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.

A new beginning for Martlets Shopping Centre – Leader Update 27

The much-anticipated Section 73 Planning Application was submitted to Mid Sussex District Council’s Planning Department on 20^th May 2025. WSP Ltd, acting as Agents for New River Retail and Mid Sussex District Council, have used Section 73 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 to apply for variations to existing planning consent, specifically;

‘This S73 application seeks to amend the approved drawings to improve the viability and deliverability of the scheme.

The affected Conditions to be amended include: Condition 6 – Detailed drawings  Condition 21 – Public highway modifications to be in general accordance with drawing 14091-012 rev C  Condition 29 – Approved plans Conditions 6, 21 and 29 are proposed to be changed to reflect updated plan references and remove reference to the Green Wall to accord with the revised scheme’. 

It affects the design of elements of the Martlets Shopping Centres, as leased by New River Retail and the use of the District Council’s land that was previously the Martlets Hall site.  The revised plan is show below:

The Planning Application has the reference DM/25/1327 and can be viewed at the MSDC Planning Portal.using this link https://pa.midsussex.gov.uk/online. The most useful document can be found on page 6, entitled ‘Design & Access Addendum’.

The application was discussed by the Town Council’s Planning Committee on Monday, 2^nd June and the unanimous decision was made to approve the amended Conditions.  However, the Committee made requests that the two Plane trees, T83 and T84, be retained, that Swift bricks be included in as a many buildings as possible and that every effort is made to ensure renewable energy is used.  It further asked if all areas, including ‘The Corner’, be wheelchair accessible.

What are the amendments?

They each have a category and I will refer to them separately here:

Residential Units

There are a number of minor changes to the detailed design of this block, to ensure compliance with the new Building Safety Act 2022 and specifically regarding fire safety measures. As such, the previously approved Green Wall has been discarded due to significant concerns over the risk of fire when such adornments dry out.

The main changes are in the number of residential units or apartments.  In the original planning consent there were to be 100 1-bed units and 72 2-bed units but that will now become 106 1-bed and 66 2-bed units.

Additionally, whereas there were 71 resident car park spaces in the Lower Ground Floor parking area, this has now been reduced to 48 with the balance of 23 being transferred to external ‘residents only’ parking bays.

Hotel & Retail

The hotel had planning consent for 89 rooms but the application is requesting that this be increased to 102 rooms, achieved by removing and relocating the Leisure Block elsewhere in the scheme and the repositioning of plant and service rooms.

Changes have been made to the footprint of the larger retail store, which we now know will be occupied by ALDI, as the ‘anchor tenant’.  That name is mentioned on the plans.

Leisure Block

Known as Block B in the plans, this will now be a fraction of its original consented size. Positioned on the east side of the development, instead of being 2-storeys it will become a single level of 13metres in height.  The cinema will be a small 4-screen ‘boutique-style venue’ and it looks as if the bowling alley will now only be large enough for 4 lanes(as shown on the plans)

There will also be access to a new Gymnasium, previously proposed to front onto Church Walk.

Public Realm

It is intended to construct an attractive, landscaped grassed and planted area in and around what is the current open space in front of the old LIDL store and The Pantry. It will be configured in such a way as to allow for public events and entertainment to take place.  This space will be known as ‘The Common’ and will link to the walkway, past the Library and to the Bandstand by an upgraded passage, to be called ‘The Lane’.

Under Public Realm comes car parking.  There will be an additional 240 parking bays across the whole scheme, a number unchanged from the original consent.  However, a number of the bays will have electric vehicle charging points, to reflect the changes in vehicle motive power.  The south-west corner of the car park, facing on to Civic Way, will be known as ‘The Corner’ and will be landscaped to ‘soften’ this edge of the boundary.

The Common’  will be a planted area with car park spaces that can be screened off during events

Church Walk

A start will be made very soon on completely refurbishing the flats above the existing Martlets shops in Church Walk and then as the development progresses, the stores themselves will be upgraded with new frontages.  All of the facades and canopies will be renewed or refurbished, which will greatly improve their appearance.

If you are not sure which area this refers to, it is from Holland & Barrett’s store down towards the Library and back to Dice & Drinks, then down past Mid Sussex Radio to Nimbus.

What will be demolished?

The old multi-storey car park (hoorah, I hear you say!)

All those buildings that currently house New Look, The Kiln, with the overbridge between the two, Zero Hub, The Pantry, Activity Cafe and Rocking Horse.

The old LIDL store, all the buildings up to the Market Place west entrance (currently blocked off), the building that currently houses the Recline@eeeze store and the former Gym above (boarded up) and the former office block that has been empty and derelict for years, although recently used by ITV for filming parts of ‘Grace’.  That is a lot of demolition but with good things to follow on!

What next?

First, the Section 73 Planning Application must be approved by Mid Sussex District Council’s Planning Committee.

Second, the proposed Joint Venture between New River Retail and Mid Sussex District Council must happen for this revised plan to become a reality.  Until then, we sit tight with fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

END.