Burgess Hill’s views on £4million plus loan to deliver Beehive venue will be sought

The views of Burgess Hill will be sought on a multi-million pound loan to deliver a new community venue for the town.
An artist's impression of The Beehive in Burgess Hill. Picture: Burgess Hill Town Council SUS-201124-140915001An artist's impression of The Beehive in Burgess Hill. Picture: Burgess Hill Town Council SUS-201124-140915001
An artist's impression of The Beehive in Burgess Hill. Picture: Burgess Hill Town Council SUS-201124-140915001

The Beehive Centre will be a community theatre with rehearsal, exhibition and social spaces at the former Royal British Legion site in Cyprus Road.

The venue already has planning permission from Mid Sussex District Council and now Burgess Hill Town Council is exploring funding sources so building work can begin.

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The town council is looking to apply for between £4.4m and £4.8m from the Public Works Loan Board.

One of the conditions from the PWLB is to show that the residents have been fully consulted and approve of the project and the loan and workable arrangements to carry this out during the pandemic are being considered.

Burgess Hill Town Council’s budget for 2021/22 freezes its part of council tax, will see no service cuts, while proposals to deliver the Beehive would not require any future tax increases now or in the future to repay the loan.

Speaking on Monday night, town council leader Robert Eggleston said: “The Beehive is a statement that we as a council want to bring the community back together in a public venue.”

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He described how they had done ‘quite a lot of heavy lifting’ on the project in 2020 so it could be delivered in a way that was ‘prudently financed and actually deliverable’.

Although officers had modelled the finances on a £4.4million loan being sought, Andrew Barrett-Miles wanted them to go for £4.8million so the project would be less dependent on securing funding from other third-party sources.

It was agreed to settle on a final loan figure at an extraordinary council meeting on Tuesday (February 2).

Steve Cridland, BHTC’s chief executive officer, explained how they had approached Mid Sussex MP Mims Davies about her supporting the Beehive project in bidding for a share of the government’s £4billion levelling up fund.

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So far they have only received an automated response to two letters.

It was suggested rather tongue in cheek, how they could lobby through the MP’s hairdresser, when these services resume, as she is known to have her hair cut in Burgess Hill.

Speaking to the Middy, Cllr Eggleston described the town council’s two main priorities as maintaining and expanding current services where it can and delivering the Beehive as soon as it can.

He said: “The council is very conscious of the challenges that residents faced in 2020, and will continue to face during at least the first half of 2021.

Officers and councillors have worked tirelessly over the past few months to ensure that we could keep these two priorities in place whilst at the same time acting in a financially prudent way.”