Vision for future improvements to Haywards Heath Town Centre published

Potential improvements to the Muster Green gyratory, the Commercial Square roundabout, and the Sussex Square roundabout are all included in the Haywards Heath Town Centre Transport Study.

Consultants have been called in to look at the options for the town following the opening of the relief road late summer, and a report, published by West Sussex County Council, outlines a proposal to close the Broadway arm of the Muster Green gyratory to through traffic, allowing the creation of a shared use space for some car parking, as well as providing an area for community events or markets.

These proposals would aim to ‘enhance and extend the existing cafe culture of The Broadway’, while the Muster Green North, Dolphin Road and South Road sides of the junction would be converted to allow for two-way traffic.

Meanwhile on The Broadway itself footpaths would be widened to enable some public realm and crossing improvements between Heath Road and South Road, with some of the parking spaces removed and relocated.

However the report notes that this scheme could be ‘more challenging to bring forward due to the impact on the operation of the local road network’, and it recommends more feasibility work before deciding to take it forward.

Plans for Commercial Square could see widened pedestrian islands, shared footway and cycleways on the south side of the junction, and the potential for a piece of public art to be installed.

A number of parking spaces would need to be removed in Sydney Road to create a shared cycleway and footway, while the Mill Green Road and Queens Road junction could be realigned by formalising a right hand turn lane and installing a wider pedestrian island to reduce traffic speed and improve safety.

Shared footways are being proposed in both Market Place and Boltro Road, as well as Perrymount Road and Clair Road.

The third area for potential improvements could see South Road’s footpaths widened, more cycle parking, improved ‘raised surface’ crossing points, and opening up access between South Road and Victoria Park. This could be tied in with a potential new cafe on the northern edge of the park.

Shared footways and cycleways could be created around the Sussex Square roundabout with larger pedestrian islands, while footpaths could also be widened in Sussex Road.

Other measures for Haywards Heath include a mix of gateway features at the three roundabouts on the A272 to ‘promote the impression that the routes into Haywards Heath are intended for local traffic, and to encourage through traffic to use the Haywards Heath Relief Road’, and 20mph speed limits in Perrymount Road, The Broadway, Muster Green gyratory, South Road, Sussex Road, Boltro Road, Market Place, and around the Milton Road, Harland Road, Bannister Way and Market Place one-way system.

The county council report recommended that the study be published so as to invite stakeholders to provide comments to WSCC’s Central Mid Sussex County Local Committee, and explained that ‘all schemes are only at the feasibility stage and no preferred options have been identified by the county council’.

The study was guided by the Haywards Heath Town Centre Transport Study Working Group, which has representatives from WSCC, Mid Sussex District Council, and Haywards Heath Town Council.

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