Author: Andrew Taylor

On Thursday 21 June business leaders from across the District attended an event to hear its economic ambitions for the area.

Hosted in Burgess Hill at the offices of CAE (the worldwide leader in civil, business, and defence aviation training) over seventy delegates from across the business community were treated to a number of guest speakers highlighting why they had chosen Mid Sussex to grow their businesses.

In opening remarks, Sir Nicholas Soames MP outlined the importance of work to strengthen the local economy in the light of Brexit: “Mid Sussex and its entrepreneurial business leaders have enormous potential that we must foster and support and so I do commend the Council’s work. I have been delighted to welcome a number of senior Ministers to Mid Sussex over the last few months and all have made clear their desire to support the District’s ambitious plans.”

MSDC Deputy Leader Jonathan Ash-Edwards then focused on MSDC’s ambition to transform the local economy and create thousands of new high value jobs in technology-led industries.

Councillor Ash-Edwards commented “Our Economic Development Strategy focuses on four key themes of Place, Premises, People and Promotion. Taken together the actions under each of these themes will help to deliver a transformed Mid Sussex that is not only a great place to live and a great place to visit but also a great place to do business.”

The first of the guest speakers Wayne Channon, Chairman of Cells4Life and Stabilitech, both Mid Sussex success stories, outlined his reasons for moving from London to Mid Sussex to grow his biotech businesses.

“Moving to Mid Sussex allowed me the room to grow my two businesses, Stabilitech and Cells4Life” said Wayne. “Access to a highly skilled workforce and a strong supply of skilled graduates looking to work in Sussex means we are that much closer to our goal of developing pioneering new approaches in delivering and administering vaccines.”

Wayne was followed by Justin Thomas, Director at NewRiver REIT, who outlined his company’s ambitious £65 million investment to regenerate Burgess Hill town centre.

Justin said “We have identified Burgess Hill as one of our key investment opportunities with its large catchment area and fast growing population. We have exciting plans underway to help transform the town centre to include a new cinema, hotel, significantly enhanced retail and leisure offer together with a full centre refurbishment for Burgess Hill”.

The final speaker of the evening, Sussex University Professor Adam Tickell, rounded off the event by explaining how Mid Sussex can attract a large number of university graduates into the workforce. “We have a large number of highly skilled undergraduates who progress through the university with many looking for high-tech roles without having to move out of the area.” He also emphasised the importance to the economy of the ground breaking research undertaken by universities like Sussex.

Stone Quarry Group are crowdfunding for a new café counter

Read more about the project here: https://www.spacehive.com/quarry-cafe-counter

There will be a short service in the High St from 10.30 in which a Deputy Lieutenant and Town Mayor amongst others will lay a wreath, a parade back to East Court which the public can fall in behind and then see exhibits including WW1 bi-plane & army encampment and farrier back at East Court. There will be music and speeches.

It is a family day out (ending at 3.30) children can enlist in the army and be drilled!

Sponsors for the day include East Grinstead Town Council, Mid Sussex District Council and West Sussex County Council

USERS OF THE EAST COURT ESTATE ARE ASKED NOT TO PARK ON THE TOWN COUNCIL DRIVE NOR CAR PARKS ON 30TH DUE TO THE EXHIBITS BEING SET UP FROM 7.30 AM ..AND TO NOTE THE FOLLOWING DAY IS EAST COURT LIVE WHERE AGAIN THE DRIVE AND CAR PARKS WILL BE RESTRICTED.

Please find below, the OFWAT report into the water disruption that was encountered in the District/Sussex following the adverse weather event (‘Beast from the East’) in March.

OFWAT Report

The Community Safety & Wellbeing Team (CSWB) is asking West Sussex Parents & Carers for their views & experiences in relation to keeping their children safe online.

We are looking to establish what parents & carers main concerns are when parenting in the digital age and what challenges they have faced. We want to understand how confident parents & carers are when dealing with these issues and if they know where to go for help, advice & support.

We want to know about the types of resources parents utilise, are aware of and have available to them, as well as the resources they really value in helping them to better support their young people.

The aim of the survey is to assist us in identifying if any further resources may need to be developed, or to raise awareness of existing resources and how we can better support parents and carers in this area.

We will be running the online survey to try and capture parents & carers views across the County and are encouraging as many people as possible to take part.

https://haveyoursay.westsussex.gov.uk/communities-public-protection/parent-online-safety

The survey will close on the 8th of July 2018.