Plans to move town's Lidl branded '˜ridiculous' and unsuitable

Developers have applied for planning permission to demolish the gas holder station in Leylands Road, Burgess Hill, and relocate the town’s Lidl onto the site.

Although Burgess Hill Town Council have recommended the scheme for approval, dozens of concerned locals have written to Mid Sussex District Council to object.

One letter, copies of which were signed and sent in by several people, said: “This store will bring in far too much traffic into what is a residential area and change forever the nature of the area.”

It estimates that allowing the project to go ahead would mean an extra 4,000 car journeys per day in Leylands Road.

The letter also questions how proposed restrictions on the size and number of delivery vehicles would be enforced, and says the new store would be better suited to a commercial area of town, rather than a residential area.

Andrea Britnell called it a ‘ridiculous plan’, given the need to go to and from the site down already congested roads.

Many writers said they felt that Lidl’s current site was far more suitable, being more accessible for shoppers in the town centre.

However, other residents said they supported the plan, with one Leylands Road couple saying it was ‘a very welcome solution’ to the problem of a disused site.

Mr and Mrs Plummer said they had hoped the site would have been cleaned up and allocated for housing, but had been told that contamination from years of use as a gas holder had made this impractical.

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