Play centre puzzle

District council planning members this month threw out plans for a play centre on the town's Bellbrook Industrial Estate because they thought the location would be potentially dangerous for children using the centre. Councillors felt that the amount of traffic on the estate would be too great to ensure safety for users.

However, a member of Uckfield Town Council's planning sub-committee which had supported the application this week expressed his surprise at Wealden's decision of refusal.

Cllr Duncan Bennett said: 'It's another perplexing decision from Wealden and I cant see the point behind it. That play centre would have made 41 jobs potentially available in Uckfield.'

He questioned the traffic and safety issues raised by Wealden and cited two existing play centres in Eastbourne one on the coast road and one on the Crumbles Retail Park as being on busier roads than the proposed site on the Bellbrook Estate.

He said: 'The property itself is set back in a courtyard. Speaking as a parent, I can't see that something set back within a courtyard environment would be any more dangerous. But yet again Uckfield loses out.'

He added that that the town council's planning committee welcomed the proposal, with the only concerns being over the lack of a disabled toilet, and expressed surprise at the decision of Uckfield's district councillors, Martha Whittle and Tony Parker, to support refusal of the application.

Cllr Whittle, who is vice-chairman of Wealden's development north sub-committee, said: 'We both felt that we didn't want to be responsible for a child being knocked over, either within the site or walking to the site along a road as yet not made up and which in parts has no pavements.

'The site in question is shared by another business and children will tend to run around, so there is a potential problem there.'

She added: 'The number of 41 potential job losses suddenly appeared at the meeting. The figure we were working with from the officer's report was 17, which included part-time jobs. And the officer's report was for refusal so we didn't buck the trend, so to speak.'