Here’s which Haywards Heath park is in line for six-figure investment

The news that the first phase of the Victoria Park Improvement Plan has been included in the capital programme for 2022/23 was welcomed during a meeting of the cabinet on Monday (February 14).

The work at the Haywards Heath park will include improvements to its South Road boundary and a new play area.

It will be paid for using £100,000 from the general reserve and £226,000 of Section 106 money.

S106 money is contributed to the community by developers and can be used to help fund everything from affordable housing and roads to bus routes and youth services.

Peter Stuart, the council’s head of corporate resources, said the work was a ‘welcome addition to the capital programme’, adding that, as more money came through, the project would be expanded.

He said: “The reason for bringing it forward gradually is because we can only really spend the money gradually.

“We’re not really set up to spend millions of pounds on a park all in one year.”

Victoria Park will not be the only park to benefit in the coming financial year.

The budget includes £1m for investment in playgrounds and parks such as Mount Noddy, in East Grinstead, and Hemsleys Meadow/Finches Field, in Pease Pottage.

Work will also start on the Centre for Outdoor Sport, in Burgess Hill.

A report to the meeting said the latter would be ‘a regionally significant sporting asset with a total value of over £6m’.

Jonathan Ash-Edwards, leader of the council, said: “People throughout the pandemic have really used their parks and seen them as a bit of a sanctuary.

“To be able to be bringing forward proposals to improve quite a number of our flagship parks in the next financial year and a couple after that as well I think is a really positive sign.”

The budget will be tabled for approval during a full meeting of the council on March 2.