Large budget increase for improvements to Henfield car park

A budget of £180,000 had been approved for the work but ‘significant issues in the foundations’ has seen that increased to £305,000.

At a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (October 14), leader Ray Dawe asked members to approve the additional £125,000.

He said: “This more expensive dig-out and rebuild of the car park in Henfield will address major structural defects and make the asset last much longer and therefore be much more economical in the long term than the original project included in the capital programme.”

The work is scheduled to be carried out by March 2021 and is expected to take six weeks to complete.

The council has invited bids from contractors interested in doing the job.

The meeting also saw members give the thumbs-up to a £50,000 spruce up at Horsham Museum.

The 600-year-old building won’t re-open until the spring, so the time is being used to modernise and refresh the museum displays, including the use of digital technology to share stories about the town.

Mr Dawe said: “Our museum displays haven’t been updated for more than 15 years and we’re using this lockdown period prior to re-opening next summer to make the displays more modern and appealing.”

While the improvements will no doubt be welcomed, Mr Dawe implied that there would be less money in the museum’s future.

He said: “These changes will help the museum to operate with a lower subsidy when it re-opens.”

Mr Dawe also told the meeting that plans to spend £750,000 on a four-year scheme to deliver supported accommodation for rough sleepers had fallen through.

The scheme relied on funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government – but no such funding was approved.