Burgess Hill Set To Take Bulk Of New Homes In Mid Sussex
- Is this fair?

Ahead of the open public meeting on October 1st, we've given the Burgess Hill Action Group (www.burgesshillactiongroup.co.uk) an opportunity to tell you about the thousands of extra houses being forced upon Burgess Hill - Changing our town forever!


6211
Six thousand, two hundred and eleven new homes planned for Burgess Hill. That’s a huge number. That’s such a large number that you can’t really get your head around it. Which is why we came up with this map (See Below). Except that this map currently only shows the greenfield areas that will be lost under the 3,500 new houses proposed for the Northern Arc, plus the 500 new builds on the green fields at Kings Way. That means that there are 2,211 houses to be built elsewhere in Burgess Hill. Can you imagine what that would look like?



Brownfield Sites Being Ignored
Disgracefully, existing brownfield sites included in these figures such as the old Keymer Tile Works and the former Sewage Treatment Works are being marked as ‘unviable’ - which we take to mean that they are less profitable for the developers to build on. Much better to just leave these eyesores in place and put even more buildings onto the beautiful countryside adjacent to them! The Town Council are supposedly trying to secure a better future for Burgess Hill.  They have a funny way of going about it!

Burgess Hill - The Dumping Ground Of Mid Sussex?
Whilst we’re trying to digest the numbers, here’s another interesting statistic for you. These new houses will bring about an increase of 50% in the population of Burgess Hill. Do you honestly think that the town can cope with that? Does building so many new homes solve the capacity problems that the town already faces? Does Burgess Hill itself need so many homes, or is our town once again acting as the dumping ground for the rest of Mid-Sussex? Based on current population levels across the district, a fair allocation for Burgess Hill would be just 2438. 6211 new homes represents 78% of all unallocated homes across the entire district, whilst our current population stands at just 23%.

At least Burgess Hill Is Fast!.....
One more thought to take away. Did you know that In the 1950s Burgess Hill was said to have been the fastest growing town in south-east England? And guess what? During the 1970s Burgess Hill was one of the fastest growing towns in Europe! Then, in the 1990s Burgess Hill was one of the fastest growing towns in Sussex. With a 50% increase in our population in the coming years, we will surely see this 20-year pattern repeat itself once more. Maybe this time we could take the crown of Fastest Growing Town in the World?

!!!!!Open Public Meeting!!!!!!
On Monday October 1st at 19:00 until 20:30 there will be an open public meeting held at The Martlets Hall building. This will be your chance to find out what exactly is being planned for Burgess Hill and to put your questions directly to Andrews Barrett-Miles, leader of Burgess Hill Town Council.
For more information on the meeting, visit .....
http://www.burgesshillactiongroup.co.uk/78-news/84-urgent-open-public-meeting

Got an opinion on this story? Leave a comment below.....
What do you think about all the thousands of housing being proposed for Burgess Hill? Do you think it's fair that our town should take the majority for the whole of Mid Sussex? Will you be at the public meeting on Monday 1st October? If you could ask the leader of the town council a question about the proposed development, what would it be?