Latest Council Notes from Cllr Rex Whittaker
TOWN EVENTS
During recent weeks there have been two significant, very well-attended annual events staged in the town centre.
On Sunday 9 November East Grinstead once again showed its respect to the war fallen by having a large Remembrance Day procession through London Road and into the High Street. There followed a poignant service at the 103-year-old War Memorial. Huge crowds attended on a beautiful sunny and mild Autumn day. Special thanks go to the Town Council for facilitating the event and amongst so many of our participating community groups, thanks to our splendid Air Cadets and officer staff, and in particular parade commander, Simon Allen.
A week later on Saturday 15 November London Road and the High Street were once again closed to traffic to facilitate the Christmas Lights big switch on, followed by the ‘Big Reveal’ event arranged by our splendid High Street Retailers Group. Once again this attracted vast public crowds in support of our largest annual town centre event of the year.
The next scheduled event is the Christmas Fayre to be held at East Court and Meridian Hall on Sunday 7 December.
TOWN IMPROVEMENT PLAN
This exciting project is now moving at pace with the second public consultation event held on 10 November. This is a joint venture project initiative between East Grinstead Town Council, Mid Sussex District Council, and our very own EGBA. In this respect I pay huge thanks to our EGBA Chairman Grahame Russell, who has invested a lot of his personal time into playing a strong ‘hands on’ role with council officers and appointed DWG consultants.
PLANNING
The fast-emerging new Planning & Infrastructure Bill has now passed through its five House of Commons stages and five House of Lords stages. Currently at final amendments stages it is expected to get Royal Assent in December.
The new legislation will fast track the planning process for nationally significant infrastructure projects – especially targeting the water industry where investment in new reservoirs and treatment works has been lacking for decades. It will introduce a nature restoration levy for developers.
It will create Regional Planning Boards and Development Corporations to better coordinate and deliver future housing growth numbers against target. It will reintroduce compulsory purchase of land powers to unblock planning constraints. And it will give greater powers to council planning officers to make delegated decisions, in lieu of the current councillor planning committee
process.
These radical reforms, allied to the already significantly strengthened National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) should see big changes to local authorities in 2026.
THE BUDGET
The Chancellor will deliver the Budget on Wednesday 26 November. This will be the ‘new’ Government’s second budget, and the media hype on what it may or may not contain has reached ridiculous levels. This frenzy has not been helpful to consumer and general business confidence.
This malaise has also impacted all levels of councils who are busy working on their own 2026/27 forward budgets and planning. Central government spending decisions and local authority funding settlements are communicated in December after this budget.
Rex Whittaker
21 November 2025