Houses are homes, not investment say Lib Dems

The £1bn of investment in Burgess Hill being promoted by Mid Sussex District Council includes the cost of building around 5,000 new houses. We believe that houses are homes and not investment. Homes should be part of a thriving local community with all of the services and infrastructure needed to support the needs of local residents. Although there are some proposed community facilities associated with the new development the fact remains that if we had an adopted Local Plan we would have already received millions in developer contributions towards much needed local infrastructure across Mid Sussex.

We feel that the proposed investment plan doesn't fully meet the infrastructure needs of the proposed development. Dualling the A2300 will help the flow of traffic into Burgess Hill but as the roads leaving the town are already heavily congested this will only make travel through the town worse. The plan also actually reduces the number of car parking spaces available in the centre of town despite the fact that there is already a shortage of spaces at peak times. This could leave visitors to the new 10 screen cinema struggling to park.

Finally the lack of a replacement for the Martlets Hall as part of the redevelopment plans for the town centre has meant that Burgess Hill Town Council is now having to look for alternatives; an investment that will have to be part funded by residents, rather than the developers.