This is just a little piece on the place I have called home for 20 years…Uckfield.

Uckfield currently has a population on around 15,000 covers 3 sq mi and is situated in East Sussex in between London and Brighton and nearby to Eastbourne and Tunbridge Wells. In the town we have one secondary school and five primary schools all of which perform really well on Ofsted reports.

Uckfield isn’t really that famous but a few people have heard of it for the following reasons;
- the floods of 2000 which along with Lewes was on the national news
- Uckfield was also the last place that Lord Lucan was seen before he disappeared
- and finally Nicholas van Hoogstraten (enough said)

The town is pretty quiet with not too much happens apart from the annual Carnival and the Monthly farmers market.

What’s right with Uckfield?

- Like I said its fairly quiet with not too much trouble and crime is pretty low.

- It still has a country feel to it and with this comes some lovely woods to go walking in.

- On the High Street we’ve got some great independent shops and plus a place called Corbin’s that do amazing sandwiches and all sorts of cheeses and meats.

- We are also in easy reach of Brighton and have a train service direct to London in an hour.

- We, unlike so many towns these days have a brilliant little cinema which is underrated and underused.

What’s wrong with Uckfield?

- Traffic is the biggest problem and the High Street at peak times cannot cope. Uckfield has just outgrown it. Just 200 years ago the population was 900 not it’s 15000.

- Car parking is also a big problem. With so many people using the train station for London and the fact the station only has about 10 spaces the other car parks get so full. This of course affects the local businesses in the town. Maybe it’s time for pay and display parking

- The actual quality of the shops is the last problem. Although we have a good quality of independent shops we need a few well know names. As a guy in his 20s (just) there is nowhere I can go in the town and buy clothes or even shoes, even for a woman it is limited.
If you want charity shops/estate agents/hairdressers we have plenty of those.

Here is a quick list of dream shops for Uckfield
- Next
- Marks & Spencer
- Adams
- Body Shop
- TopShop

Plus a Subways would he good.

I think that just about covers my town.

This will be followed up with a post called “If I was Mayor”