Post by murrayc on Oct 26, 2022 8:19:29 GMT
An extraordinary situation is developing a few miles down the road in Burgess Hill, where the Leader of the Town Council is appealing on social media for support to preserve from developments one of the allotment sites administered by his own council. This is Chanctonbury Road allotment site, sandwiched between a very populour residential area and the railway lines. It's one of 6 allotment sites administered by BH Town Council and it has been earmarked for development by Mid Sussex District Council in their revised District Planning document 2021-2039, to be issued for public consultation very shortly.
Earlier this week Councillor Robert Eggleston Tweeted about proposals to build 150 homes on this space. He went on to say " hope you'd be against building on allotments. We have 269 plots in Burgess Hill. All are occupied. We have a waiting list of 250. So we need more allotments not fewer.As to house building. Burgess Hill is taking over 1/3rd of MSDC's planned housing numbers in the District Plan"
Not surprisingly plotholders at Chanctonbury Road are enraged and very unhappy about this. How is that a Town Council cannot maintain its own Neighbourhood Plan policies ("POLICY G5: ALLOTMENT SITES.All existing allotment sites within Burgess Hill will be retained and their loss will be resisted.
New allotment sites will be provided in the following locations: Leylands Park policy area as part of the new community centre development.Proposals for new allotments and the extension of existing sites will be supported)? Will it defend itself in the necessary application to the Secretary of State for disposal of a council admionsitered allotment? It is for the Town Council to make this application and not the Mid Sussex District Council. And although some allotments provision is understood to be included in the new housing allocation on the site, how do you compensate plotholders who have spent in some cases 20 years developing their plots? Remember that Burgess Hill is built on clay soil. Scratch up that surface for development and the quality of soil below is not suitable for cultivation.
New allotment sites will be provided in the following locations: Leylands Park policy area as part of the new community centre development.Proposals for new allotments and the extension of existing sites will be supported)? Will it defend itself in the necessary application to the Secretary of State for disposal of a council admionsitered allotment? It is for the Town Council to make this application and not the Mid Sussex District Council. And although some allotments provision is understood to be included in the new housing allocation on the site, how do you compensate plotholders who have spent in some cases 20 years developing their plots? Remember that Burgess Hill is built on clay soil. Scratch up that surface for development and the quality of soil below is not suitable for cultivation.
All of this should make us very wary of development plans and underlines the need for absolute transparency from our own Town Council and for plotholders to fully informed and consulted.
