UPDATES FROM THE LEADER
 Councillor Peter Williams Leader of Burgess Hill Town Council |
Peter will be using these pages to provide regular updates on projects, issues and topical matters of interest to Burgess Hill residents. He can be contacted using the details published on the ‘Town Councillors’ page. |
Supporting Our Schools – Leader Update 21
Over the past 15 months, Burgess Hill Town Council has been taking a proactive role in supporting its 11 schools. Two initiatives are currently in progress, the Youth Council and The Burgess Hill Academy Support Group.
Youth Council
Early in 2024, two Councillors on the Community Engagement Key Area Group worked with Governors of The Burgess Hill Academy to form a new Burgess Hill Youth Council, at which students from primary, secondary and special needs schools would meet in the Council Chamber and elect their own Youth Mayor and Deputy Mayor. The principal aim was to give students the opportunity to have ‘hands-on’ experience of local government and the ability to share their opinions on a wide range of local issues.
The first meeting of the Youth Council took place in April 2024 with a minimum of two members from each school and are continuing every two months during term times. Members chose their own charity to support and have so far raised nearly £300 from various events.
Each meeting has a different Community speaker, with topics including swifts and the environment, sustainable fashion and life at the Houses of Parliament. At this year’s vote for Mayor and Deputy Mayor, a real polling booth and ballot box was set up in the Council offices and students were able to vote in private for their chosen candidate. The count was scrutinised and verified in the same manner as at real elections.
Youth Council will be attending certain events in 2025, at which they will display their distinctive banner. If you see them, please take a moment to say hello.
The Burgess Hill Academy Support Group
After attending a meeting of teachers, governors, parents and Union representatives at Cyprus Hall in June 2024, myself and a number of Councillors decided to support a series of strikes against the University of Brighton Academies Trust (UBAT), outside the Burgess Hill Academy’s access road. It had transpired that over a 3-year period, the Academy had been deprived of more than £2.8 million, whilst UBAT had been setting up plush offices and paying senior personnel lavish salaries.
Armed with placards and loud voices, we stood in the picket lines and listened to the outpouring of frustration by parents and teachers at the poor treatment they had received from UBAT. Teachers literally had to buy pens and paper from their own wages, whilst students were working with computers that had little memory and were not fit-for-purpose. I resolved, there and then, that the Town Council must try to do more and so The Burgess Hill Academy Support Group was set up and fully adopted by all Councillors.
The picket line outside the Academy was well supported and very effective
Since the first meeting of the Support Group, in August 2024, it now consists of Councillors, Teachers, Governors/parents, Burgess Business Park Association (BHBPA), National Education Union (NEU) and a senior member of West Sussex County Council, a total of 16 members.
The Support Group have had a profound effect on the future of the school, as with the enthusiastic involvement of WSCC, UBAT is being disbanded and another Trust will be bidding to taking over several Academies in the area. Teacher and Staff morale has improved dramatically over the past few months due to the sterling efforts of the Principal, Karen Clinton and the knowledge that there is much support for her.
In December 2024 OFSTED paid the school a visit and concluded that whilst there were still improvements to be made, the overall assessment was GOOD! That is great news and demonstrates that with will and determination, our Academy is once again the choice of parents in Burgess Hill.
As a result of an appeal through BHBPA, the school has recently been donated 30 laptops and 5 printer/copiers, with the promise of more equipment to come, for which the Academy and Support Group are very grateful. We held the Support Group’s fourth meeting on 4th March and there was a real buzz in the air as we learnt of the commitment that WSCC will be delivering between now and September 2026. The Academy is in for a long-overdue treat!
END
Our Community is Amazing! – Leader Update 20
I have mentioned before, in these Updates, how strong our Community Spirit is, despite all the shortcomings in our town centre. After engaging with community groups over this past two weeks, I am upgrading my personal opinion to AMAZING!
Let me start by highlighting a recent situation at Burgess Hill Youth. Last week, they were a victim of three break-ins, within days of each other, resulting in three broken windows, mud damage to furnishings and kitchen cupboards being forced open. It may be the same perpetrator but that is for Sussex Police to establish. Parents, trustees, volunteers and users of the community building all stepped up to clean and repair but at the same time a Just Giving page was posted, seeking to raise £1,500 to pay for the repairs. Within two days, that sum had been exceeded and as I write this, the giving stands at £2,295. Amazing!
You may recall, on Saturday, we launched the ‘Match Day Bus Service’ in partnership with Burgess Hill Town Football Club, Compass Travel and Community Transport. We hoped it would be used and we were delighted to learn that 10 fans had presented their bus tickets to get a discount on their match ticket. Those holding bus passes also used the service. All buses displayed posters and it is hoped that this usage will increase as time goes on, helping to relieve the parking issues in Maple Drive. Amazing!
In April 2024, Council representatives attended the first meeting of the Armed Forces and Veterans Breakfast Club (AFVBC), which now meets on the third Sunday of each month at The Top House. They now also have a drop-in session at Cyprus Hall, which I was privileged to attend in February and subsequently at the Breakfast meeting. Again, from modest beginnings, the AFVBC in Burgess Hill has grown in numbers and now has 55 members representing all the services. It was particularly humbling to hear the stories told and the friendly banter that flowed from table to table. This Club is providing the essential recognition of veterans in our community, for which we should be very grateful. Amazing!
There has been a lot of comment over recent years about filling our empty shops with charities and coffee shops. In the case of charities, it has been found that a presence on the High Street unlocks a valuable income stream and become places for residents to donate unwanted items that might otherwise go in a bin. Charity shops also provide employment on a modest scale but more importantly, they are a place where volunteers can spend time helping to run the business and gain from social interaction. All the while landlords are prepared to lease their premises at favourable rates to charities, we should welcome them as part of our community. They do an amazing job and are a far better option than rows of empty shops.
All over town, there are a host of Community Groups and Clubs that cater for particular interests or provide places for people to meet over a cup of tea or coffee. There are so many in Burgess Hill that the list will fill these pages and Burgess Hill Town Council tries to reach out to as many of them as possible. The Community Engagement Team has already launched its 2025 programme of events, which will run up to Christmas and encompass street and park events for young and old, gatherings at Community Centres and much more. To see what is going on, use this link for more information: www.burgesshill.gov.uk/leisure-tourism/whats-on/
This year is the year we celebrate the end of World War II in Europe and Japan but with all the uncertainty in our world at the moment we need to show how Burgess Hill can come together to fill our town with joy and laughter. Thank you….for being amazing people.
My next Update will talk about our young people and what we are doing to help them play a positive role in the community.
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