Major plans for Steyning field?

Steyning is believed to be around 60 car parking spaces short, and the parish council has been looking into ways to ease the parking problem in the town.

One suggestion was to build a new car park in the Memorial Field, next to the bowls club, on land earmarked for a Scout hut, some years ago.

Steyning Tennis Club has since approached the council, proposing it relocates to the land, building three new courts, freeing up the current courts for public car parking.

People objecting to the plans attended a meeting of the parish council's playing fields committee, on Tuesday evening.

Committee chairman Alan Funnell, who will step down from the council next month, said he could see both sides of the argument.

"If I were continuing as a councillor, which I am not, I don't know which way I would fall on this one," he said.

Mr Funnell said if approved the scheme would aid the bowls club, whose elderly members have had trouble carrying their woods long distances, as well as creating extra parking for Steyning.

A clear disadvantage, he added, would be the loss of green space in the town.

Steyning resident Jan Whittle was at the meeting to air her concerns about the proposals.

She told councillors: "One of the reasons I think that space should be kept free is because mums can sit and the little ones can run all over that space.

"The mums just have to glance up now and again, and I think that is a terrific aspect for children playing."

Councillor Marlene Carman also spoke out against the plans.

She said: "I am against turning anything into a car park and moving the tennis courts.

"If you move the tennis courts, you also move the floodlights and you are taking that into a lot more houses."

A new parish council will be formed after the local elections on Thursday, May 3, and Mr Funnell explained any decision would be made after that date.

He said: "It is an established fact that, as a town, we are 50 or 60 car parking spaces short.

"What we are doing really is setting up an agenda for the new council."

'¢ Opinions on the proposals, both for and against, have been invited and people should submit their comments to the clerk to the council by post, to the Steyning Centre, Fletcher's Croft, Steyning, BN44 3XZ, or via email to [email protected]