Burgess Hill residents express anger at town centre decline: ‘Something has to be done right now’

After two hours of deliberating, town councillors finally agreed on a new plan to bring the community arts centre scheme to fruition – which is to replace Martlets Hall.

READ MORE: Renewed hope for Burgess Hill arts venue as councillors agree plan to ‘resell vision’

But residents in the public gallery expressed their anger and frustration about the decline of the town centre.

Resident Hils Sharpe told the meeting: “I think it is far more important than the Beehive at the moment. There seems to be no visible progress and businesses down here are just dropping like flies.”

Commenting on the Beehive, she said residents were promised they would not be asked again to pay for it.

“All the reasoning behind the loan is all smoke and mirrors to me,” she said.

“If there is any spare money at the moment then why are we concentrating on putting the council tax up?”

‘Bridge-the-Gap’

Town council leader Robert Eggleston, who spoke to the Middy ahead of the meeting about the challenges the town is facing, responded to say a ‘Bridge-the-Gap’ fund of £30,000 had been established to fund additional activities in the town centre over a two-year period as a contribution to maintaining footfall and vitality.

He said this fund will be used to either build on existing town centre events or create new activities. Included in Bridge-the-Gap is the scoping exercise for an outdoor market, he said.

He also said a ‘Trading Spaces’ fund of £40,000 had been established so that the council can enable the creation of small units for retailers, service providers and people offering professional or voluntary services.

‘Nothing has changed’

Resident Bernie Madden asked the council: “Are you proud of yourselves? Since you got into your positions, since the last election, or the way you have worked to represent this town? Because I wouldn’t be if I was you.

“Nothing really has changed. There is planning permission being thrown out left, right and centre, but in most people’s eyes, things are all the same.

“Shops are shutting left, right and centre. It’s getting worse. LJ’s has been around for years. They were sacrificed for a big nationwide company and that is a disgrace.

“There is talk of Shoe Zone going out of business as a chain. Bonmarche is gone. That means the interest going into the town is going to be even less.

“You have got very little going on in this town that is going to make people even recognise Burgess Hill as more than a building site for houses.

“What are you really going to do that is going to make a difference right now?

“Something has to be done right now, not next month, not next term, not next year.”

‘We are not the planning authority’

Mr Eggleston responded: “Some of the things you said related to the commercial state and the retail market. Shoe Zone is considering downsizing – that’s a decision that they make as a business and it’s not a decision for this town council or indeed the district council.

“They are operating in a highly competitive market and with the way things like business rates are set and rents and cost of all materials and so on, the retail market in the high street is in difficulty, which is why over the last 18 months you have seen so many businesses go to the wall.

“It is difficult for Burgess Hill and every high street across the country as owners of retail estate try to address the changing nature of the high street, and the move away from retail into a mixed retail, leisure, business and residential. Wherever you look now across the country that is what they’re doing.

“It is devastating for the people who work in the shops when they leave their jobs and it is devastating for towns when they see shops close. About one in 12 across the country are closed. It is a tough environment for everyone.

“What can a town council do? The town council is not the planning authority.”

‘We are doing our best’

Councillor Anne Eves (Leylands ward) also responded: “We are all gutted about LJ’s. It is really a shame and it’s one more hitting the dust – it is really terrible.

“We are doing our best to change things. You asked if we were proud of ourselves, and one little thing I am proud of is that we finally got the repair cafe up and running and it was a big success at its opening.”

‘Enough money in the budget’

Councillor Andrew Barrett-Miles argued that he did not see a great rush for an indoor market in the town. “I think to make claims that this is what the people of Burgess Hill want is just not true,” he said.

“I am a great supporter of an outdoor market because Hassocks managed to do it on a shoestring and it works very well.

“I believe there is already enough money in that budget to fund the Beehive and I believe that the money that is being taken away from that in the budget is wrong.

“I still stand by that decision. I know that I am in the minority but I truly believe it was a bad decision and I will go on to say that it is a bad decision. But only time will tell. But I don’t think we need to go and ask the public for a precept rise to cover the Beehive. I think there are other avenues of sourcing out money which will need to be investigated.”

Plan is ‘deliverable’

Resident Tobias Parker asked the council how their plan was different to the previous administration.

Mr Eggleston said: “This plan is deliverable – the other one wasn’t. I don’t think anybody in this room thinks the way that the consultation and vote on the venue that was conducted in 2016/17 was particularly well organised.

“We had an eight per cent turn out. Are we honestly going to say that the 92 per cent we can read into their minds?

“We had so many people saying they didn’t get any literature on it and that no one had spoken to them about it.

“The difference is, this is going to be ten weeks of really hard work and engagement with people.”

Revised £65million regeneration plans for Burgess Hill town centre were submitted in October last year and are due to be heard by Mid Sussex District Council’s planning committee.

NewRiver’s first application to transform The Martlets Shopping Centre was approved by the district council back in 2016.

But the plans have been revised to include increased space for commercial leisure such as bowling, a revised layout of the library to accommodate a changing places toilet, a reduction and reconfiguration of some of the retail units to allow more units for independent retailers and an increased amount of residential units.