Government Funds Bexhill Hastings Link Road
March 21st, 2012 | 
Author: Full analysis of today’s budget is yet to come but hot off the press is the sad news that the Budget 2012 report from the Treasury includes the confirmation that the Government ”will provide £56 million of support for the Bexhill to Hastings link road to facilitate economic regeneration in a deprived area of the South East” http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget2012_complete.pdf
The decision has been greeted with dismay by Friends of the Earth who have been part of the campaign to save this quiet and peaceful part of the Sussex countryside from the road builders bulldozers. Friends of the Earth’s Director of Policy and Campaigns Craig Bennett said: “The Government’s claims to be the ‘Greenest Government Ever’ are yet again taking a nose dive today. This will be one of the most damaging road schemes in the South East of England and will do nothing to end our transport chaos.”
Brenda Pollack from Friends of the Earth added “We have worked with local people for years and shown that it is not needed and not wanted. It won’t solve the area’s economic problems and is likely to increase traffic and CO2 emissions. It’s a road to nowhere! “
Whilst Sian Berry from Campaign for Better Transport said:
Sian Berry, Campaign for Better Transport’s sustainable transport campaigner, said: “This is a disastrous use of public money, it puts paid to the Government’s environmental credentials and proves no landscape is now safe from the diggers. Destroying the beautiful and historically valuable Combe Haven Valley to let 30,000 vehicles a day thunder through it is not the way to provide regeneration for Hastings. Campaigners have called for more than a decade for better public transport and for new jobs to be provided close to the existing centres. East Sussex County Council and the Government have ignored this common sense approach and opted to lock in car dependency with an out of town business park and a huge, expensive road.”
More information can be found on the Hasting Alliance website: http://hastingsalliance.com/
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Posted in General
I think it would be sensible to embrace the BHLR and campaign for public transport improvements to be delivered on its completion. This includes
- Bus Lane on Bexhill Road
- 10 minute frequency on Route 99 over the core route between Little Common and Central Hastings.
- An enhanced network of ‘hoppa’ buses in Bexhill, starting with a 15 minute frequency service between Bexhill Town Centre and both Sidley and Pebsham to replace the erratic Route 98.
- A direct bus service running at least every 20 minutes between Bexhill – Conquest Hospital via Harley Shute/Hollington
- A new station at Wilting Farm/Wishing Tree.
- The construction of the BHLR may now make feasible the construction of a new station and transport interchange at Glyne Gap, something that is impossible with the current bottleneck
We could never ‘embrace’ the BHLR which is demonstrably extremely poor value for money; speculative in nature and risking public funds to a massive extent; environmentally damaging.
We have supported alternatives all along in any case- and some of those suggested we would support. We would not support a new station at Wilting which would lead to large loss of trips via town centre stations and increase in railheading, by car, to the out of town station at Wilting. We don’t agree that the Glyne Gap station and any interchange possibilities are at all dependent on the Link Road: these could have been part of an alternative solution. It is the lack of such measures and others that could have been part of a never tested package that cause the bottleneck.