Video - Traffic Congestion On Chanctonbury Road Revealed!

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?

Special School Approval - Were the public screwed?

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.

Snow sees Burgess Hill grind to a hault

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

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

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

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?

What's going on at WSCC?

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?

New Burgess Hill special school approved!

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.