A Sainsbury in Burgess Hill Town Centre.
Just how will it fit?

After the revelation that Mid Sussex District Council have been in talks with Sainsbury about building a new supermarket on land at the Cyprus Road Car Park (potentially at the expense of many buildings widely used by the public) we here at Burgess Hill Uncovered loaded up Google maps to compare the sizes of some of the Sainsbury stores in other parts of the South East to see if its possible to fit a store on the land, and to see if it can be done without knocking down the local cinema and other community buildings

Our Findings:


This is the land on Cyprus Road that the Council are in talks with Sainsbury about
turning into a supermarket. We have marked the location of the Orion cinema which
is in danger of being knocked down to make room for the potential new development.


This is the Sainsbury in Haywards Heath. It has a rather large Car Park in order to accommodate all the shoppers. There is a seperate Goods-In entrance in the bottom
left of the picture.


This is the Sainsbury in Crawley. Pictured is just half of the car park which is shared with Homebase (not pictured) Note the large Goods-In entrance on the left.


This is the Sainsbury in South Croydon. Utilising an underground carpark, its footprint is rather small compared to the supermarkets in Haywards Heath and Crawley.

Will It Fit?
We've made an animated image with the above Supermarkets placed on top of the land at Cyprus Road in Burgess Hill to give you an idea of the space available.

As you can see, a Sainsbury similar in size to the store in South Croydon appears to be the only possible option for the land at Cyprus Road. It could possibly be constructed without any of the community buildings needing to be knocked down. However, is it financially viable to construct an underground car park? Our image shows that stores the size of Haywards Heath and Crawley will not fit - not unless the store were to be of a reduced size and for EVERY building to the south of the Car Park being knocked down.

Petition to Save the Orion Cinema
A petition has been created with the hope of saving the Orion Cinema from being bulldozed. If you can spare a moment, please consider signing it!

Talk to us - Can a Sainsbury really be built on the Cyprus Road Car Park Land?
Now you've seen the diagrams, do you think that Sainsbury is still viable for Burgess Hill? Will the council really wipe out so many buildings just to accommodate yet another supermarket? Would it be worth the time and expense to construct a Sainsbury with an underground Car Park? Let us know your opinions either by leaving a comment below or by emailing us