Burgess Hill Christmas Parking Lacks Christmas Spirit.

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.

Mid Sussex District Council's Community Toilet Scheme

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.

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

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

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.

MSDC say we should be excited about Martlets future.

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.

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

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.

Tesco submit development application to MSDC

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.