Extra time bid for bus eyesore housing site

Local councillors have tried to get the empty bus moved from a plot of land at the entrance to The Nursery, off Cants Lane in Burgess Hill.

The bus, which has a screen of trees on one side, stands on a small piece of land bounded by a stream and is highly visible to people passing the area.

Gavin Willis has applied to Mid Sussex District Council to extend the time for building on the land, for which there is planning approval.

Town councillors were told in a report to a meeting on Monday that the approval had been won on appeal for a detached two-bedroom house with two off-street parking spaces.

The town council had recommended refusal of the scheme in 2009, and it was refused by Mid Sussex councillors the same year, but a subsequent appeal was allowed.

On Monday night the planning committee of Burgess Hill Town Council recommended refusal of the latest application, commenting that there had been enough time to start the development.

The application will be decided by the district council.