Burgess Hill Town Centre, specifically the Church Road and Church Walk corridor is identified as an area for improvement in the Town Wide Strategy and Neighbourhood Plan and is identified as a priority area for public realm and connectivity improvements to support the growth of the town and encourage people to shop locally and to complement the town centre regeneration proposals.

The Church Walk and Church Road corridor is a part road / part pedestrianised street forming the main spine through the town centre, providing a gateway route into the town centre from the railway station with views to St John’s Church visible along the entire length of the route. However, the area currently suffers from visual clutter and a relatively poor public realm, which is dominated by vehicular use on Church Road.

Concept proposals have been designed to upgrade the public spaces along the route and to enhance and bring together the various distinctive character areas and to ensure the scheme is reflective of the emerging New River Retail proposals for the regeneration of Burgess Hill Town Centre.

The concept proposals were subject to public engagement in May and June 2020 and an additional User Group Workshop in July 2021 and have been developed further following this engagement to prepare preliminary designs that will be subject to further public engagement before being finalised through detailed design.

The proposals would provide:

• A series of usable, inclusive urban spaces to cater for a wide range of user groups being mindful of physical, mental and learning disabilities;;
• Opportunities to promote urban greening where possible by introducing sustainable species of planting to create a town centre which encourages biodiversity and habitat creation;
• Create a unique space which complements surrounding developments and embraces Burgess Hill’s history and attracts footfall within the Church Walk / Church Road area;
• Improve and provide clear, safe junctions, crossing points and connectivity with the wider area;
• Ensure the scheme provides comprehensive links to complementary improvements to the wider network and tie in with improvements proposed through the Burgess Hill Railway Station, Station Road, Brookleigh (Northern Arc) and Town Centre Regeneration.

The concept proposals were subject to public engagement in May and June 2020. Details can be found here.