Burgess Hill's Maintenance Contract SLASHED By West Sussex County Council

Burgess Hill could start to look rather shabby after West Sussex County Council have decided to scale back the maintenance work that they contract out to the town council's own maintenance team.

The papers for this week's customer service key area group meeting at BHTC also reveals that WSCC stopped paying BHTC to carry out emergency and temporary pothole repairs in the town last year.... which explains why big potholes such as the ones on the one-way system leading to Cyprus Road car park took an absolute age to finally be repaired.

Did you realise that BHTC had ceased pothole repair?

BHTC hold a contract worth £81k per year with the county council, but this is to be reduced to just £31k per year as WSCC no longer want the town council team to perform 'reactive' work and also wish to reduce the amount of 'measured' work carried out by the team.

Essentially, it means that things will only be done when they get really bad, and no worries if our town looks rather unkempt as a result.



Remember the lack of grass cuttings last year which obstructed visibility at junctions? Expect more of that. You can also get used to overgrown footpaths, brambles, weeds etc. Clean road and street signs aren't a priority anymore either.

With WSCC making these cutbacks, BHTC are looking to still provide a good service. They've done some number crunching, but there's still going to be a shortfall, but don't worry, a nice council tax increase will help plug the gap somewhat.... and means we'll be paying twice for one service.

Not the most earth shattering news, but your reporter thought you'd be interested to see how WSCC cutbacks have a knock-on effect further down the chain and that we all end up paying more, for less.

Got an opinion on this story? Leave a comment below.....
Would do you make of WSCC's maintenance cutbacks? Should we really now be paying twice for a lesser service as the town council look to carry out some extra work?