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ARSON ATTACK!
5th Burgess Hill Scout Group, Gordon Road
On Wednesday 25th June, the 5th BH Scout Group had their hut set on fire in an arson attack.
Alert neighbours and prompt response from the Fire & Rescue Service, prevented total destruction of the premises in Gordon Road behind Wivelsfield station and limited the damage to the front and roof. That is the good news. The high cost of public liability insurance means the scouts were not covered by insurance - which is bad news.
HELP WANTED Maggie Bebbington, secretary of the 5th, has appealed for help to repair and restore their headquarters. She has contacted WEA to ask if any of our members have building experience and/or access to building materials and who would be able to help in any way? If you can, or know someone who would, please get in touch with Maggie on 01444-480303.
Duck Fair goes ahead Meanwhile, the scouts are going ahead with organising the Annual Duck Fair on Worlds End recreation ground on Saturday 12th July. Please spare time to visit the Fair and help the Scouts recover from this nasty and cowardly attack.
Lib Dems win St Andrews By-Election -------- Results Burgess Hill - St Andrews Ward
Turnout: 42.11% Rejected votes: 2
The share of the vote was up for both Lib Dems and Conservatives with Lib Dems having the largest increase.
4th July 08
By-Election called
A By-Election has been called for St Andrews ward for Thursday 3rd July. The retirement of Lib Dem District Councillors David & Diane Shevels, has triggered the by-election. They have moved to Porlock in Somerset for their retirement, after 19 years as local District Councillors for St. Andrews. Liberal Democrats, Conservative, Green Party and Labour are contesting the two seats on the District Council. There are six candidates. Janice Henwood - Liberal Democrat Graham Knight - Liberal Democrat Peter Burgess - Conservative Jim Clapperton - Conservative Leigh Marshall - Labour Phillip Smith - Green Party. Of the six candidates, only the two Liberal Democrats and one Conservative actually live in Burgess Hill. Polling Station is: St Andrews Church Hall, Cants Lane. Open from 7.00 am - 10.00 pm Stand by for lots of leaflets! 01-June-08 Closure of Rocky Lane
For those of you following this saga, the new date is October 2008.
The plan is first to construct the new roundabout on the Lewes Road at the junction with Colwell Road and Rocky Lane before starting on the by-pass roundabout which is why Rocky Lane is to be closed. No duration of closure is available. Noisy Neighbours?
Find out the options on Worlds End Watch page: click here
More types of plastic can be recycled Any plastic containers with the numbers 1, 2 or 3 in a triangle, can now be put in your re-cycle bin.
Tetra Packs Recycling We have been informed by MSDC that we can now put all Tetra Packs in our recycling bin. This is great news – they can now also take the packs that are foil lined rather than just the waxed ones. So all Tetra Packs - juice cartons, soup cartons, milk cartons, smoothie cartons etc.
Also, make sure you DO NOT wrap rubbish for the re-cycle bin, it must be loose not in plastic bags.
You CAN throw wrapped/bagged stuff into the Landfill bin.
02-April-08
Need medical help when the surgery is closed? New telephone number for the Out of Hours Service 0300 130 1313 Patients across West Sussex who need immediate and necessary treatment when their GP surgery is closed will be looked after by one Out of Hours Service instead of three from 1 April 2008 following the award of the contract to Harmoni to cover the entire county. This three year contract will mean that regardless of where a person lives in the county, one provider will respond to a call providing a seamless service that has no district or borough boundaries. Sarah Creamer, Deputy Director of Strategy, West Sussex PrimaryCare Trust (PCT), said ‘As a West Sussex wide PCT with a responsibility to provide the best possible care and deliver value for money, we believe that having one Out of HoursService to serve the whole of the county is the best way of achieving this for the people of West Sussex.’ The Out of Hours Service will help you if you become ill after your local GP Surgery is closed and you need to contact a doctor or a specially trained nurse because of a serious medical need or an urgent healthcare problem. If you cannot wait until your GP surgery is open you can phone the Out of Hours Service on 0300 130 1313. Specially trained call handlers will answer your call. If you need to speak to a nurse of doctor they will call you back. Tom Elrick, Director of Operations, Harmoni, said ‘If you are advised that you need to seea doctor during the Out of Hours period then you will normally be asked to attend one of the Primary Care Centres in West Sussex. A GP will visit if your condition/illness means that you cannot travel or if you are housebound.’ 5th April 2008 Valebridge Road (north)
Deputy Chairman of the WEA, Geoff Holbrook, has been trying to get a 40mphspeed limit applied on the north part of Valebridge Road. This is from Valebridge Close down to the viaduct.
He has been partially successful. WSCC Highways have written to say:
'We have recently undertaken speed measurements and assessed this location against the County Councils Speed Limit Criteria, based on the development frontage and the average vehicle speed it would be possible to consider the site for a 40 mph speed limit.
However due to the number of sites awaiting speed limits and the relative low priority of this site I am unable to give any indication of when it may be possible to progress this speed limit.'
Geoff is now lobbying to get the project higher up on the priority list.
02-April-08 St Andrews Beat Sweep January 2008 - Residents update Thank you to those of you who sent in a response to the fliers that were delivered at the beginning of the month and with the WEA subscription renewal letter.
WEA Chairman, Denis Jones, speed monitoring in Janes Lane, during Operation Beatsweep with Sgt. Simon Alexander of Sussex Police.
This was part of assessing sites in Worlds End for Speedwatch monitoring. Denis is looking for other residents to join a Worlds End Speedwatch group.
'We have more complaints about speeding than any other problem', says Denis 'so we would like some volunteers to come forward and do something about the problem locally. There are not enough police to do this, so we have the opportunity of slowing traffic ourselves.'
'Full training is given and the support given by locally based officers is first-class. Other areas have teams which work well but to be effective, it requires sufficient people to have a rota so they can man regular checkpoints. Please can we have some volunteers?'
'Do not expect the police to be around sufficiently to do speed checks - it is never going to happen. We have to do it ourselves, as both government and society are reaching all kinds of limits and the time has come when we must do more ourselves. A successful democracy is the responsibility of all its citizens, not just those we delegate to govern and police for us.'
'This sounds heavy stuff, I know, but times are changing and we have to do more for our communities than previously. In this case, simply turn out a few times per month to write down some car numbers - hardly revolutionary - but your efforts will do much to calm the speed of traffic through our neighbourhood.'
'The story further on the right, tells you how it works. Let me know if you are interested. At least try it out for while, you don't have to sign up for years!'
-------------------------------------- Thank you for your interest in the local St Andrews Beat Sweep initiative. The Action Week occurred week commencing 28 Jan and local Burgess Hill Police Officers and members of the Burgess Hill Town Council’s Mobile Maintenance Team were working around the ward. For the duration, they were also joined by DVLA, VOSA, Mid Sussex District Council’s Crime and Disorder Partnership and the Taxi Licensing Officer. Our local Police Community Support Officers carried out regular patrols and also worked closely with the Local Authority Parking Attendants addressing the antisocial parking problems that you reported.
For a full report on what went on, click this link: Operation Beatsweep Feedback18-Feb-08 Rocky Lane will be closed But not until June 2008 Originally scheduled for a June 2007 closure then put back until September 2007, it seems that it will be June 2008. The contractors have missed two deadlines and the delay is due partly to the contractor now proposing to construct the new roundabout at Fox Hill, prior to the construction of the new railway bridge. You would have thought this was decided before the original deadline for closure was announced. There is a distinct impression that it is being made up as they go along! Residents are hoping that the contractors are better at building bridges than they are at scheduling works. The road closure is to allow for the building of an embankment to carry the Bolnore by-pass and a new road bridge over the railway. The period of closure will still be 16 months. 22-Oct-07
News Archive
Nature Reserve
Worlds End Rec. Toilets to be closed
New housing - where is it all going to go?
Mobile phones queries answered
New Owners of Worlds End Stores
Theobalds - Update
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Clothing and Goods Collection Various flyers are now being posted through letter boxes in West Sussex asking for clothing and other donations to assist third-world residents. Trading Standards advise caution when donating goods - as companies requesting the donations are in some cases not registered charities, the goods then being simply sold on for profit. It is suggested that if residents wish to ensure that their goods reach charitable causes, they give to either local or nationally recognised collectors. Mini motorbike menace We are getting reports of mini motor bikes being ridden around Worlds End, on pavements and across the recreation ground.
They can reach speeds of up to 60mph. Mistakenly, many people believe the bikes can be legally used on pavements, fields, car parks and off-road areas. They can only be ridden in public if the rider is taxed and insured. The only place they can be ridden without the relevant cover and licence in place, is on private land with the permission of the landowner. The police have the power to confiscate illegally ridden machines and crush and dispose of them.
Speeding on our roads The Association receives regular complaints from members about the danger from cars and other traffic speeding through Worlds End but these complaints are made in the manner of an expectation that ‘something should be done’. Whilst this is understandable – what do we pay our Council Tax for? – the reality is, that there are not enough traffic police available for deployment locally, as traffic officers have been re-deployed to deal with town centre drunks and the remainder spend a lot of their time on the motorways and major roads. There are probably 50% less traffic police than there were four years ago. Not only that, there are only 25 police officers available to police Burgess Hill and some surrounding villages; which when you allow for sickness, training and holidays is nowhere near enough to run a shift system which gives us the security we would like. So what can be done about speeding? Quite a lot, if we make the effort ourselves and form a Community Speedwatch for Worlds End. This is a local system whereby residents monitor traffic for excessive speed – ie 60, 70 and 80 mph in places like Janes Lane, Leylands Road and Valebridge Road – we are not talking about catching people doing 35 in a 30 mph zone (but see below for consequences) but it is the reckless driving along residential roads, that is getting worse each year, we want to reduce. Community Speedwatch works like this: a group of volunteers is formed, trained by the police in the use of a speed gun, appropriate locations from which to monitor speed and a bit of background on legal requirements – about an hour in total. Initially, there is a police presence when the team goes out and thereafter it is self-sustaining. Every outing is registered with the police, and quick response back-up is always in place, although so far never required. When a speeding vehicle has been identified, its details are passed to local police who will carry out a check and then write a warning to the owner. If there is a re-occurrence, then a second warning is issued. Any subsequent breach will result in police action against the driver. The overall objective of Community Speedwatch is to get people to modify their speed in built-up areas, not to harass them unnecessarily. But if somebody speeds without regard to the safety of the rest of us, then they have earned some harassment. One member of the WEA committee has already been trained for Community Speedwatch. If you are interested in joining a Community Speedwatch group for Worlds End, please get in touch with a committee member. An hour a month, is all of your time that is required. SPEED - At 40mph, nine out of ten people hit by a car are killed. At 30mph half are killed. At 20mph nine will live, so it is never 'safe' to travel at 40mph in a 30mph limit . Anybody speeding in Worlds End, particularly near our local primary school, is reckless beyond measure.
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