‘Fund Littlehampton health hub instead of £15million retail park’

Labour's Alan Butcher at the Fitzalan Medical Centre

The council wants to build four new units on its highways depot at Broadbridge Heath near Horsham.

At a scrutiny meeting last week, Jeremy Hunt, cabinet member for finance, called the scheme ‘a very exciting project and investment the county council can be proud of’.

New Broadbridge Heath retail park ‘would negatively impact’ Horsham town centre

The highways depot at Broadbridge Heath where West Sussex County Council is proposing to spend £15million on a new retail park

WSCC would expect to receive around £1million a year return on its investment.

But the project has not gone down well on the other side of the county, with Labour members in Littlehampton criticising the planned investment in shops when their town is still waiting for promised medical facilities.

Last year, plans for a new health hub and combined blue-light facility appeared to have been scuppered.

Labour has also highlighted the ‘very high risk’ of investing in retail during this period of uncertainty.

Alan Butcher, Labour’s county council election candidate for Littlehampton Town, said “West Sussex Tories seem to have lost sight of their duty to serve the needs of local people.

“Especially when recovering from times like these the health hub in Littlehampton would make a positive difference to effectively delivering healthcare whereas this retail park elsewhere will put pressure on existing retailers.”

Michael Ward, Labour’s candidate for Arundel and Courtwick, described the project as ‘pure folly’ and suggested that instead of doing their job WSCC had turned to ‘property speculation instead’.

Freddie Tandy, Labour candidate for Littlehampton East, added: “The West Sussex Tories have chosen to put building a retail park before the health interests of the people of Littlehampton, who will continue to suffer the consequences of poorly supported medical provision despite the growth of the town.”

Last week, Mr Hunt defended the county council’s investment. He explained: “If we didn’t regenerate this site and sold it, then somebody else would do exactly the same things and somebody else would make the profit and they would be the same people there.”

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