bother to leave the house on the weekend in the Summer to partake in just 5 minutes of activity?

One of the photos to go with the article was of a man playing golf, clearly not taken at Beech Hurst gardens. One of MSDC's great ideas for increasing participation in sport was to CLOSE the Pitch and Putt without consulting the public.

If you're mad enough to take part in this gimmick-fest, then you can find the event taking place on Saturday 24th July for Burgess Hill and East Grinstead, with Sunday 25th July the chance for the people of Haywards Heath to make their way to the Olympos sports centre to waste 5 minutes of their lives.

Unsurprisingly, the FREE Burgess Hill Street 20 cricket event that's running throughout the Summer (and lasts much longer than 5 minutes) was NOT advertised in the magazine.

Clueless, absolutely clueless.

Pitch and Putt CLOSED by the Council

2010-06-30T22:03:00.003+01:00

The moaners over at Haywards Heath Uncovered have reported on how the District Council have closed the Pitch and Putt at Beech Hurst Gardens for good! This is terrible news. I have been a regular user of the Pitch and Putt for over 15 years.

It's been reported that the council have chosen to have a performance area on part of the land instead. Brass Bands are one of the types of entertaiment that the council are looking to use.

This smacks of the decision makers being people that couldn't care for the younger generation. How is it fair to take away a sporting activity, used by young people and to replace it with a place for a brass band to perform? I can really see the local youths rushing to Beech Hurst Gardens in the Summer to listen to the live music, rubbing shoulders with the pensioners.

Yet again Mid Sussex District Council show that they do not have a clue.

Council waste £300k of Taxpayer's money.

2010-06-27T21:57:00.008+01:00

Do you remember back in late March when Labour district councillor Paddy Henry revealed he had seen documentation that seemed to indictate that the District Council took out a loan from Thornfield properties? Offering up Cyprus Road to Thornfield as security if they were to default on the loan?

Well, the district auditor got to work on investigating the claims and her findings were revealed this week. Surprise surprise! It was announced that the council tossed away £302,000 of the taxpayers money in interest repayments to Thornfield Properties on a loan that should never have been taken out.

MSDC are so careful with the public money, remember the reported £300k loss on the Big Culture show at Victoria Park a few years ago?

All these losses happened under the leadership of Council Chief Executive John Jory, a man that was collecting an eye-watering yearly salary of £138,000.
He has recently resigned from the council, probably before he was sacked!
With his track record, it's somewhat shocking that he's managed to find another job as Chief Executive of Reigate and Banstead Borough Council. Clearly his new employers didn't use the Internet to research his excellent track record in helping to make taxpayers money disappear!

Mid Sussex District Council - Making life better for everyone but the residents.

If you'd like to read the full 53 page report on the 'Cyprus Road Agreement' you can download the PDF file here.

Weakest News Story EVER ?!?!?!

2010-06-27T11:09:00.003+01:00

I was in two minds as to whether to comment on a news story that I found online as I didn't want to be harsh about a well respected news journalist of which I too very much like.

BUT.... It must have been a VERY slow newsweek at the Mid Sussex Times where chief reporter Phil Dennett gets to write a story about his 60th birthday and the present that his work colleagues purchased him. The gift in question was a chocolate football, but it's no ordinary piece of confectionary, it's the lucky football that helped England beat Slovenia on Wednedsday. It's lucky because Phil vowed not to eat it until England won their next game. England went on the beat Slovenia 1-0. The chocolate football was then eaten.

Really? REALLY? Come on!

A friend said to me on reading the story "Well that's England's World Cup chances gone if he's gone and eaten the lucky football already, we'll lose the next game!"

I'm writing this entry on Sunday morning, three and a half hours away from England taking on Germany in the last 16. I've been eying up a Muller yoghurt in the fridge, it was purchased for me by the BHU office cleaner. I've decided not to eat it until England win their next game. Will it be THE lucky yoghurt that helps England win? I have no doubt about it.

Burgess Hill Street 20 Cricket

2010-06-17T13:41:00.003+01:00

A new cricketing concept has come to Burgess Hill.
Every Wednesday this Summer you can go along to Cyprus Road car park between 4pm-9pm and take part in 'Street 20' cricket. Teams consist of 6-8 players with each side batting for just 20 balls. It's a game for all ages and is a FREE event, which is very surprising considering that Mid Sussex District Council are connected with it.
For more detailed information and to see some photos of the game in action, read our Street 20 report on Burgess Hill Uncovered.

We've also put together this short promotional video as we think it's an event that the community should really get involved in.

Haywards Heath Gets Uncovered!

2010-06-02T19:04:00.003+01:00

Burgess Hill's neighbouring town of Haywards Heath is about to be 'Uncovered' following the creation of www.haywardsheathuncovered.co.uk
The site launched on June 1st and is sure to strike fear into the local councils who may have neglected parts of the town.

So far it's not looking too good for Mid Sussex District council as Haywards Heath Uncovered's first piece of content is a review of the Victoria Park public toilets, and what a horror show it is!

A trip to the Harvester Youth Club

2010-05-25T17:37:00.007+01:00

Being the extremely wealthy blogger that I am, I decided to treat a 'friend' to a meal at the highly exclusive Harvester restaurant. The downside is that its located in Haywards Heath (thankfully on the outskirts!)

Lots of rich people from Burgess Hill must like going there as the restaurant area was rather busy. Seeking a quiet area where we could actually hear ourselves speak we decided to 'slum it' by eating in a cosy corner of the pub section.

Sadly, our meal and high quality conversation were spoilt by a bunch of ignorant ratbags. Occupying the leather sofas next to the quiz machine were a group of approximately 15 youths that were taking it in turns to rotate between slouching on the sofas, playing on the quiz machine, to going outside to have a cigarette.

These youths must have been loaded, they were constantly getting fresh drinks. The more they drunk, the rowdier they became, it must have been all the sugar from the Pepsi.

It was the observation that they were all exclusively drinking Pepsi that made us realise their 'scam'

Harvester currently have a promotion whereby if you order a soft drink with a main meal, then you're entitled to free refills. The thing is, these annoying 'young adults' hadn't purchased a main meal at all. They had been mis-sold the drinks promotion and were milking (or should that be pepsi-ing) the system for all its worth.

The Harvester is now the newest Youth Club in Haywards Heath.
The entry fee is £2.09. It gets you free refills of Pepsi cola, the thrill of being in a pub, with access to a quiz machine, public toilets, music and comfortable seating.
You can be as loud and as annoying as you like and the staff will refrain from ejecting you from the establishment as they are all without testicles.

I think I'll settle for a night in with a Papa John's Pizza and a bottle of Pepsi than bother with the Harvester again.

Pensioners Taught How To Find Porn On The Internet!

2010-05-20T00:38:00.003+01:00

Yes, that's right, as this blog post title reads, pensioners will be taught how to find porn on the internet.

According to the freebie paper 'The Citizen' a series of free 'Silver Surfer' events will be held at the public libraries in Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill.

The article includes the following:

"The taster sessions will include a tour of the most popular parts of the Internet, and give participants the chance to practice and ask questions"

The Burgess Hill sessions are taking place this Friday between 9:30 - 4pm. Each session will last 55 minutes.

I'm very tempted to pop down there to see what genre of adult sites the older generation find appealing.

Middy skew figures to Tierney's detriment

2010-05-19T19:02:00.004+01:00

"Lets not allow facts to get in the way of a good story" That's what the editor of the Mid Sussex Times probably told reporter Finn Scott-Delany as he tried to add as much shine as possible to Nicholas Soames' victory in the local elections.

It was written:
Hopes that the Lib Dems would be able to captialise on the hype surrounding their leader Nick Clegg proved unfounded with voters rallying behind Mr Soames.

Mrs Tierney received 3,000 LESS votes than she did in 2005.

Those of you that were aware of the voting data, Tierney actually received an extra 3,000 votes compared to 2005. Such careless reporting by the Middy.

Imagine what damage could be done to the Jonas Brothers if they lived in Mid Sussex. The Mid Sussex Times would be liable to incorrectly report that one of the members has induldged in pre-marital sex. thus ruining their wholesome image.

Haywards Heath suffers major Rat infestation!

2010-05-19T00:47:00.004+01:00

I'm currently reading last weeks Mid Sussex Times, I was delighted to discover that Victoria Park in Haywards Heath is suffering from an infestation of Rats.
Poison has been laid descreetly at the scene, out of reach of children in attempt to get rid of our rodent cousins. The council are appealing for members of the public to refrain from dropping any food and not to feed the birds as this would help the Rats thrive in the area.

The next time I'm unfortunate enough to be in Haywards Heath, I think I'll buy myself a LARGE portion of chips from the local chippy and accidently put a hole in the paper as I go for a mazey walk across the grounds of Victoria Park.

You'd never find an infestation of Rats in Burgess Hill, it's far too clean compared to grubby old Haywards Heath.

Fire at the Junction Pub

2010-05-13T20:47:00.006+01:00

On Wednesday morning, fire crews in West Sussex were busy attempting to douse the roaring flames at the Junction Pub in Burgess Hill. Thankfully the pub has been closed for a rather long time so no damage to business was incurred, nor was there anyone living in the building.

An uncomfirmed rumour is that a developer wanted to build lots of flats on the land, but had planning permission refused. Would a large piece of empty land due to a bulldozed pub help their cause?

Local videographer Eddie Howland was at the scene and captured the hunky fireman hard at work with their hoses.

To see what the Junction looked like before it mysteriously caught fire, then take a look at Part 2 of our Burgess Hill Pub Guide.

Argus' Burgess Hill Related April Fools Attempt

2010-05-13T19:39:00.003+01:00

How did I miss this?

I was browsing the most excellent 'North Stand Chat' forum this morning where a thread from April had been bumped to the first page. It was a thread regarding April fools jokes that the Argus cobble together in an attempt to catch out their readers.
Their big April fool this year was to claim that the clock on St Johns' Church in Burgess Hill was going to be replaced with a digital one.
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/6242839.19th_Century_Sussex_church_clock_face_replaced_by_digital_screen/

A poor attempt really. What sucker would have fallen for that?

Serena Tierney FAILS in Mid Sussex

2010-05-10T17:39:00.003+01:00

Well, what a huge let down the election for the Mid Sussex MP was. Serena Tierney totally mucked up. Nicholas Soames INCREASED the gap between the Conservatives and Lib Dems in Mid Sussex.

Tierney's Statement
Serena Tierney responded to the result via the midsussexlibdems website."
"Serena would like to say thank you for all those who supported her in Mid Sussex saying "Very many people told me how good our campaign was and the effect is clear in the 3000+ increase in our general election vote. In the end, the percentage difference between us and the Tories has hardly changed. The Tories clearly benefited from the electorate's determination to get rid of an unpopular and incompetent Labour government."|

So Serena has the excuse that the Conservatives did well as more people came out to vote for the party that could best displace Gordon Brown. I don't buy that excuse at all. Those that watched the televised debates between the three main party leaders would have been impressed by Nick Clegg, and if anything, would have felt compelled to perhaps vote of the Liberal Democrats for the first time.

The Figures
Looking at the figures, Soames received 4564 more votes than in 2005. Tierney gained an extra 3052. The total score was Cons 28,329 versus Lib Dems 20,927.

What now for Tierney?
As for Tierney, she is sticking around as the Lib Dem's parliamentary candidate for Mid Sussex.
Why bother? She's lost in two elections now. Her campaign heavily concentrated on Soames being a part time MP, but where did that get her? Is she the right person to try and defeat the Conservatives in Mid Sussex, I don't think she is.

Lib Dems nationally
But what does it all matter now anyway? The Lib Dems are sacrificing what they stand for in order to ride on the coattails of the Conservatives. I imagine Nick Clegg is about to alienate thousands of Lib Dem supporters around the country as he signs his party up to to share in the blame when huge cuts are made to cut the national deficit. With Gordon Brown resigning as leader of the Labour Party, it seems the reds will be best placed if an early election is called.

Insight into Soames on the election trail
Finally, he's a little tidbit for you, here's an interview the Times conducted with Nicholas Soames a few days prior to the election. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/election_2010/article7116104.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084

Serena Tierney Attacked by the Daily Mail

2010-04-25T21:16:00.002+01:00

The Conservative supporting media seem to see the Lib Dems as a real threat in the forthcoming election. The Ultra-Safe Mid Sussex seat may not be that secure as the Daily Mail have felt the need to write negatively about Serena Tierney's election literature.
Article: Dirty Tricks of the real NASTY party.
It's actually pretty damning, in fact, I find it incredible. If you've not clicked the link to the Daily Mail article, it reveals that Tierney wrote that 5 councillors have abandoned the Conservatives at local level as the party is a sinking ship. The Daily mail sets the record straight by giving valid reasons for each of the 5 departures, including that one of the 5 councillors DIED.
The worst part for Tierney is that she wrote about the loss of the 5 councillors under the headline 'Bringing Honesty Back to Politics'. Ouch!

Political Debate vs Football

2010-04-25T20:13:00.005+01:00

What an ERROR. On Wednesday evening, the candidates for the Mid Sussex parliamentary seat will be at the Gateway Baptist Church in Burgess Hill, taking questions from an audience.
At the same time on ITV 1 you could be enjoying Barcelona vs Inter Millan in the second leg of the Champions League Semi-Final. Now as much as I'd love to be be sitting among a load of old people, listening to them asking the candidates what they're going to do about the state pension, I'd rather have my own religious experience by watching 'God' play football on the TV. The God I speak of is of course Lionel Messi.

Mid Sussex Times back the Conservatives?

2010-04-25T19:28:00.004+01:00

Unlike the national newspapers, it would be unwise for a small local newspaper to outrightly back a particular political party. To do so could end up costing you readers.

So what better way than to put one party over another than to print a piece from an external source.

In the April 15th edition of the Mid Sussex Times, they included a piece from the Electoral Reform Society that claims that the Mid Sussex seat is basically a no contest, Soames will win, so why bother voting any other way, if at all.

I don't see why the Middy needed to include this piece unless they wanted to indirectly show political bias. Why couldn't they have printed something to suggest that the Mid Sussex seat could be the closest run election for decades and how the votes of all the Mid Sussex constituents will really count come May 6th if people take the time to vote.

Thankfully, the April 22nd editon of the Mid Sussex Times featured a letter from Lib Dem candidate Serena Tierney, in which she took objection to the piece from last week and pointed out that the Mid Sussex seat could end up being a closely run affair.

We give my sister the Citizen and Leader newspapers to use to line the cage of Marv the Guinea pig, I get a feeling we'll be providing her with the Middy from now on too!

Sick Ambulance in Burgess Hill

2010-04-14T22:05:00.003+01:00

Have you ever heard an Ambulance sound like this before?

Once again proving that life in Burgess Hill isn't always boring.
If you want boring, you'd have attended the annual town meeting tonight.
The sensible would have stayed home and watched the North London Derby on Sky Sports.

The Race To Be Mid-Sussex MP - Part One

2010-04-08T19:08:00.006+01:00

The general election was finally announced by Gordon Brown on Tuesday.
On Thursday May 6th, the people of Mid Sussex will take to the polls as our Member of Parliament for the next term will be decided.

Will Nicholas Soames retain his seat or will Serena Tierney spring a surprise and win it for the Liberal Democrats? As for Labour's David Boot, he has as much chance of victory as what Burgess Hill does at winning a cleanest public toilet award.

In 2005, Nicholas Soames polled 23,765 to Tierney's 17,875. Have opinions changed over the last 5 years?

Soames certainly isn't the most active of MP's.
Since 2005 he's only voted on 682 out of 1285 issues, that's a voting percentage of 53.1%.
The Public Whip's voting record of Nicholas Soames MP.

Big Nic also has three paid roles outside of being an MP, more details here..
They Work For You.com's Nicholas Soames Profile

As the data seems to indicate, Soames could be a much harder working MP for Mid Sussex. Clearly he has some nice paying roles outside of Parliament, so why doesn't he stand down and concentrate on them and let Mid Sussex constituents have an MP that will really work hard for them, someone that doesn't take getting re elected for granted. This of course will not happen.

Is Serena Tierney a good enough challenger to pose Nicholas Soames a real threat?
She certainly appears in the media enough, championing local issues far more than big Nic, whilst she's getting her picture in the local papers, Nic isn't courting the media as much as he once did, perhaps he's too busy with his other jobs, or is it because Serena makes a better picture?

What could go against Serena and the Lib Dems is that nationally, many of the general public are sick of Gordon Brown. To ensure they get a new prime minister, people will vote Conservative. Interestingly though, David Cameron and co really have failed to put the boot in when Brown was down over the past six months. Labour are making enough noise to suggest that they are the best party to help the country recover from the economic crisis. (Hollow claims as it's going to get much much worse yet) If Brown can improve public perception of himself over the next month, then this could benefit Serena Tierney as there may be less urgency among voters to get Cameron in.

It will come down to those that vote with their local politician in mind, and those that vote to see a specific party and prime minister in power.

How do you think it will go locally and nationally?

SHOCK - Financial Irregularities at MSDC?

2010-04-08T17:26:00.004+01:00

Hello loyal readers, having been struck down by illness for the best part of two weeks that resulted in my brain only being able to process 58 episodes of the Thundercats on DVD, I have returned to the blog to once again report on the highly exciting news coming out of Burgess Hill.

The March 25th edition of the Mid Sussex Times carried the headline 'Funds probe at council' Now I'm not much of a financial expert, and there was alot of information to digest but here's my take on the story, in a language that you'll hopfully understand.

It is alledged that the district council borrowed around £730k from Thornfield properties. Thornfied were the company that were going to make the town centre look all nice and sparkly until they went bust.

Cllr Paddy Henry claims the loan was taken out by MSDC to be used as part of the 2005-06 budget. Apparently this is illegal.

The council had put up land as 'security' against the loan if they were unable to pay it back. It is reported that the land the council offered up was part of the Cyprus Road car park and land at the Triangle leisure centre. The council ended up paying back £1,042,407 to Thornfield.

The district's auditor will now be going through the paperwork to see what the dealings were between MSDC and Thornfield.
------------------------------------------

Dear o dear, it's one thing after another at MSDC. With local elections in 2011, the Conservative run council may once again be exposed.

What a HERO Paddy Henry is. He's the lone Labour representative on the district council, so what better way to make an impact than by pointing out all the wrong doings.

Serco Refuse Collection Truck Damages Trees

2010-03-24T19:53:00.008Z

Forgive me loyal readers, for I had forgotten to tell you of the following story until now.

On Tuesday 9th March, the Serco Refuse Collection Truck was carrying out it's duty in the west of Burgess Hill.

Reversing into a cul-de-sac, the driver thought it would be novel to make his way down the road at an angle, mounting a grassy area and RIPPING a branch off a tree. His fellow workers had to shout at him to ensure that he avoided hitting many parked cars.

The driver had to correct his line, and in doing so surpassed himself by damaging another tree on the other side of the road!

Surprisingly, it only took the council two weeks to come and clean up the mess.

MSDC really need to have a word with Serco and find out what Monkeys they're paying to drive their trucks. My office cleaner could drive one better, and she's a woman.

Councillor Anne Jones in Career Suicide?

2010-03-21T23:08:00.006Z

Last week an email was delivered to the Burgess Hill Uncovered inbox, the content of which was rather distressing. Anne Jones (don't forget the) MBE has decided to ditch her independent status on Mid Sussex District Council and has aligned herself with the Conservatives.

For years Anne had represented the Liberal Democrats whilst sitting on various councils during her long career in local politics. Sadly, things went sour for Anne and the Lib Dems. It was reported that differences on party policy led to her departure. I think that's technical speak for 'Didn't like the cheap biscuits at the local party meetings'

After going it alone for a while, she's decided that her lone voice wasn't effective on the District Council, hense why she's joined the Conservatives. Is this move about to backfire on her?

She'll be up for re-election in May 2010. In 2007 she was voted onto the council as a Lib Dem, the other successful candidate was the Conservatives' Pru 'I think the refuse collectors did a great job in the snow' Moore. The 2007 data suggests that Leylands Ward is split between the two parties. It may be the case that only one of the two women will be re-elected.

The other factor to consider is that the Conservatives keep cocking up at local level. In 2007 people stupidly re-elected many of the same Conservatives that were doing such a bad job in the previous term, will the voters make the same mistake twice?

The term 'Squeaky bum time' seems rather appropriate to use for both Anne Jones and the rest of the Conservatives serving on the District Council. They have a year to enhance their reputation. Can they do it?

Tesco want a Timpson on their land

2010-03-17T18:54:00.003Z

If wanting to expand their store by 50% wasn't enough, Tesco have now cheekily submitted an application to Mid Sussex District Council for a Timpson on their land.

Timpson provide shoe repair, key cutting and dry cleaning services. Having a Timpson on site at Tesco could be looked upon as being rather handy. However, there is already a Timpson in Burgess Hill town centre along with other businesses that offer dry cleaning.

It's clear for all to see that Tesco are slowly trying to become the central hub for all retail activity in Burgess Hill.

Thankfully, the Town Council planning committee met last night and they have made their recommendation for the Timpson at Tesco to be refused. Good for them.

However, a recommendation is all that it is, the District Council will have the final say, and if they have already got into bed with Tesco regarding the 50% expansion, then allowing a Timpson to be built would be no surprise.

For further information check out Simon Hicks' blog, he's part of the town council planning committee, so knows his stuff (I hope!)

Festival details revealed, but what year is this?

2010-03-17T13:45:00.005Z

Last weeks Citizen newspaper carried news about this year's Burgess Hill Summer Festival.
The parade will be themed on the World War Two Battle of Britain. According to the Citizen report, its the 70th anniversary of the event. We can expect all parade walkers and floats to adhere to this theme, although won't it be a little boring if everyone is the same? At least when people were invited to come dressed as characters from books we had a bit of variety.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful to those that fought in the war, they already have their yearly day of remembrance in November, but it's supposed to be a fun event. Additionally, how easy is it going to be for the various community groups to get hold of World War Two paraphernalia?

Once again (just like every year) vintage and classic cars have been invited to take part in the event. I get the feeling that the organisers are fans of old cars and ask them to come along for their own personal satisfaction. Now, I've been to some of these parades and from what I can recall, it's been the same cars every year. zzzzzzzzzz.

Last year the parade started off with a mascot race, this is the race that included the Crystal Palace mascots from South London but chose not to invite Burgess Hill's own Gordon the Gorilla so if you're wondering why Mr Burgess Hill Uncovered is a little down on the event, that's one of the reasons for you.

This blog entry's title included the words 'but what year is this?' I ask this question because of the archaic process that you have to go through if you want to take part in this years festival.

To get hold of an application form, you have to send a stamped addressed envelope to the festival secretary, once you receive this application form, you'll need to fill it out and post it back again. That's a total of three stamps. Have we gone back a decade?

Why don't the festival committee upload the application form to a website? People interested in taking part in the event could simply download the form, print it out, write on it, and post it back. That would save the cost of two stamps and a lot of time. Why can't the Burgess Hill Town Council website host the form? Better still, why doesn't the festival have its own website? It would only cost around £30 a year. It would also mean they can put all the festival details on it. Last year the local press had to keep publishing the phone number of one of the organisers if you wanted to know more information on events taking place during festival week.

We are now in 2010, and if you're not online, then you're not relevant.

Moan over ......... for now.

Tweet For Burgess Hill Jobs

2010-03-11T23:21:00.006Z

Are you one of the many people currently unemployed in Burgess Hill?
There is now a convenient way to find job vacancies and perhaps get a jump on the competition.

If you are a member of micro blogging website Twitter, have a go at typing in '#burgesshill' and 'Burgess Hill' into the Twitter search box, it's surprising just how many companies and agencies now use Twitter to reach job seekers.

A quick search just now threw up jobs for a Search Engine Optimisation Expert, a Retail Sales Manager and a Print & Packaging assistant.

Do take a look, it may provide you with the break you've been looking for.

You're welcome!

Will MSDC allow Tesco to kill the town centre?

2010-03-10T23:11:00.005Z

Today I finally got round to writing about the Proposed Tesco expansion in Burgess Hill. I chose to publish it on the main Burgess Hill Uncovered website, as a result it's not as opinionated and crazy as the content that you find located on this blog.

What I will say here is that MSDC are going to look like complete idiots if they do allow Tesco to expand by 50%, a move that will see Tesco stocking many of the items that you could get in the town centre. Remember, MSDC want you all to support the local traders and their car parks, so it would be very fitting if they do allow Tesco to expand, it would sum up the council perfectly - A complete and utter shambles!

The District Council elections are taking place in 2011. In Burgess Hill, I get a sneaky feeling that there may be a few upsets coming.

Anyway, for now, please do go and read my superb news report.
http://www.burgesshilluncovered.co.uk/news/2010-03-10-tesco-expansion-plan.html There's even a poll that you can vote on, how exciting!

Stormtroopers Invade Burgess Hill!

2010-03-09T14:57:00.006Z

Every now and again, I search You Tube to see if there have been any new videos added that are related to our fine town. Usually the new offerings are from some guy that is obsessed with filming trains and thinks everyone else wants to see them. Problem is, it clutters up the 'Burgess Hill' search results page.

Anyway, a quick search last night threw up the following video:

So, some geeky guys dressed as Stormtroopers decided to hang around Burgess Hill, looking for some love and attention that they don't get from their families.

Seriously though, I think it's rather cool, Star Wars fans would have enjoyed it, and children would have been thrilled and probably a little scared at the same time.

I'm rather sad at seeing this video though as I was in the town centre on Saturday for the first time in months and I did a whole circuit and didn't happen to see these guys. If I had found them, I would have requested they blow up all the parking metres in town.

But why were they in town? Were they promoting the Burgess Hill Fairtrade Festival by way of threatening to blow off peoples heads if the didn't go and buy some beads from the Martlets Hall?

Their video contains footage shot in various shops around town, I'm surprised that this was allowed, unless of course they did it without permission and the shopkeepers were too scared to tell them to stop.

Was it prearranged, or was it a random outing for the Stormtroopers?
I shall endeavour to find out for you, my loyal readers.

Perhaps next week people will dress up as terrorists with bombs strapped to their bodies..... Well, it's no real difference to walking around with huge rifles now, is it?

Burgess Hill Fairtrade Fair

2010-03-08T19:43:00.006Z

On Saturday, I ventured into town for the Burgess Hill Fairtrade Fair. The event was being held in the Martlets hall.

Now for me, I associate the word 'fairtrade' with cocoa beans, and of course, cocoa beans make chocolate. So at a Fairtrade fair, I was expecting to sample many baked goods, sadly, this was not to be the case. There was one table with some chocolate and wine on it, but no baked good in sight. If I was an exhibitor, I'd have shown what lovely chocolate brownies can be made using Fairtrade ingredients. I'd have showcased my three varieties of cakey, chewy and fudgey brownies. It could have been a real money spinner for someone.

The lack of cakes really was a disappointment, I really didn't care for the jewellery, beads, fabric and other things that only women or effeminate men would like.

When I was in the main hall, there were only two other men looking round, they were old and probably dragged along by their wives. I think the partners of the other women looking around were outside the building, probably looking at the market stall that claims to let you have satellite tv on your computer without a subscription.

I spent a grand total of 4 minutes in the hall before fleeing back to the foyer where tea and coffee were being sold. Also available were a few baked goods!!! These cakes claimed to have been made with Fairtrade ingredients, you had to pay for them though. I really was tempted to purchase a cake, there were some nicely designed boards advertising the coffee morning, but there were no prices listed. What an error. The thing with baked goods is that they are usually either very cheap or very expensive. I didn't want to have to ask the price as I'd have looked really cheap if I had then balked at paying £2 for a lump of cake. I doubt I was the only one to be put off by the lack of pricing.

All was not lost though, I exited the building, walked 5 metres, turned 90 degrees to my right and purchased 2 bags of sweets for £1 from the HUGE market stall that sell an enormous selection of classic sweets.
I chose some toffee bon bons and the bubble gum flavoured fizzy bottles. I doubt whether any Fairtrade ingredients were used to make these sweets, but the consolation was that they were lovely!

Once back at the Burgess Hill Uncovered offices, I asked my cleaner what she associates with Fairtrade, I was surprised that her answer was 'cotton'. All this time I thought it was primarily about chocolate.

Clearly Burgess Hill needs a new festival, one that showcases the baking talents of the local community. We have Burgess Hill in bloom, we have the Burgess Hill Christmas lights competition, so why not the Burgess Hill Bake-Off? It would be an event that so many people could get involved in. Those without gardens would finally feel 'catered' for (pun intended).

Lets make it happen. If needs must, we'll have a charity benefit from it.

Gerzoo Coffee

2010-03-04T19:21:00.009Z

It's been a while since I've been into town centre, Crawley is usually my chosen shopping destination, they have a poundland and lots of young girlies pushing prams. What more could you want?

Anyway, I had to go into town to send off some parcels. On my way back to the multi-storey car park (Yes MSDC, your evil plan worked, you got my 60p over the now equally expensive Waitrose car park) I saw a new coffee shop called Gerzoo Coffee. It's located in the unit formerly occupied by Johnson's fabrics.

I'm surprised that the owner would set up shop in Burgess Hill, you're already spoilt for choice in town when you want a coffee.

Lets see, we have MacDonalds, KFC, Truffles, the place next to Wilkinson, Mooch, Bar Cena, the sandwich shop at the end of Church Walk, that eaterie formally known as Star Burger, the joint opposite Iceland, the Marlets, and that café located at the indoor market, Factor in Jacobs Post, The Railway and Top House public houses and you begin to see why it's a dangerous market to enter.

From the outside looking in, Gerzoo looks the part, an ideal place to go for coffee whilst telling a friend about your latest affair or break-up. It certainly has a size advantage over other premises, but with two sides of the building being glass, it's not the place to be if you don't want to be spotted, that is unless you are a minor celebrity and like to show off.

As for the quality of their beverages and the food on offer, I don't have a clue I'm afraid, but if Mrs Gerzoo Coffee would like to invite me in for a coffee, then I'd not say no, especially if there's a drink and cake on the table afterwards.
(Do you see what I did there!?)

Burgess Hill Fairtrade Debate

2010-02-28T23:44:00.000Z

Tonight at the Martlets Hall, the Fairtrade Debate took place. I didn't go.

BBC newsreader George Alagiah was due to host the event. The panel was made up of such well known political heavyweights: Serena Tierney, Liberal Democrat Candidate for Mid Sussex; Katy Bourne, Area Chair East Sussex Conservative Women's Association; and David Boot Labour candidate for Mid Sussex.

It's a Sunday night, Dancing on Ice is on the telly, and yet the organisers expect people to be flocking to the Martlets Hall to see a bunch of low profile people debating Fairtrade.

Now, how can you have a debate on Fairtrade between three political people? If it were a debate between Mr Cadbury, Mr Nestle, Mr Mars and those three minor political names, then it could be interesting. Surely the three panelists were all going to be singing from the same hymn sheet?

Was David Boot going to say he doesn't give a toss about Fairtrade because he only likes Cadbury's chocolate? Was Serina Tierney going to share with us all her love of coffee from Macdonalds? Of course not!

The General Election is due to be announced very soon. Was Sunday's event set up to benefit Serina Tierney's public profile? If she spent an evening speaking passionately about Fairtrade and how she'd storm the HQ's of the various chocolate makers dressed as a cocoa bean in an attempt to get a better deal for the people in Africa, South America or wherever it is that chocolate comes from, how could you not be impressed? It could be a vote winner.

Serina is yet again set to be Nicolas Soames nearest challenger to become MP for Mid Sussex, she needs to steal 3000 of Big Nic's voters in order to take the seat. Surely she pulled a rabbit out of the hat tonight in order to win some people over?

According to the blog of Andrew Hicks, Lib Dem Town Councillor. A whopping 100 people attended tonights event. I'm sickened that there are 100 people locally that don't like to watch Dancing on Ice live on a Sunday night.

Coming up this Friday, its the Acoustic Fairtrade concert with Phil Beer, Miranda Sykes, 3 Daft Monkeys, Rob Halligan & Gareth Davies-Jones.
Who on earth are these people? They are not household names to the handful of people that I quizzed. It's £14 to go and watch this showcase of folk music.
Why is folk music connected with Fairtrade? Why can't it be pop music? More people would buy tickets for a pop band, surely?

If you attended, or are planning to attend any of the events during the Fairtrade festival, let me know what you thought of it. webmaster@burgesshilluncovered.co.uk

Why bother supporting local shops in Mid Sussex?

2010-01-26T23:10:00.003Z

Don't bother supporting your local shops. There is no point. If you drive and support your local shops, all you're doing is lining the pockets of Mid Sussex District Council.

MSDC and other organisations are behind a campaign willing local residents to support local traders by spending their money locally. MSDC control the local car parks, you have to pay lots of money to park. Why bother paying a lot of money to park locally for a small number of shops when Crawley is just off the A23 and has a HUGE selection of shops where the parking isn't actually that much more.

MSDC do not deserve to have us spending our money locally. They rip us off with the price of parking. If they really care for the survival of local traders, then they would offer very low rates of parking. They won't though. The district council are so careless with public funds that they need to make as much money from the car parks to replenish money from failed events like the Big Culture Show that lost in excess of £250,000 (probably nearer £350k!)

How much did MSDC care about the local traders in December when it took them a whole week to clear ther car parks of snow? December is the busiest time of the year for the retail sector, but how can they make money when people are unable to park?
It really was a shambolic situation as MSDC themselves were losing revenue from the unusable car parks. Back in the Autumn they were already reporting an expected shortfall of £500k from the car parks, so why didn't they do everything they could to make sure they are usable at all times?

Mid Sussex District Council are failing the local traders, the public, and themselves.

Do not be fooled, it's not a campaign to support the local traders, its a campaign to support Mid Sussex District council and the local car parks.

New Burgess Hill special school approved!

2010-01-26T21:36:00.004Z

I don't know this for a fact, but don't be surprised if the proposed special school for Burgess Hill, planned to be built on the Oakmeeds School field is granted planning permission.

Who is possibly going to contest it?
The surrounding area is all residential, no big company owners with deep pockets to fund a serious objection.

West Sussex County Council already own the land, why would they need to aquire another site?

They don't care about the history, they don't care for the beauty and memories held of the school field by former pupils.

They don't care that the Oakmeeds Students will have drastically smaller area for outdoor activites.

They don't care that there will be no room for an athletics track.

They don't care that nearly 1000 pupils will have a 50% smaller school field on which to enjoy their break times during the summer.

They don't care that traffic in the surrounding area will be a knightmare.

They don't care that the residents will be inconvenienced.

Guess what, they just don't care!

They want to build a new school on their land, so they will build a new school.

Lib Dems Publicity FAIL!

2010-01-26T16:58:00.007Z

Last week, the faux newspaper 'The Mid Sussex Messenger' was posted through the BHU office letterbox. It's a publication produced by the Liberal Democrats.

One of the stories they covered was the proposed building of a Homebase store on some land next to the Triangle Leisure Centre.

Please look at the following picture, and decide, are the Lib Dems in favour, or against the construction?

The headline to go with the picture was "Triangle site decision soon"

If you're like me, then you would assume from the picture that the local Lib Dems are in FAVOUR of a Homebase store, considering that they were pictured with items that you can find for sale in Homebase.
It wasn't until reading the story that you discover that they are actually AGAINST the building.

For those of you that don't know, in Burgess Hill and Mid Sussex, the Conservatives are essentially in power. It is any surprise when the Lib Dems are making silly mistakes like this misleading photo?

What they should of done was to have composed a picture where the councillors are holding signs telling Homebase to p*ss off! That would have grabbed the attention of the readers, not caused any confusion, and actually given them credibility among the voters under the age of 30 who I would imagine are the age group that can't be arsed to vote!

I'd like to make Lib Dem councillors aware that I am available as a consultant with regards to your publicity campaigns!

Burgess Hill Refuse and Recycling Collection???

2010-01-09T16:07:00.004Z

The Burgess Hill Uncovered Offices are located on the west side of town.

A recycling collection has not been made since Tueday Decemeber 8th.
A refuse collection has not been made since Tuesday 15th December.

That is over a month since the recycling has been collected, and three and a half weeks for a refuse collection.

We had snowfall on the evening of Thursday 17th of December and another major downfall on the evening of Tuesday 5th January.

The first bout of snow had cleared by Tuesday 22nd December. That gave the recycling collectors at least 8 clear days to work as usual. Logically they should visit the homes that have been without a collection for weeks as apposed to carrying on with their usual timetable. I have used the word 'Logically' a word that by now we should all realise isn't one that Mid Sussex District Council understand. MSDC pay SERCO to carry out the collections, so I'm sure MSDC have the power to tell them what to do.

An employee of SERCO has revealed to us that his crew worked overtime and during a Bank Holiday to make up for the collections not made due to the snow the week before.

Quite clearly this is a shocking revelation, why have one crew managed to catch up, but those serving the west of Burgess Hill have not?

With the extra household waste caused by Christmas, bins are overflowing, the BHU offices are having to keep much of our recyclable items inside as there just isn't any room in the bin.

With temperatures not set to rise above freezing until Wednesday 13th January, many of the minor roads will be classed as too treacherous for the workers to carry out their collections.

If the roads are too dangerous to make collections, then why aren't these workers being handed shovels instead and being told to clear the roads. Currently MSDC are paying SERCO (the contractor) but not getting a service in return.

Alot of the problem is the whole Health and Safety issue. With the sueing culture growing in this country thanks to America, even a burley refuse collector has to be wrapped in cotton wool.

It's pathetic, but then what else should we have expected!

Is anyone else still awaiting a long overdue collection? Please leave a comment below.

Snow Prevention in Haywards Heath Video

2010-01-08T15:32:00.005Z

When it snowed the week before Christmas, the local authority car parks were covered in snow for days and it took over 5 days in some cases for the council to get their arses into gear and make them safe for use again, this was despite the claims from a Mid Sussex District councillor that white grit is laid in the car parks when they know that snow is on the way.

This Tuesday evening, I had the great misfortune of finding myself snowed in at Haywards Heath. With not a great deal that I could do about my predicament, I took the opportunity to check out the Church Road Car Park that serves The Orchards shopping centre in Haywards Heath to see if the white grit was doing it's job of disolving the snow as it hit the ground. I assumed I would be finding white grit in the car park, given that the Met Office had given prior warning of the expected downfall.

Here are my findings in the form of a multimedia video presentation......

Once again it appears that Mid Sussex District Council failed to take preventative measures against the snow. Well done to them!

MSDC leader Garry Wall passes the buck

2010-01-07T20:50:00.003Z

Typical form from Mid Sussex District Council.
Their new leader Garry Wall is blaming West Sussex County Council for not being able to cope with the snow. He pointed out that it is WSCC's responsibility to clear our roads and not MSDC.

Mr Wall is quoted in the Mid Sussex Times as saying "Council employees and sub-contractors have also worked very hard, many working over the bank holiday, to assist wherever, and in whatever way they can"

Notice how our great leader doesn't actually state what exactly the MSDC staff have been doing to help. As I understand it, the refuse collectors have been at home putting their feet up, and the leisure centres have been closed. In theory, as they can't carry our their usual jobs, they should be out on the roads with their shovels helping to clear the roads.

It shouldn't matter if it's West Sussex County Council's prime responsibility, MSDC should have shown lots of initiative and helped to get the district back to normal as soon as possible. However, when you think of how it took them a week to clear their own car parks of snow, yes, thats right, their own car parks that make the council money, then you really do have to question if MSDC have gone beyond the call of duty.

Multi Storey Car Park is still a lake.

2009-12-30T12:25:00.004Z

Today I emailed the Mid Sussex Times, practically giving them a ready made story for publication in their fine newspaper, in a time traditionally quiet for news stories as everyone is busy eating and drinking and not creating news for our hard working local reporters.

My story, as this blog title gives away, is about the Burgess Hill Multi-Storey Car Park.

Readers of the the main Burgess Hill Uncovered website may remember the story we wrote last year:Boating Lake Installed at Local Burgess Hill Car Park

The Burgess Hill Uncovered Office cleaner was in town this week and chose to use the multi-storey car park since Waitrose is no longer the cheaper alternative. Her choice was foolish as it is still a lake, and by her account, is now much worse.

Earlier this year, the council reported a significant shortfall on expected revenue generated from the car parks, this is hardly surprising given the state of the multi-storey car park.

The Conspiracy Theorists among you would find it very interesting that Waitrose car park now use the same payment system as all the MSDC car parks, one wonders if Waitrose was forced to adopt these prices as perhaps the council wanted a bigger share of the shoppers parking fees. Just a thought.

The council should actually sue the construction company that carried out the rennovations 4 years ago, they actually had to redo the work 4 months later as something went wrong, but clearly that didn't work either. What a cock-up all round really. But then that's what you come to expect from MSDC.

I hope the Middy do choose to cover the story, it's always fun to point out how inept Mid Sussex District Council is. I await to be pleasantly surprised!

White Grit! Who are they trying to kid?

2009-12-27T16:04:00.008Z

So the car parks in Mid Sussex were treated with 'White Grit' and 'every effort was made to make the car parks as safe as possible' according to a Mid Sussex District Councillor. So, how do they explain that there was thick snow/slush/ice at the Orchards car park in Haywards Heath until Wednesday morning when a machine was finally brought in to plough it away?

We hear a lot about needing to support the local traders, and it tests us enough by having the pay huge parking fees for a small selection of shops, let alone having to battle the elements. Yet MSDC don't appear to have done anything to support the traders from what I've seen personally of the local car parks. IF this white grit had been laid, then it certainly didn't work.

I think the district council have majorly let down the local traders during the busiest shopping period of the year and additionally they have unlogically affected their own income from the car parks as people weren't able to park like usual. Back in the Summer it was reported in the media that MSDC have had a shortfall in income from car parks, so you'd have thought they'd have done everything possible to make the car parks usable, but it seems no one wants to take responsibility, and that there appears to be a total lack of common sense to sort out the problem as it happened.

Even with a lack of grit, how difficult would it have been to send out a team to go to the local car parks with shovels to clear the snow? If they had removed it when it was fresh, it would have been an easy job and would have avoided the six inch high mounds of ice that were to be found in places like the Orchards car park on Tuesday afternoon, nearly a full 5 days after the main fall of snow.

Lazy, incompetent, clueless, are just some of the words that come into my head when I think about MSDC at a time like this.

Am I wrong?

Oh, and I won't waste my breath on West Sussex County Council, check out this facebook group to enjoy moans of other people!
West Sussex County Council - This is a disgrace !!!

Annual McCarthy Industries Christmas Video

2009-12-27T15:07:00.002Z

Christmas 2009 marked the 6th annual McCarthy Industries Christmas video featuring various residents of Burgess Hill and beyond. The chosen song for this festive season was Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone.

To see all the previous videos, check out the McCarthy Industries Christmas Songs Page.

Blame Crawley chavs for poor driving test pass rate.

2009-12-10T22:26:00.004Z

I had to chuckle when I read the Leader newspaper this week. The front page carried a story on the varying degree of pass rates across the different driving test centers in Sussex.

Within the report there are some comments by driving instructor Chris Anastasiades, who says that Crawley has a reputation as being a difficult location to take your driving test due to the one way systems and the complex roundabouts.

It's a no brainer that Crawley is a much harder test route compared to the quiet, simple roads found in Burgess Hill.

However, this didn't stop a spokesman from the Driving Standards Agency having a pop at the residents of Crawley. He claims that the reasons for a higher failure rate on the Crawley test routes is due socio-economic reasons, that those with less money take fewer lessons before taking their tests.

In other words, Crawley is full of poor chavs that spend their money on McDonalds and tracksuits and not enough of their benefit money is spent on learning to drive!

Ill-judged comments really, as any decent driving instructor will keep their learners with them as long as possible to squeeze more money out of them and to ensure that they are properly prepared for their test.

It doesn't always work like this though. I was more than ready for my first driving test, and I went on to fail 5 times!

No Chalk Circle For South Downs

2009-10-24T15:36:00.004+01:00

Don't worry residents of Ditchling and anyone else that likes to get worked up about the slighest thing, the chalk circle will not be constructed on the South Downs as the Artists Taking The Lead project have chosen 'The Boat Project' as being the South East's creation to mark the 2012 Olympiad.

Basically a pair of Hippies came up with the idea to build a boat with donated bits of wood from the public. The wood has to mean something to the person donating it, examples given have been your favourite pencil or ruler, and maybe even your dining table. Who would be stupid enough to donate a whole dining table? If a dining table means something to you, you'd still be eating off it, surely?

Perhaps the boat can be built on Ditchling High Street so that the locals don't miss out on getting to moan about the extra traffic congestion that would have come their way if the Chalk Cirle project had been given the nod.

Can we go back to moaning about the district council now please?

Chalk Ring To Overlook Ditchling?

2009-09-29T12:08:00.005+01:00

As part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the Arts Council of England has decided that the whole of the country is available as one giant blank canvas for a project called Artists taking the lead.

Twelve commissions of up to £500,000 will be awarded to create 12 new works of art across the country; one in each of the nine English regions, and in the nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

5 ideas from the South East have been short-listed; one of these proposals has upset some people in Mid Sussex.

Brighton-based Caitlin Easterby & Simon Pascoe of arts organisation Red Earth Would like to create a communal artwork consisting of a 30 metre diameter chalk enclosure on the South Downs, hand-built by local and international communities.

One location proposed for the chalk landmark is on the north facing side of the downs overlooking Ditchling. There are already fears from residents that the extra visitors generated by the feature will cause gridlock in an area that is rather tiresome to navigate through on a quiet day. Some don’t like the idea of the areas natural beauty being interfered with, whilst others would like this Brighton based art group to put their design on the south facing side of the downs overlooking the city.

Short-listed artists are due back in front of the panel at the end of September to present their developed ideas. The panes will then choose the winning commissions in October.

I can’t wait for the fallout if the chalk circle on the South Downs is approved. It could be like Brighton and Hove Albion vs Falmer all over again.

District Council Spending Viewable Online

2009-09-28T13:00:00.002+01:00

I was sorting through some old local papers and spotted in the Mid Sussex Leader that the Mid Sussex District Council are now making their monthly expenditure publically available on the MSDC website so that us nosey inhabitants of Mid Sussex can see what our council tax is being spent on. Sadly, only payments over £500 are listed, so we won't get to find out how much the council may spend on sweets, cream cakes and fizzy drinks for their end of working week parties.
You can see the council's monthly spending at this link http://www.midsussex.gov.uk/page.cfm?pageID=8553

Bedelands Farm want fines for dog poo

2009-09-17T20:04:00.004+01:00

The Friends of Bedelands Farm Nature Reserve want Mid Sussex District council to envoke their Dog Control powers as the amount of dog excrement found in the area is increasing. The volunteers spend many hours on the upkeep of the site and aren't happy with the owners that don't pick up their dog's mess. If Mid Sussex District Council do decide to flex their muscles, it could mean dog owners facing fines of around £75 if they are caught not clearing up after their dogs.

How such an enforcement can be made over such a vast area is an interesting subject to ponder, we here at Burgess Hill Uncovered have done that have have compiled a list of ways to cure the dog mess problem at the Burgess Hill Nature Reserve.

Burgess Hill House Prices To Crash!

2009-06-18T12:58:00.003+01:00

Don't believe what the media reports tell you. There are no green shoots for the UK economy, UK house prices are not merely bouncing along the bottom before a big rise. It has just been announced that in May, UK retail sales DROPPED 0.6% from April's figure. It seems the green shoots being reported by those with an interest of wanting to keep house prices high have been mistaken, these green shoots are actually gangrene setting into the dead economy.

The Press Association
The sluggish housing market however is still bearing down on household goods sales.

In the three months to May this was the hardest-hit retail sector, showing a record decline of 7.3% on a year earlier.

Experts warned that pressure on the consumer would increase and is likely to impact the high street as unemployment rises and households cut their cloth to pay off debts piled up in the boom years.

Vicky Redwood, of Capital Economics, said: "We wouldn't be surprised if this marked the start of a period of rather weaker sales growth than of late."

Logic may finally be getting through to the media reporters. It's really quite simple. The majority that purchased property over the past 6 years have huge mortgages, with monthly repayments at such a level that they have a complete lack of disposable income. When people have a lack of money, it's logical that the retail, car and travel industries have to suffer.

Once again, the banks have to be applauded for lending such high levels of money to buyers that purchased beyond their means in order to get a home. A big pat on the back to the Government who did nothing to stop the banks from being greedy.

If you live in Burgess Hill and are looking to get on the property ladder, DON'T! The Government can't talk up the economy and house prices forever. Why buy a properly now and be consigned to being another debt slave to the country?

The Bank of England are still holding the base interest rate down at 0.5% punishing those careful savers and in turn bailing out all those buyers over the past six years that overstreched themeselves to buy something they couldn't really afford. As soon as the interest rates go up, those on variable rate mortages will be hit hard, with many defaulting on their repayments. The result will be a flood of homes appearing on the market at more reasonable prices as owners compete with each other to sell their homes to reduce their debt.

Liar Loan heaven - www.moneymarketing.co.uk
Former HBOS mortgage chief Michael Bolton has claimed that up to 80 per cent of mortgages lent by the group before the credit crunch were accep- ted without proof of income.

How many of those 80% do you think lied about their income in order to get the huge loan that they required?

Good things will eventually come to those that wait. Careful savers and patient first time buyers will get the sensibly prices houses that they deserve, and those that over stretched themselves will be forced to sell their homes or be repossessed. However, don't expect this to happen just yet. The Labour government will keep patching things up until the next general election in their losing attempt at trying to stay in power. It will then be the victorious Conservative's that will be running the country when the sh*t really hits the fan.

Gordon the Gorilla snubbed for Burgess Hill event.

2009-06-08T16:10:00.005+01:00

Saturday June 6th was town day in the Burgess Hill Summer Festival program. This occasion includes a parade through the town centre which this year carried the theme of science, discoveries, and innovation.

Occording to the Mid Sussex Times website the parade opener was a mascot race run down Church Road featuring, among others, Eagles Alice and Peter from Crystal Palace FC. Burgess Hill is part of South London, who knew?

Getting to my point, where was the invite for Gordon the Gorilla? How ignorant of the organisers to not invite Gordon to participate. Having a mascot race without Gordon is like Pancake day without Jif Lemon. Gordon has enjoyed his share of media coverage over the years as well as being a predominate part of the Burgess Hill Uncovered website.

So why was Gordon excluded? Surely it couldn't be because Gordon represents a website that isn't afraid to point out some of the shortfallings of Burgess Hill, could it?

If that is not the case, then I'd love to know the reason why festival organisers didn't send an invite Gordon's way.