Category Archives: MSDC
Hassocks Station plaque
Fulking residents will remember Gina Field as one our MSDC Councillors, when she came to Fulking PC meetings. By 2003, Gina had taken a back seat at the PR business she founded (Field McNally Leathes PR) — still based in Hurstpierpoint.
One of her key local campaigns was to persuade the train companies to retain frequent services through Hassocks Station, and also to improve the indifferent 1970s station building. She always saw Hassocks as a vital stop on the London to Brighton line, and a gateway station for the forthcoming South Downs National Park.
Hassocks Station was rebuilt and opened in July 2013. The improved underpass opened a few weeks ago, and it allows disabled people to use lifts to traverse the station, whether they are rail travellers or not.
This plaque is now at the main entrance to the station.
Richard Corner
If you missed it ..
Photos from last night’s LAMBS public meeting to discuss the Mayfield Horror (click on any thumbnail to scroll through larger versions).
You can listen to Nick Herbert and Nicholas Soames soundbites too.
There’s a full report here.
LAMBS Public Meeting
Friday, 20th June at 7.30pm, at St Paul’s Catholic College, Jane Murray Way, Burgess Hill. Plenty of car parking in the College and across the road in The Triangle Sports Centre. Speakers Nick Herbert, Nicholas Soames and Anthony Watts Williams. Representatives from both Horsham and Mid Sussex Councils’ Planning Authorities will be available to answer questions. Poster and flyer available here (PDF).
Update: the West Sussex County Times is planning to take some photos to accompany their Mayfield stories. LAMBs would welcome your attendance at this event. Turn up at ‘Nightingales’ in Bob Lane, Twineham (just East of The Old Cheese Factory) at 3:45pm on Friday 13th June, map here. The backdrop for the photo is a beautiful vista from the Northern tip of Mayfields’ proposed ‘Option 1’ site, with the Downs in the background. The photos will take no longer than 15 minutes, starting at 4:00pm. Bring the family.
Another update (11th June): LAMBS is hoping to get some placards advertising the public meeting out onto the verges by this weekend but is running out of time. Are you able to make some signs? They need to say something along the lines of: No New Town Here, Public Meeting at St Paul’s, Burgess Hill, 20th June at 7.30pm. If you can help, please call 07789 841888.
Yet another update (20th June): the list of speakers.
The Queen’s Speech
Governance of National Parks Draft Bill
The purpose of the Bill is to enable the composition of National Parks’ authorities to be broadened in the future. The main purpose of the draft Bill would be to provide for the holding of local elections to the authorities.
1 Direct elections
Enable eligible residents of the National Parks to directly elect some of the Authority members responsible for running their Park and taking planning decisions.
2 Amending the political balance requirement on local authority appointees
Allow local authorities to depart from the political balance rule if they appoint three or more members to the Park Authority where doing so would allow them to appoint a representative of a ward within the Park.
3 Allowing a wider range of parish representation
Allow parish councils to select their representatives to a Park Authority more widely. Currently they must select a parish councillor or chairman. They would be enabled to include anyone eligible to stand as a parish councillor.
European Election results
The Mid Sussex counts for the five parties that got at least one thousand votes each were as follows:
- Conservative Party – 13,270 votes
- UK Independence Party (UKIP) – 11,935 votes
- Labour Party – 3,833 votes
- Green Party – 3,584 votes
- Liberal Democrats – 3,240 votes
Mid Sussex is part of the South East of England region in the UK, which will be represented by ten MEPS: 4 UKIP, 3 Conservative, 1 Labour, 1 Green and 1 LibDem.
Rave off
The Argus reports on the National Trust struggle to restore the status quo ante bellum:
More than 2,000 ravers attended leaving rubbish, including smashed bottles, beer cases, clothing and gas canisters strewn across the site after they partied for more than 24 hours. Volunteers helped to clear about 250 bags of waste ..
Charlie Cain, head ranger of the Devil’s Dyke estate, said [that] .. there is broken glass all over the Downs that is going to cause problems for years.
Elsewhere, the head ranger said:
The mess left behind after [the] rave at Devil’s Dyke was terrible. Fences and gates were cut and cattle had been separated from their water supply.
Updated 2nd June.
European Elections
Ecobluff called
Michael Brown of CPRE writes in the Mid Sussex Times:
Both Horsham and Mid Sussex District Councils are in advanced stages of developing long term plans for their Districts: neither of their plans calls for any new market town to meet their Districts’ housing needs. As to location, it is difficult to envisage somewhere less suited to a mega-development than the lovely open countryside around Wineham with no significant local unemployment, with no road, rail or other infrastructure, and on low lying fields prone to flooding from the Adur. Not to mention the barn owls, nightingales and other wonderful wildlife.
We challenge Mayfield to publish the ecological and flood reports that it claims to have commissioned so that we can all judge for ourselves.
Moving on into work
WSCC belatedly announces a four unit course (starting this Friday) at The Village Centre in Hurstpierpoint (opposite the car park):
- Building your confidence & identifying your skills
- CV preparation
- Interview skills & hidden jobs
- Benefits of volunteering/work experience
More details here [PDF].